The construction industry has a reputation for complexity and messiness. It is a daunting challenge to manage the creation of roads, bridges, commercial or residential properties, mostly because it involves multiple stakeholders and spans a long series of highly regulated tasks. Consider paperwork alone that is needed to get on with the job – from initial drawings to final documentation. Its flow can become a major issue that affects ongoing communication at the site, as well as coordination and fulfillment of contracts. Different software standards or document formats prevalent in the industry are a further complication.
CorpCloud is a web-based application that targets building industry professionals with its cloud-based construction management suite. Still in closed beta but waiting to be released publicly later this year, it allows subscribers to use its innovative project management tools, including estimating and networking functionality, across different platforms and systems without committing resources or worrying about configuration. Its sleek interface provides ready access to complete project data as it is synched between accounts of different project participants. This is bound to open doors to effective, real-time communication and collaboration – a revolution of sorts in an industry that has been long plagued by relative isolation of project members.
Since information is stored for future reference and neatly categorized, it gives users an unprecedented level of control and convenience. Investors, project managers and controllers have been waiting for this sort of tools for decades and finally technologies and habits converge to make it possible. Interestingly, the integral component of this system is a unique networking functionality that enables construction industry professionals to seek and engage with trusted partners on the basis of past records stored in the application. The most adequate term for what CorpCloud is doing would be construction management 2.0, would it not?