Month: December 2020

Maintaining your budget is always important.  One of StratusVue’s goals is to keep your current and future budgets accurate using our forecasting tool.

The budget is a key factor of your project and is normally set by your company’s estimating department.  It’s vital to stay on track during the job so that the estimating department can refine their future proposals.

The issue is that the Estimator is typically not on the job site and the Project Manager is normally not providing the bids to your clients.   Therefore, communicating what happens on the project, and its effect on the budget, has to be as accurate as possible.  That’s where forecasting software shines. It is the only way to effectively relay actual project information to the estimating team during, and/or after the project.

Keeping Your Budget on Track

For Project Managers, our forecasting tool is the best way to make sure you know where your money is all the way up to project completion.  To achieve this, it’s recommended that you update your forecast monthly.

It’s important to review your costs for the following:

• What’s complete?
• What do I know is going to happen?
• What do I think could happen?

By inputting your forecast numbers for those three items, your estimating department could look at your forecast at any point in the project and understand how they should adjust their internal numbers.

StratusVue: Forecasting from StratusVue on Vimeo.

Creating the Best Possible Outcome

As the project progresses and the risk is reduced, a final number should be generated.  When you start seeing the project finish line, there are two possible options: leave your final numbers as they exist or adjust your budget to compensate.

Ultimately, the decision depends on how closely the estimators follow the project and account for company culture. It is important to understand whether pricing differences are a scope miss, a unique one-time event, or an estimate bust. This tells the estimator what should be carried over to the next project or legitimate added scope.

In the end, the knowledge and management of the costs discussed above is the bread and butter of making money. The more you review, manage, and discuss your costs on the project, the more profitable your company should be in the end.

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AI products such as Amazon Alexa® and Google Nest Hub® use graph technology to return desired results to you. If you say “Alexa, play me holiday music,” there are a series of decisions made via nodes that enable a result to be generated based on your “intended request.” This type of AI exists within the construction industry. It’s used in project management software such as StratusVue to help improve efficiency on a job site.

What Is A Graph Database?

A graph database uses graphed references for semantical data associations. In an undirected graph, an edge connecting two nodes has a single meaning. In a directed graph, the edges connecting two different nodes have more than one meaning. Graphed data better improves machine learning and artificial intelligence.

So, How Does It Work?

When we think about the premise of connecting two nodes, it becomes a limitless association between every role and stage of a construction project. When we apply that simple premise that Node 1 can be connected to Node 2 (estimating to buyout) and then Node 2 can be connected to Node 3 (buyout to scheduling) and Node 3 can tie to Node 4 (scheduling to pay apps) the world can now associate data and use it like never before.

We are all used to reports, logs, construction documents, contracts, schedules, and plans. There are so many micro-responsibilities within a successful project. We have defined roles that manage each aspect and each role has specific responsibilities.

AI’s responsibility is to learn the nuance and tactics of each of the jobs. This enables teams to focus on building and constructability. Construction’s biggest gains will come from a directed graph that connects two different nodes and can understand the data semantically; or understand it as a seasoned professional would understand documents.

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Adopting or changing software during unprecedented times may seem like an insurmountable challenge. StratusVue sees the current climate as an opportunity to implement time-saving technologies.  Some normalcy is returning to the construction and real-estate industries and StratusVue can help make the return more profitable.

In the past, meetings to discuss new company processes are done in person. Today, ‘Lunch and Learns’ are held virtually in your kitchen with distance between us. StratusVue can bring your project teams together to learn in multiple methods that still enable the social experience. Additionally, we help your internal efforts through learning management solutions.

Learning management takes on new levels of engagement that focus on what your team needs. We help establish and implement on-demand knowledge and video learning along with scheduled huddles via remote sessions.

Contact StratusVue today to see how the emerging Artificial Intelligence trends will help shape your future efforts. To schedule a time for review, email info@stratusvue.com to schedule a review on how our tools can save time and money, the two most important pieces of todays construction and built world.

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