Time is not lost in the core business, it is lost in coordination.
The working day today
Building happens on site, administration happens in the office. In between lie searching for documents, sorting e-mail, checking invoices, transferring information and chasing things up. These are the five places where the week disappears.
Time sink 01 — Screening tenders
Tenders come in through several portals and inboxes. Each one has to be opened, read and judged on whether it fits at all — usually before anyone knows whether the effort is worth it.
Hours per week: varies from client to client.
Time sink 02 — Costing bids
Quantities and items are transferred by hand from the bill of quantities into your own costing. Every transfer is a source of error, and every error only shows up in the bid.
Hours per week: varies from client to client.
Time sink 03 — Documenting the site
Site diaries, photos, defects and status reports are produced on the move and end up in chats, cameras and notepads. Bringing them together is evening work.
Hours per week: varies from client to client.
Time sink 04 — Tracking costs
Budgets, variations, hours and material costs sit in different systems. Anyone who wants to know where the project stands has to piece it together anew every time.
Hours per week: varies from client to client.
Time sink 05 — Filing invoices
Invoices, delivery notes and contracts have to be recognised, matched to the project and filed. The work is simple, it just never stops.
Hours per week: varies from client to client.
What can be automated
Tenders · Costing · Site records · Project controlling · Documents & invoices
01 Tenders & bills of quantities — Find tenders automatically, read bill-of-quantity documents, spot the relevant items and pre-sort projects.
02 Quoting & costing — Carry data over from tenders, structure quantities and items, and prepare quote templates automatically.
03 Site records & defect management — Capture, file and document site diaries, photos, defects, tasks and status reports automatically.
04 Project controlling & cost tracking — Bring budgets, variations, hours, material costs and progress together centrally and evaluate them automatically.
05 Document & invoice management — Recognise, file and store invoices, delivery notes, contracts, drawings and other project papers automatically.
What stays with people
Approvals, negotiation and judgement. What gets submitted as costed, which variation is pushed through and when a defect counts as accepted is decided by nobody else.
How SAITS automates these five processes: AI for construction companies and contractors.
Whether one of them is worth it is shown by four tests. How the first workflow comes about: How a first workflow goes live in four weeks.