The construction industry’s secret weapon is going to be collaboration – especially when it comes to payment solutions.
It’s not easy finding weapons of mass destruction. Just ask Tony Blair and George Bush. But when it comes to weapons of mass construction, we’ve got a roadmap right to them – and we don’t need a sexed-up dossier to get our point across.
This weapon is collaboration, especially when it comes to payment solutions in construction. When everyone’s on the same page, people get paid and projects get completed on time, and everyone walks away happy.
The way the construction industry currently works is disjointed to say the least, and nowhere is that more obvious than in payment claims. Positive cash flow is the lifeblood of our industry, but for some reason too many firms are struggling along with a broken process that leads to delays across entire projects. It seems simple – submit a payment claim, show your working, get paid – but the reality’s a bit different. Nobody knows what anyone else is doing and everyone spends more time chasing paper than they do getting work done.
Mistrust is the most crucial issue here – with 32% of owners previously claiming they don’t have a high level of trust in their contractors, and countless contractors threatening to walk out if payments are late yet again this month.
The solution to this issue is collaboration. Working together in a transparent way to make sure everyone knows exactly where the money’s coming from, where it’s going to and when it’s due turns payment into a weapon of mass construction.
And we’ve built the launch device for that weapon – an automated payment claim solution for the construction industry.
By putting everything online, we’ve killed off the tyranny of the email chain, paper chasing and Chinese Whispers over who did what and when. We’ve made it simple. Transparent. Instant. Everyone from subcontractors and trades up can handle the whole payment process from their smartphones, and project managers get to keep everyone up to date with a couple of clicks. Without coming on too strong, we’re making the world a better place by helping people trust each other.
We like to keep everything transparent, and in the interests of that transparency, here are the core collaborative features of Payapps.com:
- Mobile technology – Easy access, anywhere, any time, so that both contractor and subcontractors can submit, assess, amend and certify on the move.
- Contract compliance – Effectively manages contract compliance issues required by the main contractor, such as subcontractor insurance.
- Powerful workflow – Automated electronic exchange of information and multi-stage approval processes for both parties.
- Construction Contracts Act compliant – Engineered for the Irish industry, complies with the Construction Contracts Act and promotes fair payment.
- Milestone tracking and reminders – Integrated into workflow for deadlines and key contract dates.
- Transparency – Full visibility and audit trail for both parties.
There’s more to our collaborative software than just making sure contractors have cash in their pockets and helping managers keep an eye on their progress. Collaboration’s going to drive the construction industry forwards.
And it’s not us saying that – it’s you.
82% of people in the industry expect greater collaboration in the next five years. The Home Builders Federation (always a good indication of the way the wind’s blowing in the UK construction industry) has put increased collaboration at the top of its wishlist, and industry commentaries are demanding that we all use collaborative technologies.
That’s the thing about collaboration. Everyone stands to win. Here’s how:
IMPROVES SUPPLY CHAIN COLLABORATION – Delivers true transparency of information and processes between the contractor and subcontractors, with instant access to data and full auditability
REDUCED OVERHEADS – Dramatic time savings on manual processes that can be redirected to other important areas of a project, driving productivity on both sides
DISPUTE REDUCTIONS – Transparency and standardisation significantly reduces the risk of payment disputes, and ultimately project delays and stoppages
IMPROVES CASH FLOW – Dramatically reduces the risk of payment disputes and the associated cash flow consequences, resulting in a happier and healthier supply chain.
With a more collaborative mindset, we all work together and we all trust each other more, and in this way we all move forwards into an era of mass construction.
Takeaways:
- Trust is a huge issue in construction. Nearly a third of subcontractors don’t trust contractors – and the feeling’s mutual.
- The biggest bone of contention is payment – late payments, late invoices, unusual billing methods. Ultimately, late payments are the symptom of poor systems and not the cause.
- By making payment processes more collaborative, Payapps.com puts the trust and transparency back into construction relationships.
