Mastering Your CA Workflows: Time-Saving, Must-Have Features in the AECO Industry   

Let’s talk about the wild world of construction administration. With submittals and RFIs popping up left and right, it can make even the most seasoned project teams break a sweat. 

Picture this: you’ve got these submittals and RFIs flying at you from all directions, especially if you’re dealing with one of those colossal projects. It’s like trying to juggle a dozen watermelons while walking on a tightrope. 

Now, in the blink of an eye, the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is moving faster than ever before, and it’s been a struggle just to keep up. Architects and engineers are expected to process RFIs and submittals faster than you can say “construction chaos” to keep those deadlines from slipping and budgets from bursting at the seams. No pressure, right? 

With the construction industry under increasing pressure to deliver projects on time and within budget, rising material costs and labor shortages are forcing firms to redefine their workflows.  

Let’s just take the current labor shortage as an example. The Associated Builders and Contractors reported in 2024 that the U.S. construction industry needs to attract about half a million new workers to balance supply and demand. How do you compensate for such a massive hole in the labour market? By investing your time and money into cutting-edge technology that will simplify and optimize your workflows. 

 

To nurture seamless collaboration, it takes more than just the right mindset; it demands the right tools to keep stakeholders engaged and informed, delivering the necessary information precisely when they need it. 

Projects that aren’t leveraging digital tools often suffer from stakeholder groups caught in a tug-of-war for crucial project information, essential for propelling the project forward. This struggle creates communication bottlenecks, clogs of vital information, and ultimately strains stakeholder relationships while squandering valuable time. 

These challenges would be difficult to overcome with a full workforce, but with the ongoing labor shortage affecting the industry, it’s quickly becoming overwhelming. That’s why a recent study from Procore found that 56% of respondents are either currently using or plan to adopt a construction management platform over the next 12 months.  

With tools like Newforma Konekt, project teams can bid farewell to the days of manual madness. Say goodbye to endless email chains and hello to streamlined workflows that would make even the most organized person shed a tear of joy. 

With AECO professionals wasting nearly 17% of time on a typical project looking for data and information, the need for digital transformation and better information management is clear. 

Scattered or missing project data can not only take up a significant chunk of your time just to find, but it could also cost you millions down the line in the form of disputes. And, with labor shortages and rising material costs further bogging down the project’s budget, you can’t afford to waste that time. 

That’s why information management platforms like Newforma Konekt have been a game-changer. Being able to organize and file communications as soon as they come through your inbox and being able to seamlessly share them with team members can quickly eliminate most communication issues on a project.  Imagine filing emails directly from Outlook, with attachments magically populating submittals and RFIs like pieces of a puzzle falling into place. No more double data entry, no more wasted hours wrangling spreadsheets—just pure, unadulterated efficiency. 

Newforma Konekt empowers users to instantly file project emails as one or, should the situation require it, multiple RFIs or submittals all from the comfort of your Outlook client. With Newforma Konekt’s handy Outlook Add-In, you can quickly take action on new information as soon as it comes to your attention; seamlessly adding your project communications to your project record. 

And if confusion comes knocking, fear not. With Newforma Konekt, you’ve got the power to track every twist and turn of your RFIs and submittals, like a seasoned detective piecing together clues. 

Back in the day, spotting an issue was like taking a trip down memory lane, scribbling notes during inspections and hoping those brain cells held up until you got back to the office. Hours later, there you were, deciphering your own hieroglyphics and relying on scattered notes to draft up that RFI. The architect, the grand maestro of the sheet, would then swoop in, process the request, and bestow upon you a definitive answer. 

 Sounds a bit like a scene from an ancient script, doesn’t it? Fast forward to today, where we’ve all got a trusty phone in our pockets, and communication is expected to be faster than a caffeine-fueled cheetah—whether you’re in the field, at the office, or on the run. Time is the elusive currency, especially when you’re juggling the wild dance of construction admin workflows. Any hiccup in communication can throw a wrench into the finely tuned machinery of seamless project collaboration we’re all striving for. 

Enter Newforma Konekt’s mobile app, swooping in to save the day with a solution that’s as easy as pie. Straight from the field, even when you’re in the communication abyss (a.k.a. offline), your phone becomes the magic wand, waving away the time-consuming pains of contract administration workflows and drastically minimizing the risk of those pesky human errors! 

With the mobile app seamlessly linked to your Newforma Konekt account, you’ll receive instant notifications about the status of issues, action items, RFIs, and Submittals. No more rushing back to your desk to respond or confirm information – take care of it on the spot. 

When you’re out in the field, capturing and attaching pictures to an RFI or Submittal is a breeze. Just snap a pic on your phone and effortlessly integrate it into your communication. 

Picture this: logging on the go. Those hours lost shuttling between the job site and the office are now reclaimed and woven into your workflow, thanks to the time-saving magic of Newforma Konekt Mobile. And when urgency strikes – whether it’s a Submittal or an RFI demanding immediate attention – you can effortlessly tackle tasks and provide additional information with just a few clicks from your trusty phone. 

Empowering users to receive, review, and act on construction administration workflows introduces a whole new level of flexibility, collaboration, and convenience. Keep that information flowing effortlessly to stay ahead of those project deadlines. 

Take Michael Petrovick Architects PLLC, for example.  

As a thriving architectural firm based in Amesbury, Massachusetts, known for expertly managing multiple projects at the same time, they felt bogged down by all the needless manual tasks impacting their construction administration workflows. 

The solution was clear: find a way to optimize their operations by cutting time-consuming tasks like filing and tracking RFIs and submittals, tracking action items, and managing project communications like email management. 

That’s when they came across Newforma Konekt. 

With the implementation of Newforma Konekt, the firm experienced a seamless transformation of its document filing process, streamlining it within a matter of days. Newforma Konekt allowed the firm to centralize access to information within a single hub, bidding farewell to cumbersome spreadsheets and disarrayed documents, resulting in reduced billable hours.  

The were able to eradicate all communication bottlenecks as emails and data began to flow effortlessly among internal and external stakeholders, facilitating swift design reviews and responses.  The substantial reduction in workflow time allowed the firm to distribute more resources to additional projects, unlocking new revenue opportunities. 

Michael Petrovick Architects PLLC was among the first firms to embrace Newforma Konekt, reaping remarkable rewards in both time-saving and firm reputation.  

They were able to save significant time, presenting them with additional bandwidth to take on more projects, even with a small team at their disposal, putting the strain of labor shortages behind them. 

The platform helped redefine their document management, project coordination, and construction administration workflows, creating a faster and more efficient working environment. 

And there’s a big reason for that. 

Being the industry’s premier web-based, cloud-hosted Information Management platform, Newforma Konekt was designed by and for AECO professionals. 

AECO project teams worldwide now leverage Newforma Konekt to gain access to their complete project data; as it unifies conversations, project files, action items, and contractual workflows into a single cloud-hosted platform.   

And this is just the beginning. 

To learn more about how Newforma Konekt can streamline your construction administration workflows, schedule a demo today!