Paperless Construction Site - How Does It Work?
Digitalization is making its way into the construction industry as well. It is therefore important to recognize its potential for your own company and use it profitably. One way to do this is the concept of a paperless construction site. Instead of storing documents in file folders, they are managed in a digital construction file. Using software, all parties involved can access and edit the documents at any time and from anywhere using a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
Can I Reduce Costs with a Paperless Construction Site?
Digital management of all documents saves time and money: Project management becomes more efficient and communication on the construction site becomes simpler and more transparent. This allows your company to complete more orders in the same amount of time.
Managers gain a better overview of all processes in their company through digital processes and can identify bottlenecks more quickly. Thus, the concept of a paperless construction site increases your company's competitiveness in the long term and ensures more satisfied customers. The elimination of paper also brings many advantages for the back office: searching for specific documents becomes easier, and costs for printing and mailing documents are eliminated.
Save Money with Digital Invoicing
In particular, with digital invoicing, you can save real money. By making the processing of invoices faster and less error-prone, you can take advantage of discounts and avoid penalty fees. Moreover, the paperless construction site offers more safety: by switching over, you reduce the risk of construction defects, since all employees can access the most up-to-date version of the building plans digitally and changes are communicated in real time. Construction defects can be photographed on the construction site and inserted directly into the digital construction file. Should complaints arise, the digital construction file provides legally secure and complete documentation of all steps in the construction process.
How Do I Switch to a Paperless Construction Site?
With all these advantages of the paperless construction site, one thing must not be forgotten: the transition from the analog to the digital world requires careful planning. Otherwise, there is a risk of chaos and loss of important information.
You can divide the path to a paperless construction site into five steps:
1. Preparation and Planning
Analyze the processes in your company and determine what requirements a digital document management system (DMS) must have to be implemented in your company. Also make sure that the new software should be compatible with all other computer systems you have used so far. At the end of this step, you ideally have found a software that is perfect for you.
2. Employee Training
It is very important that you involve your employees from the beginning. Explain to them the benefits of a digital construction file and address their suggestions and concerns. Once you have decided on software, employees must be trained in the application of the new system.
3. Digitizing Existing Documents
Now all paper documents can be digitized and entered into the new system. For this, you can either purchase a document scanner with appropriate recognition software or you can hire a service provider to do this work for you. Old documents that have exceeded the legal retention period can be disposed of. The digitized documents must then be sorted into the respective digital construction file in the new DMS.
4. Agreements with Business Partners
To avoid scanning documents in the future, agree with your business partners, your bank, and your insurance company that they should send you all documents digitally from now on. Documents that you still receive in paper form must definitely continue to be scanned to prevent new stacks of papers from accumulating on your desk!
5. Process Optimization
From now on, everything runs smoothly on your paperless construction site. Nevertheless, you will continue to notice small things that you can still improve – and that's a good thing. Digitalization thrives on processes being continuously optimized. So, go for it!
The Right Business Partners Matter
On the way to a paperless construction site, it is important that your business partners are also digital. And this is where klarx comes in: klarx is Europe's leading digital platform for renting construction machinery, with 530,000 available machines and 5,100 rental stations throughout Germany. Machines you rent from klarx can be managed via the digital klarxMANAGER. There you have access to all invoices, you can extend machines or release them with a single click, and you can set different user profiles with different access options for your employees – all without touching a single piece of paper. klarx thus offers the optimal entry point on the way to a paperless construction site.
