4 ways smartphones and tablets benefit contractors: Part 1

Everywhere we look tablets and smartphones are being touted as the next best “tool” in construction.  This comes as no surprise when study after study has shown that companies who take advantage of the technology smartphones and tablets provide are seeing higher profits and faster turnaround times on projects than companies who haven’t embraced the benefits of technology.  

What are the benefits that smartphones and tablets provide?

 #1.  Real-Time Information Transfer

Getting information from the field to the office and office to the field has always been a huge task.  The biggest problem’s being timeliness and miscommunication.    By the time the information has been collected, delivered, deciphered, and evaluated it may be too late to make critical decisions that could have kept the project on time and under budget.   

Once decisions have been made the directives must be relayed back to employees in the field, and this is where miscommunication rears its ugly head.   Did you want 5 employees on project A or B?  The paperwork for the change-order is missing?  Are we behind schedule?  The game telephone we all played as kids got its start from real life situations like this.  

Tablets and smartphones provide real-time communication from the field to the office and back again.  With software programs like AboutTime, apps can be downloaded onto smartphone and tablet devices providing real-time connectivity between the office and the field.   Reports showing accurate time, attendance, job cost, productivity, budgets and more can be immediately downloaded, and critical decisions can be made.  All this is done in a timely fashion, keeping your project on time and on budget.