Facilities managers and building superintendents often have to find information under pressure.

Broken water pipes, frozen valves, power outages, and emergency situations all demand a quick response — but without knowing which documents to look for and where can slow that response down to a crawl.

Change all that with SKYSITE Facilities auto-hyperlinking features, and discover the power of having a facilities management information system at your fingertips.

As documents are uploaded to SKYSITE, software searches each drawing and detects callouts and references to other documents. Once the corresponding document is found, SKYSITE creates a hyperlink to it. Once all your documents are in the application, your document set will behave just like a website — click on a link and SKYSITE will navigate to the relevant document.

No more searching through boxes, flipping through piles of paper, or wondering if the right document is in the right place to be found. Auto-hyperlinking features can even create links between different pages of the same document, or various pages of another document under the same project.

Don’t wait until your next emergency to find out if there’s a better way to manage your facilities documents. Get started today with a free trial.

Most Americans are well of the “glass ceiling” and pay disparity for women workers, but in construction these workplace barriers appear to be even more pronounced. In the U.S., only 9% of construction workers are women, a strikingly small percentage compared to the 47% average in other industries. This may not be surprising considering the heavy lifting that comes to mind when thinking of construction. Although, with female veterans stepping into fill the role of pipe fitters even this view is being challenged. Beyond physical labor there’s a rich job market that employs architects, engineering, project managers, facilities managers, and increasingly software and IT professionals.

Facts and Figures

From 2007-10, the construction industry saw a sharp decline in the amount of women construction workers with a loss of 2.5 million jobs. Since the housing crisis the numbers In 2014, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that out of 9,813,000 people working in the construction industry only 872,000 or 8.9%, were women.

Key Players in an Evolving Industry

But the construction industry isn’t only concerned with hammers and nails anymore. Tech in construction has broadened the possibilities of the types of jobs the industry can provide. The rise of construction software and apps has opened new doors for women in the industry in both technology and contracting.

Take industry IT veteran Carol Hagen. She spent decades in the male-dominated IT field and has since become one of the premiere consultant and tech trainers for the industry, specializing in architecture, engineering, and construction technology.

On the development side, we have Prachee Rajvanshi, a project manager for SKYSITE, a construction project management software. Her unique perspective and management skills helped turn SKYSITE into robust document management solution for project and facilities managers.

The Rule, Not the Exception

These two women aren’t exceptions. The data supports why women find success in the industry and why it needs their fresh voices more than ever. Companies with women, who hold top leadership positions, do better when compared to their male counterparts. Greater returns on capital has been recorded at companies with women on their board of directors. The numbers show that leadership qualities required for a business to find success are equally as present in women as men.

James Mercado, CCA, LEED AP, spent years in document control, accounting, and contract and operations management before becoming Product Manager for the construction app SKYSITE. Along with this experience, Mercado’s status as a CSI Certified Construction Contract Administrator, U.S. Green Building Council and American Institute of Architects member makes him perfect for discussing how the cloud fits into the design to facilities management phases of AECO work. Check out what he had to say about security issues with cloud solutions, improving document control, and more.

1. When it comes to cloud solutions, is security a real issue?

Mercado: For some, it is. There are a lot of cloud providers out there. We chose AWS (Amazon Web Services), because we feel Amazon has the infrastructure to handle the job. SKYSITE is the only portal for any of the documents that are being put into SKYSITE, so there’s no worry of the documents getting hacked.

2. Is poor protection of these types of documents a problem?

Mercado: That’s a security issue, too. More and more companies are going with SKYSITE, because we can evaluate their situation and provide an answer to all of their problems.

3. How important is responsiveness to SKYSITE’s business model? And how is it different from the way others do business?

Mercado: Many of the bigger customers don’t even listen to their customers anymore. ARC actually has a development partnership with some of our key customers. We’re already asking our customers what they want for next year. The challenge of being a tech solutions provider is staying up with what your customers need and what is happening in technology in the market.

4. How active is your firm’s support staff?

Mercado: Our feedback form goes to me and our COO, and I actually respond to it myself. We know customers’ time is precious, and we will read that email and we will respond to it. We will even meet with them to talk about it.

5. Are many companies finding the success that SKYSITE has found in helping facilities managers in every sector?

Mercado: ARC is very unique in that regard. We started out [in this niche] with archiving work, and then moved to SKYSITE, and now we have morphed it to cover everything from design-build to facilities management. We’re the only one who can provide that whole solution.

6. How can a project manager, facilities manager, property manager or another professional who deals with facilities documents begin the search for a good cloud solution for those records?

Mercado: Trade shows are a good way to see what’s out there. Ask around, and find out how easy it is to use the technology, what’s been promised by the vendor, and about the support of the product. Ask what the development timeline is—you don’t want the technology you adopt to be outdated in a few years.

7. What does SKYSITE’s development timeline look like?

Mercado: We’re planning for a new release in Spring 2017. Our development timeline involves putting out three or four major releases per year, with major component additions in each.

8. Why all the new releases?

Mercado: These regular releases make sure our technology is up to date, and also show it’s a product we’re constantly developing. SKYSITE is evolving because of customer feedback.
Questions for James? Make sure to connect.