SlideShare a Scribd company logo
BY INVITATION

 Difference between smart and smarter
 Construction companies can take control
 of enterprise-wide information and make
 better business decisions with BI




                                                    people and different functional roles in the       manager, project phase, and task–right down
                                                    organization. The cost and risk of making an       to the employee
                                                    incorrect decision can be considerable and can           Perform a “What If” analysis to determine
                                                    impact a company over the course of several        the potential revenue, profit, and cash flow
                                                    years.                                             impact of changes in orders, job profit, changes
                                                        Running a profitable construction               in general conditions, and overhead
                                                    firm is a difficult business. Faced with an                Eliminate off-line Excel spreadsheets
                                                    unprecedented number of external pressures         and inflexible, expensive, and environmentally
                                                    such as eroding profit margins, higher owner        unfriendly paper reports
                                                    expectations, rapidly changing technology, and           Integrate data from multiple applications
                                                    a dwindling workforce, construction companies      like SAP, Tally and /or any other financial and
 Sanjay Mehta                                       which shall implement BI can leverage data         operating systems for analysis—giving you a
                                                    and drive better visibility across projects and    complete view of the business
                                                    business by providing insights and measures.
 Construction industry today has undergone              Mayank Gandhi, Director, LOK Housing           Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for
 lots of transformation in their operational        & Constructions Ltd says “There’s more to          Construction Industry
 methodologies and processes. It is becoming        construction than pouring concrete. We opted            A KPI is the measure of a process that is
 ever more competitive and complex. More            for 1KEY BI which connected to the data            critical to the success of an organisation. Many
 businesses now need to rely on fact-based                                                             organisations use KPIs. There are a number of
 decision making and analytics to get ahead.                                                           performance measures that define the success
      Companies in construction can succeed                                                            of a project or organization.
 based on their ability to achieve constant,           Construction companies                               The KPIs are essentially the evidence that
 repeatable yield from each project. There is          which implement BI can                          culture change and process improvement are
 tremendous value in turning operational and                                                           actually leading to positive change in terms of
 transactional ‘data’ into tactical ‘information       leverage data and drive                         better performing projects and organizations.
 ’in an industry where profit can be so severely        better visibility across                             The responsibility of managing growth and
 influenced by the exceptions. BI can be used                                                           economic challenges requires leadership in
 to analyse past performance for planning,
                                                       projects by providing                           construction companies to devise a disciplined
 identify exceptions for action and trend current      insights and measures.                          business strategy. This strategy must efficiently
 performance for forecasting.                                                                          address potential opportunities and problems
      Many construction executives often make
                                                       They can achieve constant                       as they arise by providing reliable, timely
 decisions based on their gut feeling, supported       yield from each project                         information to support management decision-
 by years of experience and expertise. However,                                                        making. Monitoring KPIs should be a part of
 today’s fierce competition requires precision                                                          disciplined business strategy.
 and process improvements to avoid any, if not
 all, risks associated with construction financial   warehouse and gave the gamut in information        Purpose of KPIs
 and project management. Construction               delivery – in terms of reporting and analysis          Construction industry clients want their
 companies must use key performance                 against transaction application’s financial         projects delivered on time, on budget, free from
 indicators, trend analysis and other business      data.”                                             defects, efficiently and safely. Management
 metrics to ensure that they make the most              There are several technologies readily         and stake-holders of construction companies
 precise and educated decision to control costs,    available in the market today that will            expect continuous improvement from their
 reduce waste and improve productivity; thereby     accomplish this goal of unified, consistent and     construction team to achieve year-on-year
 help increase profitability of the company.         coherent data presentation that will support all   reductions in project costs and reductions in
      One of the key challenges is that the         aspects of your operation.                         project times.
 data is coming from disjointed, standalone                                                                Purpose of the KPI is to enable
 applications. Business decisions have to be        With BI, Construction companies can:               measurement of project and organizational
 taken by reviewing facts which have to be                Analyze utilization, project profitability,   performance throughout the construction
 provided from numbers coming from multiple         WIP, AR aging, and business development            industry. This information can then be used
 applications, multiple databases.                  effectiveness                                      for benchmarking purposes, and will be a key
      Non-availability of these facts may result          Analyze firm-wide data and then instantly     component of any organization’s move towards
 in the misinterpretation of data by different      drill down by organization, department, project    achieving best practice.



        Property World        August, 2010
34
www.pwindia.in


    Implementing unified, completely integrated
(not just interfaced) software solutions enable
construction firms to maintain the reliable,
timely information necessary to generate KPI
figures on demand.

Construction firms should monitor KPIs like:
      Cash flow: Understand whether individual
projects are generating or consuming cash can
better identify execution problems on projects.
Consistent attention to cash flow also helps to
promote timely billing and collections.
      Liquidity: Determine how much cash your
work in progress is generating or consuming,
by monitoring key current asset and liability
balance sheet accounts.
  Labor productivity: Labor productivity is
particularly important for subcontractors,
as productivity problems can break labor
budgets and erode profit margins. Managers
can separate jobs within a project to identify
discrepancies between actual labour
expenditures and estimates. This information
helps managers and field supervisors forecast       contractually—particularly on longer-duration        • Cost of Rectifying Defects
cost-to-complete, establish daily performance      projects. It is imperative for your firm to track     • Cost In Use
goals, address current problems, and improve       uncommitted costs to increase the proportion         • Quality - Defects, Quality Issues Available
future estimating and bidding accuracy             of committed costs where possible and, where            for Use, Quality Issues at End of Defect
      Schedule variance: Project owners            necessary, to incorporate factors such as price         Rectification Period
demand clear communication regarding               escalation and contingent cost terms into               Construction companies need MIS for all
project progress and timely completion. Given      their committed costs in order to limit financial   activities – profitability, productivity, return
increasingly complex project specifications         exposure.                                          on capital employed, return on value added,
and schedule compression, you must be able               Backlog: Properly tracking backlog—and       interest cover, return on Investment, profit
to identify and monitor schedule variance to       the expected gross margins on backlogged           predictability, ratio of value added, repeat
deliver projects on a timeline that satisfies       work—allows construction firms to avoid the         business, outstanding money, time taken to
owners’ demands. Understanding how factors         problems associated with insufficient work and      reach final project. BI not only enables generate
cause schedule variance, such as change            profit fade. With this knowledge, your firm can      such MIS, but also help them monitor KPIs
orders and weather, allows you to properly plan,   make strategically sound decisions about which     to maintain financial discipline and make the
communicate, and coordinate resources, to          projects to pursue.                                necessary adjustments to comply with their
ensure higher quality output, improved safety,           Customer satisfaction: To maintain           strategic business plan. Through this type of
and better resource utilization and allocation.    competitive advantage, track your firm’s ability    disciplined management, they can act rapidly
Effectively managing schedule variance also        to meet owner expectations by compiling            in pursuing opportunities or solving problems
helps construction firms maintain a competitive     and analyzing qualitative feedback. This           on projects because they have an accurate
advantage against other firms that often fall       retrospective examination of past projects         understanding of the past performance,
behind schedule.                                   identifies potential deficiencies, enabling your     present needs, and the steps to be taken to
      Margin variance: Compare your gross          firm to address such issues in current and          ensure future success.
margins to business plan objectives by             future projects.                                        With access to such business-critical
monitoring overall margin variance. Similarly,           Cost and Time: Time for Construction,        information, executives can look at
investigate the gross margins on particular        Time to Rectify Defects                            performance from a bird’s eye view and make
projects, relative to the project estimate, to       • Cost for construction: Design,                 informed decisions instantly. Using BI, as a
determine whether the project is achieving             Construction, Operational, Client Diagnostic   decision-support-system provides access
expected profitability. Through constant                Change Orders, Project Diagnostic, Leader      to consistent, appropriate and accurate
attention to margin variance, management               Change Orders - Purpose of this KPI is to      information from multiple sources of data
and field supervisors can make the corrective           see how projects are delivered cheaper         and applications. BI reflects key performance
changes necessary to keep individual project           and quicker on a year by year basis. This      indicators, desired goals and measures real-
margin variance to a minimum and the overall           is a useful measure, but is only really        time, actual performance. In doing so, these
gross margin stable.                                   useful when there are a number of directly     applications can support decision-making,
      Unapproved change orders: Construction           comparable projects where the units are        aid in workflow completion and increase
firms face an increasing economic threat from           identical or very closely comparable. If       productivity. BI provides different means
risk transfer provisions in standard contract          there are a large number of differences        of monitoring key performance indicators
types. Reduce your firm’s financial exposure by          between the project and the comparator         ensuring that business-critical data is available
identifying and diligently pursuing unapproved         project then the calculation will be complex   to support the decision-making process when
change orders.                                         and the result may be inaccurate.              needed. With BI, executives in construction
      Committed cost: With rising material           • Cost predictability: Design, Construction,     industry can easily take informed decisions at
prices and labor shortages, construction               Operational, Client Diagnostic Change          all levels.
firms face financial exposure when suppliers             Orders, Project Diagnostic Leader Change
and subcontractors are not yet committed               Orders                                            (The writer is CEO, MAIA Intelligence Pvt. Ltd.)
                                                                                                              For more columns log on to www.pwindia.in


                                                                                                      August, 2010          Property World
                                                                                                                                                      35

More Related Content

PDF
1 K E Y Cockpit K P I Solution
PPSX
ITSM Conference, Dubai, UAE 2009
PDF
7 Essential Elements Of EA
PDF
Build vs Buy Strategy
PDF
Resume
PPSX
Acto.IT Consulting Presentation
PDF
Getting Some Respect - How to Measure and Communicate Your EA Success
PDF
It Finance
1 K E Y Cockpit K P I Solution
ITSM Conference, Dubai, UAE 2009
7 Essential Elements Of EA
Build vs Buy Strategy
Resume
Acto.IT Consulting Presentation
Getting Some Respect - How to Measure and Communicate Your EA Success
It Finance

What's hot (19)

PDF
White paper tech support value
PDF
1 K E Y K P I Design Plan
PDF
Au2010 Autodesk Deliberations11.28.10
PDF
EA Roadmapping
PDF
Cio buy versus build
PDF
Branding Marketing Sales Solution Using 1 K E Y
DOCX
Espinosas Functional Resume Financial Planning & Investments And Busine...
PDF
Business Performance Solutions Clash Of The Titans The Market Remains Vibrant...
PDF
PDF
Plm & erp their respective roles in marketing
PDF
The Role of Process Owners in Successful EPM Implementations
PPT
CobiT And ITIL Breakfast Seminar
DOCX
Celebrate and record customer satisfaction
PDF
Aligning business and tech thru capabilities - A capstera thought paper
PDF
E-Services Planning and Enterprise Architecture Primer
PDF
Business and Strategic Alignment in EA – Practical Guidelines Based on Indust...
PDF
Ip, Sip Transformation Creating A Roadmap
ODP
CobiT, Val IT & Balanced Scorecards
PDF
Maximizing EA Impact: Using Business Architecture to Achieve Alignment
White paper tech support value
1 K E Y K P I Design Plan
Au2010 Autodesk Deliberations11.28.10
EA Roadmapping
Cio buy versus build
Branding Marketing Sales Solution Using 1 K E Y
Espinosas Functional Resume Financial Planning & Investments And Busine...
Business Performance Solutions Clash Of The Titans The Market Remains Vibrant...
Plm & erp their respective roles in marketing
The Role of Process Owners in Successful EPM Implementations
CobiT And ITIL Breakfast Seminar
Celebrate and record customer satisfaction
Aligning business and tech thru capabilities - A capstera thought paper
E-Services Planning and Enterprise Architecture Primer
Business and Strategic Alignment in EA – Practical Guidelines Based on Indust...
Ip, Sip Transformation Creating A Roadmap
CobiT, Val IT & Balanced Scorecards
Maximizing EA Impact: Using Business Architecture to Achieve Alignment
Ad

Similar to Difference between smart and smarter (20)

PDF
A Comprehensive Approach to Application Portfolio Rationalization
PDF
Principia21 Overview And Example Case Studies
PDF
Turning Customer Interactions Into Money
PDF
Turning Customer Interactions Into Money White Paper
PDF
Developing a Business Case for Corporate Portals
PDF
Business Intelligence (BI) for Manufacturing
PDF
Business Analytics
PDF
Replacing the-annual-budget-with-rolling-forecasts
PDF
Performance Management With Rational Insight - Karthi D
PDF
Principles of program governance
PDF
How to Get Started with Digital Transformation
PDF
Revolutionizing the Digital Transformation Office - Leveraging OnePlan’s AI a...
PDF
BI for Automotive
PDF
Five tips for improving the ROI of your software investments
PDF
IBM Bi
PPTX
Adaptable Architecture – the Backbone of Digital Business Models
DOCX
Managing and Using Information Systems A Strategic Approach –.docx
PDF
Spanning people, processes, and technologies: The business case for Collabora...
PDF
the-business-case-for-enterprise-project-performance.pdf
PDF
Esplendor DTaaS
A Comprehensive Approach to Application Portfolio Rationalization
Principia21 Overview And Example Case Studies
Turning Customer Interactions Into Money
Turning Customer Interactions Into Money White Paper
Developing a Business Case for Corporate Portals
Business Intelligence (BI) for Manufacturing
Business Analytics
Replacing the-annual-budget-with-rolling-forecasts
Performance Management With Rational Insight - Karthi D
Principles of program governance
How to Get Started with Digital Transformation
Revolutionizing the Digital Transformation Office - Leveraging OnePlan’s AI a...
BI for Automotive
Five tips for improving the ROI of your software investments
IBM Bi
Adaptable Architecture – the Backbone of Digital Business Models
Managing and Using Information Systems A Strategic Approach –.docx
Spanning people, processes, and technologies: The business case for Collabora...
the-business-case-for-enterprise-project-performance.pdf
Esplendor DTaaS
Ad

More from Dhiren Gala (20)

PDF
Big Data for Retail
PPTX
Microsoft SQL Server 2012
PDF
MAIA Intelligence profiled on DQ Channel Tree
PPTX
XBRL on SaaS Platform
PDF
Barriers to Business Intelligence (BI)
PPTX
Compliance to Compete
PPTX
XBRL Overview
PDF
An Introduction To XBRL
PPTX
XBRL Presentation
PDF
Financial Consolidation Management
PPTX
Experiments with Social Media & Networking
PDF
Best Deployment: Raymond opts for 1KEY FCM - Financial Consolidation
PPTX
KPI Dashboard for Port Terminals
PDF
Business Intelligence in Logistics
PDF
Business Intelligence in Pharma
PPTX
Marketing Analytics with Business Intelligence
PDF
BI at work for Port Operations
PDF
Confluent - Monthly magazine by Symbiosis Centre for IT - September 2010
PDF
India's first Business Intelligence (BI)
PDF
Shifting Trends - BI for Logistics Industry
Big Data for Retail
Microsoft SQL Server 2012
MAIA Intelligence profiled on DQ Channel Tree
XBRL on SaaS Platform
Barriers to Business Intelligence (BI)
Compliance to Compete
XBRL Overview
An Introduction To XBRL
XBRL Presentation
Financial Consolidation Management
Experiments with Social Media & Networking
Best Deployment: Raymond opts for 1KEY FCM - Financial Consolidation
KPI Dashboard for Port Terminals
Business Intelligence in Logistics
Business Intelligence in Pharma
Marketing Analytics with Business Intelligence
BI at work for Port Operations
Confluent - Monthly magazine by Symbiosis Centre for IT - September 2010
India's first Business Intelligence (BI)
Shifting Trends - BI for Logistics Industry

Recently uploaded (20)

PPT
“AI and Expert System Decision Support & Business Intelligence Systems”
PPTX
20250228 LYD VKU AI Blended-Learning.pptx
PDF
The Rise and Fall of 3GPP – Time for a Sabbatical?
PDF
Empathic Computing: Creating Shared Understanding
PDF
Dropbox Q2 2025 Financial Results & Investor Presentation
PDF
KodekX | Application Modernization Development
PPTX
Big Data Technologies - Introduction.pptx
PPTX
Detection-First SIEM: Rule Types, Dashboards, and Threat-Informed Strategy
PDF
Reach Out and Touch Someone: Haptics and Empathic Computing
PDF
Review of recent advances in non-invasive hemoglobin estimation
PDF
Network Security Unit 5.pdf for BCA BBA.
PDF
Build a system with the filesystem maintained by OSTree @ COSCUP 2025
PDF
Architecting across the Boundaries of two Complex Domains - Healthcare & Tech...
PDF
CIFDAQ's Market Insight: SEC Turns Pro Crypto
PPTX
Effective Security Operations Center (SOC) A Modern, Strategic, and Threat-In...
PPTX
Understanding_Digital_Forensics_Presentation.pptx
PDF
Peak of Data & AI Encore- AI for Metadata and Smarter Workflows
PPT
Teaching material agriculture food technology
PPTX
A Presentation on Artificial Intelligence
PDF
Modernizing your data center with Dell and AMD
“AI and Expert System Decision Support & Business Intelligence Systems”
20250228 LYD VKU AI Blended-Learning.pptx
The Rise and Fall of 3GPP – Time for a Sabbatical?
Empathic Computing: Creating Shared Understanding
Dropbox Q2 2025 Financial Results & Investor Presentation
KodekX | Application Modernization Development
Big Data Technologies - Introduction.pptx
Detection-First SIEM: Rule Types, Dashboards, and Threat-Informed Strategy
Reach Out and Touch Someone: Haptics and Empathic Computing
Review of recent advances in non-invasive hemoglobin estimation
Network Security Unit 5.pdf for BCA BBA.
Build a system with the filesystem maintained by OSTree @ COSCUP 2025
Architecting across the Boundaries of two Complex Domains - Healthcare & Tech...
CIFDAQ's Market Insight: SEC Turns Pro Crypto
Effective Security Operations Center (SOC) A Modern, Strategic, and Threat-In...
Understanding_Digital_Forensics_Presentation.pptx
Peak of Data & AI Encore- AI for Metadata and Smarter Workflows
Teaching material agriculture food technology
A Presentation on Artificial Intelligence
Modernizing your data center with Dell and AMD

Difference between smart and smarter

  • 1. BY INVITATION Difference between smart and smarter Construction companies can take control of enterprise-wide information and make better business decisions with BI people and different functional roles in the manager, project phase, and task–right down organization. The cost and risk of making an to the employee incorrect decision can be considerable and can Perform a “What If” analysis to determine impact a company over the course of several the potential revenue, profit, and cash flow years. impact of changes in orders, job profit, changes Running a profitable construction in general conditions, and overhead firm is a difficult business. Faced with an Eliminate off-line Excel spreadsheets unprecedented number of external pressures and inflexible, expensive, and environmentally such as eroding profit margins, higher owner unfriendly paper reports expectations, rapidly changing technology, and Integrate data from multiple applications a dwindling workforce, construction companies like SAP, Tally and /or any other financial and Sanjay Mehta which shall implement BI can leverage data operating systems for analysis—giving you a and drive better visibility across projects and complete view of the business business by providing insights and measures. Construction industry today has undergone Mayank Gandhi, Director, LOK Housing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for lots of transformation in their operational & Constructions Ltd says “There’s more to Construction Industry methodologies and processes. It is becoming construction than pouring concrete. We opted A KPI is the measure of a process that is ever more competitive and complex. More for 1KEY BI which connected to the data critical to the success of an organisation. Many businesses now need to rely on fact-based organisations use KPIs. There are a number of decision making and analytics to get ahead. performance measures that define the success Companies in construction can succeed of a project or organization. based on their ability to achieve constant, Construction companies The KPIs are essentially the evidence that repeatable yield from each project. There is which implement BI can culture change and process improvement are tremendous value in turning operational and actually leading to positive change in terms of transactional ‘data’ into tactical ‘information leverage data and drive better performing projects and organizations. ’in an industry where profit can be so severely better visibility across The responsibility of managing growth and influenced by the exceptions. BI can be used economic challenges requires leadership in to analyse past performance for planning, projects by providing construction companies to devise a disciplined identify exceptions for action and trend current insights and measures. business strategy. This strategy must efficiently performance for forecasting. address potential opportunities and problems Many construction executives often make They can achieve constant as they arise by providing reliable, timely decisions based on their gut feeling, supported yield from each project information to support management decision- by years of experience and expertise. However, making. Monitoring KPIs should be a part of today’s fierce competition requires precision disciplined business strategy. and process improvements to avoid any, if not all, risks associated with construction financial warehouse and gave the gamut in information Purpose of KPIs and project management. Construction delivery – in terms of reporting and analysis Construction industry clients want their companies must use key performance against transaction application’s financial projects delivered on time, on budget, free from indicators, trend analysis and other business data.” defects, efficiently and safely. Management metrics to ensure that they make the most There are several technologies readily and stake-holders of construction companies precise and educated decision to control costs, available in the market today that will expect continuous improvement from their reduce waste and improve productivity; thereby accomplish this goal of unified, consistent and construction team to achieve year-on-year help increase profitability of the company. coherent data presentation that will support all reductions in project costs and reductions in One of the key challenges is that the aspects of your operation. project times. data is coming from disjointed, standalone Purpose of the KPI is to enable applications. Business decisions have to be With BI, Construction companies can: measurement of project and organizational taken by reviewing facts which have to be Analyze utilization, project profitability, performance throughout the construction provided from numbers coming from multiple WIP, AR aging, and business development industry. This information can then be used applications, multiple databases. effectiveness for benchmarking purposes, and will be a key Non-availability of these facts may result Analyze firm-wide data and then instantly component of any organization’s move towards in the misinterpretation of data by different drill down by organization, department, project achieving best practice. Property World August, 2010 34
  • 2. www.pwindia.in Implementing unified, completely integrated (not just interfaced) software solutions enable construction firms to maintain the reliable, timely information necessary to generate KPI figures on demand. Construction firms should monitor KPIs like: Cash flow: Understand whether individual projects are generating or consuming cash can better identify execution problems on projects. Consistent attention to cash flow also helps to promote timely billing and collections. Liquidity: Determine how much cash your work in progress is generating or consuming, by monitoring key current asset and liability balance sheet accounts. Labor productivity: Labor productivity is particularly important for subcontractors, as productivity problems can break labor budgets and erode profit margins. Managers can separate jobs within a project to identify discrepancies between actual labour expenditures and estimates. This information helps managers and field supervisors forecast contractually—particularly on longer-duration • Cost of Rectifying Defects cost-to-complete, establish daily performance projects. It is imperative for your firm to track • Cost In Use goals, address current problems, and improve uncommitted costs to increase the proportion • Quality - Defects, Quality Issues Available future estimating and bidding accuracy of committed costs where possible and, where for Use, Quality Issues at End of Defect Schedule variance: Project owners necessary, to incorporate factors such as price Rectification Period demand clear communication regarding escalation and contingent cost terms into Construction companies need MIS for all project progress and timely completion. Given their committed costs in order to limit financial activities – profitability, productivity, return increasingly complex project specifications exposure. on capital employed, return on value added, and schedule compression, you must be able Backlog: Properly tracking backlog—and interest cover, return on Investment, profit to identify and monitor schedule variance to the expected gross margins on backlogged predictability, ratio of value added, repeat deliver projects on a timeline that satisfies work—allows construction firms to avoid the business, outstanding money, time taken to owners’ demands. Understanding how factors problems associated with insufficient work and reach final project. BI not only enables generate cause schedule variance, such as change profit fade. With this knowledge, your firm can such MIS, but also help them monitor KPIs orders and weather, allows you to properly plan, make strategically sound decisions about which to maintain financial discipline and make the communicate, and coordinate resources, to projects to pursue. necessary adjustments to comply with their ensure higher quality output, improved safety, Customer satisfaction: To maintain strategic business plan. Through this type of and better resource utilization and allocation. competitive advantage, track your firm’s ability disciplined management, they can act rapidly Effectively managing schedule variance also to meet owner expectations by compiling in pursuing opportunities or solving problems helps construction firms maintain a competitive and analyzing qualitative feedback. This on projects because they have an accurate advantage against other firms that often fall retrospective examination of past projects understanding of the past performance, behind schedule. identifies potential deficiencies, enabling your present needs, and the steps to be taken to Margin variance: Compare your gross firm to address such issues in current and ensure future success. margins to business plan objectives by future projects. With access to such business-critical monitoring overall margin variance. Similarly, Cost and Time: Time for Construction, information, executives can look at investigate the gross margins on particular Time to Rectify Defects performance from a bird’s eye view and make projects, relative to the project estimate, to • Cost for construction: Design, informed decisions instantly. Using BI, as a determine whether the project is achieving Construction, Operational, Client Diagnostic decision-support-system provides access expected profitability. Through constant Change Orders, Project Diagnostic, Leader to consistent, appropriate and accurate attention to margin variance, management Change Orders - Purpose of this KPI is to information from multiple sources of data and field supervisors can make the corrective see how projects are delivered cheaper and applications. BI reflects key performance changes necessary to keep individual project and quicker on a year by year basis. This indicators, desired goals and measures real- margin variance to a minimum and the overall is a useful measure, but is only really time, actual performance. In doing so, these gross margin stable. useful when there are a number of directly applications can support decision-making, Unapproved change orders: Construction comparable projects where the units are aid in workflow completion and increase firms face an increasing economic threat from identical or very closely comparable. If productivity. BI provides different means risk transfer provisions in standard contract there are a large number of differences of monitoring key performance indicators types. Reduce your firm’s financial exposure by between the project and the comparator ensuring that business-critical data is available identifying and diligently pursuing unapproved project then the calculation will be complex to support the decision-making process when change orders. and the result may be inaccurate. needed. With BI, executives in construction Committed cost: With rising material • Cost predictability: Design, Construction, industry can easily take informed decisions at prices and labor shortages, construction Operational, Client Diagnostic Change all levels. firms face financial exposure when suppliers Orders, Project Diagnostic Leader Change and subcontractors are not yet committed Orders (The writer is CEO, MAIA Intelligence Pvt. Ltd.) For more columns log on to www.pwindia.in August, 2010 Property World 35