Article

How to effectively manage your subcontractors

Streamlining communication is the easiest way to save money, time and materials on any construction project.


Lack of communication and collaboration in construction can cause huge problems. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), poor communication is the main reason why construction projects fail one-third of the time. It can create confusion, unnecessary delays, cost overruns, injury and safety issues and stakeholder disputes. Communication breakdowns in contractually driven relationships can lead to a lack of trust, mutual respect and eventually conflicts.

Whether it’s delayed communication, lack of communication, or no communication at all, the fact is that without an effective communication strategy, projects are likely to fall through the cracks. Luckily, there’s a solution.

The power of one integrated software solution

Technology has revolutionised the construction industry by offering various tools to help communicate with your contractors and subcontractors and how they communicate with you. Because they have such a vital role in ensuring that construction projects are completed on time, within budget and to a high standard of quality, it’s essential to get this right.

An integrated software solution can help make collaboration between stakeholders easy, bridging the geographic gap between the site and office. Real-time information sharing with all stakeholders working off the same documentation, using the same processes and having clear visibility throughout means everyone can see what’s happening on site as it’s happening. This results in less time spent on manual paperwork, entering and re-entering data in multiple disparate systems and potential re-working leading to greater productivity gains.

At TechnologyOne, we have developed a construction-focused software with communication and collaboration front-of-mind.

“We wanted to make it simple to connect everyone in construction including project owners, suppliers, subcontractors, design engineers and project managers,” says Luke Fleming, Industry General Manager, TechnologyOne.

“That’s why we developed a construction-focused software solution which delivers an online portal to seamlessly connect everyone on any device, anywhere and at any time. This helps to mitigate the risk of disputes, delays, and unplanned costs via portal-based digital interaction.”

TechnologyOne’s Subcontractor Portal provides construction owners the ability to digitally and seamlessly engage with subcontractors in a secure way and gives them full visibility over the project and contract work, allowing them to gain a clear picture of what’s happening on-site.

Connecting people, processes and data across the project lifecycle

Leveraging the mobile phones already in the pockets of those on site, integrated software solutions make it simple for subcontractors and contractors to communicate on projects with each other, and between themselves and the office. This simplifies daily reporting ensuring all project data is up-to-date, centralised and accurate and streamlines the way data is inputted, shared and analysed, enabling cost-effective decisions to be made efficiently. Subcontractors and contractors can track and manage changes from the site and office, pinpoint areas of project risk and identify areas to improve and focus resources on giving them the ability to understand change as it occurs and adjust in real time.

Get the benefits of managing subcontractors by digitising processes

Integrated software solutions enable the digitisation of construction processes such as site instructions, RFIs and EOTs making it easier for everyone to access and collaborate on important project information.

Digitised sourcing evaluation enhances supplier interactions, providing a much more efficient process to engage with suppliers during tender processes. This not only improves communication and collaboration, but also helps to leverage supplier performance data and enhance tender process reporting. Enhance supplier interactions & being able to leverage information from other parts of the system, look at previous performance data about suppliers to inform decisions.

Having one single source of truth for all data and communication, enhances data transparency and makes transactions faster for everyone whether on site or in the office.

“Customer feedback reveals real improvement in subcontractor communication and processes because of the simplicity and accessibility of information available to them. We’ve also heard that the seamless communication with external parties, due in large part to our dedicated subcontractor portal, has meant less time internal staff are having to spend answering subcontractor queries, increasing their productivity,” says Fleming.

TechnologyOne’s solution is a construction focused ERP designed to effectively manage project cost control and forecasting providing one source of truth for better project visibility and decision-making. For an overview of TechnologyOne’s Subcontractor Management capabilities and a software demonstration with industry expert Luke Fleming, register for the webinar here.

Publish date

14 Mar 2023