Progress tracking and document management: How general contractors use Fieldwire
Taís Oliveira • 
A construction site today may look different than a couple years ago. Instead of general contractors walking around with bulky binders and heavy laptops, what we see is their phones being used as a management tool. To improve efficiency and avoid rework, general contractors are increasingly turning to construction management apps. With a digital solution such as Fieldwire, teams can access project information from any device and location and share documents in real time. Learn how general contractors around the world are using Fieldwire to increase productivity on the jobsite.
Progress tracking
As UK Speller Metcalfe’s contracts manager, Richard Monk needs to have constant visibility into what the site teams are working on and keep track of the projects’ progress. With Fieldwire’s jobsite management software he can check the status of the tasks assigned to each worker, including location and progress photos. “It gives me clear visibility from a live point of view, even if I am not on the physical project,” Monk says. “If I’ve got a concern, I see it on Fieldwire and I can raise that with the site team to ensure it is actioned.”
Document and plan management
TCG Construction, a general contractor based in Hong Kong, uses Fieldwire to keep the field teams updated with the latest blueprints. The project administrator uploads the latest blueprints to Fieldwire, so there is no need to go through paper plans. “The cool thing about it is that it also highlights the change in the drawing, so it doesn’t overlap. We can see that change in the layout,” says Kenneth Harvey, Senior Construction Manager at TCG. The jobsite management app has helped TCG organize their plans and documents and avoid miscommunication.
Seamless communication with subcontractors
A general contractor based in the Czech Republic, FERI uses Fieldwire tasks on a daily basis to ensure subcontractors are informed about what needs to be done, adding locations, deadlines and other important information. “The added value is primarily time saving. A subcontractor completes a task and records it in Fieldwire. I don't have to call them to see if they have completed the given task or not, everything is clearly visible," says Karel Šindler, business and technical planner at FERI.
Photo and video storage
Simone Sortini, site engineer for Italy-based So.SL Edil, says the general contractor’s teams communicate more efficiently since using Fieldwire for capturing and storing photos and videos. “It was easy to restructure our process in order to take advantage of the possibilities of sharing, viewing and modifying projects. And also to have an official communication channel, especially to share photos and videos.”
Project Director for TCG Construction, Eric Wong shared that, before Fieldwire, their teams took many photos, but it was hard to know what they were referring to. With the Fieldwire mobile app, they can take a photo and record its location, add a description and all the related information, which makes it more useful to the team.
