Modernizing Email Management in Construction

Saying that the use of software to improve email management in construction, or rather the AECO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owner) industry, has been on the rise over the last decade would be an understatement. 

In the past, flagging emails or attempting to file them within your inbox used to be a good means of creating a sort of organized “to-do” list. However, with the number of project communications rising exponentially by the year, manually managing your email influx can be utterly overwhelming. 

Despite your best efforts to skim through your project emails and highlight and label every incoming Issue, RFI or Submittal, some things inevitably fall through the cracks, through no fault of your own. It unfortunately results in communication bottlenecks, lost emails, misplaced attachments and siloed email chains have plagued projects with lengthy delays, strained stakeholder relationships and project issues that go unchecked. 

Besides the overall loss of patience, that’s also a massive amount of time and money wasted, when your energy could be better served ensuring the high quality of the project, rather than its timeline or bottom line. 

It’s why an overwhelming amount of the AECO industry have turned toward universal software for engineers, architects, contractors and everyone in between to help manage project communications and improve stakeholder collaboration. 

Leveraging a platform that acts as a single source of truth for your entire project, all while managing and filing project communication in a neat and easy-to-use environment sounds like it’s too good to be true, right? 

Well, it isn’t a pipedream anymore; it’s reality. 

Information management platforms like Newforma Konekt help to optimize the organization and dissemination of key project information; improving the way teams collaborate and execute tasks. 

Emails often contain information that requires an action to be taken, such as initiating a submittal, RFI, or issue. This often requires the information contained in the email to be re-entered in the system of record, requiring extra time to complete the task and leaving room for potential human error. 

Through the use of key integrations with your Outlook client, proper email management will allow you to quickly organize, file and track the status of ongoing Issues, RFIs, Submittals and any other query your team may have. 

Incoming emails for workflow-related items can also automatically be added to projects directly from your Outlook, to ensure critical information isn’t lost in the process. 

Platforms like Newforma Konekt also allow teams to keep better track of email chains, as the full record of an exchange will be made available to all those assigned to the subject of said emails; keeping things transparent and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. 

The benefit to filing to a project is that it allows all internal team members, or external team members to whom you grant access, to be able to view a more complete project record. 

Even attachments, which are often lost in the shuffle of those endless email chains, are automatically attached, scanned and indexed and easily accessible for review within a few clicks. 

Newforma’s Outlook Add-in can help redefine the way you collaborate and communicate on your projects. It helps streamline the communication process by helping you convert an email into an Issue, RFI or Submittal, and send it off within seconds, and can be scaled up if one email contains a multitude of requests within it. 

This saves a significant amount of time by eliminating the need to re-enter the information from the email in a separate form.  

The Newforma Konekt Outlook Add-in extracts key information from the email and auto-populates in the platform. It can help your team cut back the number of steps in your workflow with by automating the filing process.  

Newforma Konekt’s robust search and filtering capabilities also allow for you to search through filed content in a pinch; giving users the power to quickly uncover key information and consult the status of each interaction. 

Another intuitive feature is the “Project Email” tab, which helps manage all the emails that have been filed to a project by you or other members of your team. Through this feature, any project email can be forwarded, and replied to, allowing every stakeholder group to remain informed on the process. 

You can, for example, respond to that you weren’t initially included in to request more information or share said information with others; you have the freedom and flexibility to make of the information what you will.  

It’s an easy way to settle disputes or maintain accountability on a project, as all internal team members can find everything no matter when you joined the project or company. 

When forwarding or replying to a project email, the project email address can be included by default in CC if you want your message or reply to be automatically filed to the project; adding yet another layer of organization and fluidity to your project communications. 

Newforma Konekt’s email management capabilities help keep your project, and dare we say, your company operations across all departments, moving forward, by making project email available to your team – even if, or when, a key person is unavailable. 

Don’t have access of the full communication history in your inbox because you weren’t CCed or part of the original conversation? No problem, you can extract full conversations to get the full view of your project communications. 

Gone are the days when you had to run through your entire inbox for two separate emails splintered off from the same conversation; the entire chain becomes instantly accessible to quickly onboard or catch up on pressing matters. 

To learn more about how Newforma Konekt can help redefine the way your team collaborates on future projects, schedule a demo with one of our product experts today!