Summary: PMIS is crucial to run a construction project as it involves huge amounts of data. It helps pulling data & making it reaches right person.
The construction industry may be the largest in the world where billions are spent on projects that need to be completed in a specific time. Since the projects are massive, there are mountains of data in each construction company that needs to be transferred and stored over the life cycle of a project. Normally, the construction business is always vocal and makes constant updates. And since the projects are massive, it is natural for data or information to be lost in the mix. But what if that lost snippet is an essential direction or change?
All information in a construction business needs to be organized which otherwise is doomed to fail. How is it possible to organize a lot of data to ensure that they are passed to the right party and that person knows that they’re being notified?
It is here that the Project Management Information System comes in. Commonly known by the acronym PMIS, it enables an organized and controlled flow of information, so nothing is siphoned off or misplaced.
What is PMIS?
A project management information system (PMIS) is how a construction project’s information is organized. PMIS gathers information and utilizes multiple software applications. These applications help construction project managers to draw a plan, execute it and later accomplish the project. This way, it ensures that no data is lost in the flow.
PMIS is of three types
There are different types of PMIS software. However, they share most feature sets that include tools for scheduling, work authorization, information collection, and distribution. In the meanwhile, some will also have automated gathering and reporting on key performance indicators (KPIs).
What are the essential features of a PMIS?
Project Management Information System software is developed to support construction project management by monitoring or collecting relevant data. Some of those areas that PIMS is active in include integration management, project scope management, project cost management, project time management, project quality management, project communications management, project risk management, project procurement management, and project stakeholder management.
A construction project will have a large amount of information and track every information is highly hectic and challenging. Only with the help of technology services can a construction company be able to instantly pull down relevant or needed information from the sea of data. This makes PMIS highly important. When a construction firm utilizes PMIS, it becomes possible for the project managers to instantly access the signal in the noise. In addition, the information is also critical for future projects in terms of reducing risk, improving efficiencies, and lowering costs.
When a PMIS captures all project data and stocks it in an organized way, it must also be retrievable, searchable, categorizable, shareable, and analyzable. To ensure this part, PMIS will have a series of tools.
- Schedule and Planning: This keeps a track of the early and late schedules, slack times, and the critical path
- Resource Management: This handles resource loading, leveling, and allocation.
- Budget: Associate cost with individual tasks for more accurate budget estimation and generation.
- Control and Performance: The main task is to analyze and control cost and performance, update the existing plans as actual against planned data changes, provide what-if scenarios for the project manager.
- Reporting and Communication: This creates relevant graphs and charts of collected and analyzed data which can be later shared with stakeholders and team members.
- Integration and Ease of Use: Some PMIS will access data from multiple construction projects for multi-project analysis, integrating with other systems, such as payroll, inventory, etc.
It is high time that your construction business adopts PMIS. When you have mountains of data that need to be analyzed every time, it is impossible to do it humanely and you need advanced construction technology services. Start using PMIS as early as possible to enhance your business prospects.
