As cities around the world grow, so does the challenge of keeping traffic moving, especially during peak hours.
Take, for example, Sydney, which has seen its population surge to over five million. On a typical weekday in Australia’s largest city, over one million people travel to work in a passenger vehicle. As existing roads are reaching capacity, new ones must be built, and legacy ones modified or expanded.
The construction and engineering firms that undertake these massive infrastructure projects face daily challenges both in the field and the office — challenges such as managing thousands of documents spread across multiple stakeholders and locations.
In order to tackle these pain points, owners and contractors are increasingly looking to digital collaborative document management solutions.
A single, trusted source
With large-scale infrastructure projects, it’s critical for teams to be able to capture, control, access and track project information in a streamlined environment. A digital solution enables them to do so through a single, controlled source of project truth.
The right document management software offers browser-based and mobile tools so teams can access a central document repository from wherever work takes them. Project teams working on Sydney’s motorway found they can track the complete history of every project document with collaborative document management software.
Ease of use is another key factor impacting project execution. Through a digital document management solution, workers can easily navigate an intuitive search interface that spans all project information, such as workflows, photos, emails and related attachments.
And to manage all that project data, teams need the flexibility to organise them into familiar folder structures, either through a simple drag-and-drop action or automatically, based on their associated discipline, status, type or other attributes.
Streamlining the process
Building or expanding a motorway involves project segments or lots, some of which are constructed simultaneously. Today’s best document management software includes a lots module that helps manage the thousands of segments typical in a project of this size and scope.
A lots module is especially useful during project closeout, as it enables project teams to manage their quality processes in a simpler way. This functionality also establishes a rigorous audit trail and fosters transparency, allowing all participants to view all the project information assigned to the project’s lots.
A motorway project of the kind currently underway in Sydney requires maximised efficiency. With a collaborative document management tool, project teams can avoid having to print out thousands of drawings and then send them out to the various project sites. Countless hours aren’t wasted transporting documents from office to jobsite — they are instead distributed with the click of a mouse and accessed just as easily, and on demand.
Increasingly, major construction and engineering firms are reaping the benefits of digital document management and control solutions. Stakeholders are getting everyone on the same page because they’re accessing documents in a single source of project truth. They’re making faster decisions based on all project data, while minimising data re-entry and the risk of litigation.
Owners and contractors involved in Sydney’s infrastructure expansion are using collaborative document management tools and seeing how the better sharing of information leads to increased efficiency through all phases of construction.
This partner content is brought to you by InEight. Visit ineight.com/sydney to learn more about the advantages of a digital document management solution.
