Are You Turning Your Construction Project Data Into A Competitive Edge?

In every industry — including construction — data leads to better decision-making. But too often general contractors and real estate developers don’t take advantage of data that can inform future projects. Why? They don’t prioritize capturing it or, if they do, it’s not easy to access.

While everyone has initial cost estimates and working budgets, cost increases due to scope creep or change orders are usually not documented in an organized fashion. Neither are final costs and design metrics. Sure, construction team members might remember those details, but after they’ve dispersed and moved on, that institutional knowledge walks out the door with them.

Even the information that does get captured isn’t always organized so estimators can easily find it. I know because I worked at a multifamily development company, and it was my job to generate cost estimates that would get plugged into pro forma analyses. To look up pricing on previous projects, I often had to track down physical folders or Excel files and then manually search for the information I needed.

That frustrating, time-consuming process drove me to create a better solution — a database that makes it easy to archive and retrieve project information throughout its entire lifecycle. The technology was so successful, I co-founded Zebel to share it with the rest of the industry.

Once general contractors and developers see how our software works, they immediately grasp its advantages:

· They can retrieve data in seconds.

· They can look back at any point in a project to compare initial estimates against final costs and generate more accurate cost estimates in hours instead of weeks.

· They can benchmark new designs against those already built, compare the building efficiency, and saves thousands of dollars in pre-construction.

· They can even generate graphs that help them spot project inefficiencies and industry trends.

A spreadsheet can’t provide any of those things.

Information from past projects is only valuable if it’s accessible and usable! Visit www.zebel.io to learn how our technology makes it easy to capture your project data and mine it for decision-making gold.