Effective collaboration is at the foundation of commercial real estate (CRE) development. It forms the steel, concrete, and mortar upon which all communication and progress are built. Connecting with stakeholders, workers, managers, and support staff efficiently makes projects move smoother, quicker, and remain on budget. Here are some ways collaboration makes a difference in real estate development and how the right technology can help.
How Collaboration Affects Efficiency and Your Budget
While each project likely has one person overseeing the high-level process, every manager and supervisor has to make individual decisions. Without adequate collaboration—between those on-site as well as those in the office—a project can suffer from conflicting decisions, resulting in expensive delays.
Collaboration is particularly crucial when it comes to financial matters. When decision-makers are able to huddle around the same financial data, purchasing and hiring decisions can be made in line with the most current budget figures. This way, you avoid budget overruns and projects that have to pause until you can generate more funds.
Using Software to Improve Collaboration for Greater Efficiency and Budgetary Control
Efficiency hinges on making well-grounded decisions at the right time—then following through. Software that provides a common body of data regarding the progress and status of a project can help everyone combine minds to make the right decisions.
With the right real estate development software, stakeholders can have real-time budget figures and project reports in front of them at all times. When it’s time to make a decision, everyone can be “on the same screen,” basing their input on the same data. You can also produce detailed project reports outlining where things stand in relation to budgetary benchmarks.
The Role of Collaboration in Project Delivery
As a complex development project is rolling along, it’s easy for key stakeholders to get left out of the mix. However, without collaboration with everyone involved, what feels like progress may end up being a hindrance, especially when phases have to be re-done or adjusted because someone was kept out of the loop.
When everyone is on the same page, key decisions can be made during the project’s initiation, conception, management, and marketing phases with input from all necessary parties. In this way, the project can be delivered as planned and on time—and without having to take two steps back after you thought you had taken a step forward.
Improving Project Delivery Using Software
The process of managing commitments, payments, draw requests, and change orders can quickly get muddled without the right real estate development software. A software solution allows you to digitize all of these processes in the cloud. This way, everyone involved can see the status of various project elements within a matter of moments. A brief meeting can then suffice to get all players on the same field to make the right call.
Using Software for Enhanced Project Visibility
While frequent site visits and interviews of managers and supervisors can provide some visibility, this form of collaboration is time-consuming. And depending on the project’s location, this kind of “manual visibility” may not even be feasible.
Using software solutions, on the other hand, you can simply log in and see how things stand. You can compare the financial status of the project to where it was supposed to be at various mile markers, such as 10%, 25%, 50%, or 75% complete.
For example, if you’re running over budget in a certain area, you can see that with a few clicks and follow up as necessary. Also, if certain vendors are not yet on board and their products or services are needed for the next phase, software solutions will allow you to identify the problem so you can reach out and rectify it.
Use a solution like Budgetrac, which is specifically designed for real estate developers who need to collaborate for better project efficiency and efficacy. Budgetrac keeps everyone on the same page and enables communication and data-based decisions so you can keep the project moving on schedule.
To see what Budgetrac can do for your company, sign up for a free demo today.