Streamlining Stakeholder Collaboration for AEC Document Reviews

This newsletter discusses how you can streamline document review processes and keep your AEC projects on track.

Timely stakeholder feedback is the backbone of successful AEC projects. But with clients, contractors, and teams spread across locations, collaboration can be chaotic.

Research by Construction Navigant and PlanGrid shows that 9% of a project’s combined cost stems from rework, with 52% of that rework being attributed to miscommunication and poor project data. For these reasons, streamlining communication and collaboration is relevant in construction document reviews.

3 Common Stakeholder Collaboration Challenges and How to Address Them

Delayed Feedback from Stakeholders

Contractors, consultants, and clients often delay reviews due to unclear processes or overburdened schedules. To solve this,

• Simplify reviews with collaborative document review tools that allow contextual comments directly on blueprints, plans, or PDFs.
• Set clear deadlines with automated reminders to keep everyone on track.

Feedback Fragmentation

Feedback scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and meetings can lead to errors and miscommunication.

The best way to curb this is to centralize feedback with PDF markup and collaboration tools that integrate with your existing workflows; including document management systems and ERPs, communication tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and so much more.

Conflicting Priorities

Stakeholders may prioritize cost over design, or vice versa, causing delays.

To avoid conflicts among relevant parties, use collaborative platforms to prioritize tasks collectively, balancing design and budget concerns.

The Role of Automation in Construction Document Reviews

Automating your workflows for submittal and other construction document reviews can significantly streamline the feedback process and enhance stakeholder collaboration. With automation, you save time on repetitive tasks, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks and everyone stays informed and engaged.

Here’s how zipBoard can help:

• Custom Workflows: Create tailored stages that fit your construction document review workflow needs, ensuring a smooth and efficient review process.
• Integrations and APIs: Seamlessly integrate zipBoard with tools you already use with your AEC Team (Slack, Outlook, MS Teams, etc) to enhance your workflow. Check out our integrations page for more details.
• Tagging and Mentioning: Easily set due dates and tag or mention stakeholders in comments or send invites, triggering email and in-app notifications to keep everyone in the loop.
• Task Management: Automatically convert feedback from collaborators into actionable tasks, which are then added to the task manager for easy tracking.
• Autogenerated Reports: Generate comprehensive reports automatically, providing a clear overview of the document review process and progress.
• [New] Advanced Auto-Tagging Features: Generate task types and statuses relevant to your workflows, and automatically tag files and tasks for better organization and searchability. For example, uploading “Blueprint_ProjectX_2024.pdf” automatically tags it with "Blueprint," "Project X," and "2024." Additionally, a task labeled “Prepare RFI by Friday” could be tagged with "RFI" and "Deadline: Friday."

Learn how AEC leaders are improving their workflows with zipBoard and start your free trial today!