By Michael Pelletier, CLAConnect

Businesses have been managing documents for centuries. Whether it was a general store or a blacksmith, there was some sort of ledger that kept track of who bought what and who owed what.  As a business in the construction industry, document management has become increasingly complex as projects generate an immense amount of paperwork. Whether it’s an invoice, change order, blueprint, timesheet, project plan, or something else, managing documents can be a challenge because of different formats, sources, and volumes. A document management strategy can solve this by helping businesses organize, store, protect, and share their information effectively and efficiently.

Document management refers to the processes and tools used to create, capture, store, retrieve, distribute, and dispose of all types of business record files. Documents can be physical or digital, structured or unstructured, and can include text, images, audio, video, and other types of data. Document management aims to ensure documents are accessible, searchable, secure, compliant, and up to date.

Some factors that drive the need for a fresh look at document management include:

• The increasing volume and variety of information generated and consumed by businesses.
• The growing demand for collaboration and teamwork across different locations, devices, and platforms.
• The rising expectations of customers, partners, and regulators for timely, accurate, and consistent information.
• The evolving threats and risks of data breaches, cyberattacks, and compliance violations.
• The emerging opportunities and challenges of digital transformation, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence which require access to the information within business documents.

To address these factors, businesses can benefit from a document management strategy that is:

• Agile – It adapts to changing business needs and environments, while supporting innovation and efficiency.
• Secure – It protects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information, while complying with relevant laws and regulations.
• Collaborative – It facilitates teamwork and communication among internal and external stakeholders, while enhancing productivity and performance.

Key Ingredients

Businesses can choose from many document management platforms and solutions in the marketplace from industry specific vendors such as Procore and Acumatica, or more generalized platforms from companies like Microsoft and Google. But getting started takes a desire to do things differently. There are several factors that go into designing and adopting a successful document management solution outlined below.

1. Willingness to Change – Often we engage with a client who has had an unsuccessful experience with a document management solution because they tried to apply technology to align with their current processes. Attempting to automate a manual process without rethinking the process through the lens of technology’s capabilities makes it challenging to achieve the value they’re seeking from their investment. It is critical that a business assess their challenges, envision an efficient future state before implementing a new technology. Often it is helpful to have an outside perspective when evaluating processes and potential improvement.
2. Establish Structure and Process – Does “standard” exist in your business? Do you have a set process you follow from bid to closeout?  The more standardization you can establish, while still being agile to handle unique circumstances, the more automation you can bring to a process. There are many ways to approach this, but one example is the concept of a job. The job has several attributes such as the client, vendors you purchase materials from, subcontractors, and other common categories from job to job. Establishing a consistent document structure containing the same types of information and how files are named, a protocol for loading documents into that structure, and a mechanism to establish metadata about the documents will set you up for success. It should be noted that many document management solutions aren’t constrained by the traditional file folder structure of a typical file system. This allows for a multitude of ways to search, sort, and filter the content you need.
3. Define the Nouns of your Business – Continuing from structure and process, an important step is to establish the Person, Place or Thing so that you can then describe it. Imagine you have a file share today and you have a folder for each client or job and then in each folder you have other folders to capture documents for different phases (bid, planning, procurement, change orders, etc.). If you need to find an invoice but you aren’t sure what client it was for, how do you find it? Some may start by opening a client folder, clicking through to the appropriate subfolder, looking for the invoice, moving on to the next client, and so on.

   A modern document management solution, such as Microsoft SharePoint, allows you to define an “Invoice” as a document type, establish the attributes of that invoice (Vendor, Date, Client, etc.), and then tag a document that you’ve uploaded. This allows you to search for all invoices across all clients or jobs, regardless of their folder location, with specific search criteria such as the vendor name. The attributes of an invoice will be different from those of a change order, a blueprint, etc. By establishing the nouns of your business and their attributes, you’ll be able to store and manage your documents more effectively.

4. Establish Security and Controls – It is unfortunately too easy for a confidential document to end up in the hands of someone inappropriate. With the ease at which cloud based document sharing solutions can be enabled, it becomes a simple copy/paste exercise to share content with a competitor. Fortunately, there are solutions that can and should be put in place to secure documents.

   A couple of solutions that can play a role with security include Microsoft’s Purview Information Protection and Defender for Cloud Apps tools. Purview Information Protection allows you to apply labels to documents such as sensitive, confidential, general, etc. Based on the label, the security is automatically defined to impact the ability of an individual to print, save, copy, email, or otherwise share the document. This tool helps prevent data loss due to intentional or accidental sharing of content.

   Defender for Cloud Apps helps manage the SaaS applications that a user can access within the business. As such, if the standard platform for document storage is SharePoint and Teams, but a user tries to copy a file to a Google Drive location, the solution stops the user from logging in and accessing the account, thus preventing the file from leaving the organization.

While having a great Document Management solution in place can help you manage and access your content more easily, it may also make it easier for the data to leave the business, so implementing appropriate controls are important.

1. Mobile Access – While the capabilities we’ve outlined so far are great, it falls short if you can’t access the content when it matters most, on the jobsite. Depending on the size of your operation you may have a dedicated mobile office with full PC access to your systems. Often that’s not the case so being able to pull up a document on a phone or tablet can be a time saver. Further, mobile access can be incorporated as a new business process so a change order can be drafted and signed electronically in the field to keep a project moving.

Impact on the Construction Industry

The construction industry involves a large number of stakeholders such as contractors, subcontractors, architects, engineers, suppliers, and clients, who need to collaborate and exchange information throughout a project’s lifecycle. This process generates a vast amount of documentation including contracts, drawings, specifications, reports, invoices, and permits, which all need to be managed and maintained properly. Combined with challenges and risks, such as cost overruns, schedule delays, quality issues, safety incidents, and potential legal disputes, an effective document management solution can help a construction business run more efficiently. It can also achieve the following outcomes:

• Improve collaboration and communication among project stakeholders, with access to the latest and most accurate information.
• Enhance efficiency and productivity by streamlining workflows and processes which reduces errors and rework.
• Increase security and compliance by protecting sensitive and confidential information as well as adhering to relevant standards and regulations.
• Reduce costs and risks by avoiding duplication, reducing waste and preventing or resolving issues and disputes.

With construction businesses continuing to evolve, document management can become a critical tool in helping manage information better and more safely, as well as elevate business for the future. Although the basics of getting started have been covered, there’s even more to consider given the recent explosion of AI capabilities around document ingestion and summarization. In fact, document management can be an important first step in a business’ digital transformation, unlocking further opportunity for automation and efficiency.

About the Author

Michael Pelletier is the Managing Principal of Automation and Integration within CLA Digital.  Our Digital team focuses on fostering a culture of innovation, reinventing business processes and unlocking our clients’ data to create extraordinary opportunities. Whether it’s helping an organization define an IT strategy that supports growth objectives, automating business process, creating dashboards or simply finding a simple solution to a complex problem, Michael spends his time getting to know our clients to provide unique and innovative solutions.