Change is inevitable in construction. In fact, over 35% of projects on average have at least one major change, according to the Independent Project Analysis group. And considering that change orders can account for 8-14% of all capital construction dollars on a project, correctly managing the process is essential to delivering a project within budget.
Still, disjointed cost control processes often lead to inefficiencies and errors, further eating into a project’s profits. To ensure consistency, it’s critical that processes for contractually binding documents follow appropriate internal reviews and approvals, before being sent to external parties.
Thankfully, Autodesk Construction Cloud brings custom approval workflows to Cost Management, allowing for consistency and transparency of company-defined processes across projects. With this release for Autodesk Build and BIM 360 Cost Management, teams can now utilize a decision-based workflow engine to automate the approval routing of Owner Change Orders (OCO), Supplier Change Orders (SCO), and Contracts based on specific conditions like value and type.
Approval workflows can consist of a single-step or multi-step group review process, and the assigned reviewers can either be a specific user, role (e.g., Project Executive), or company. For group reviews, easily set a minimum number of reviewers to reduce bottlenecks. How you choose to assign reviewers will depend on your company's processes.
As an item progresses through a workflow, reviewers will be alerted by email when their action is needed. Within the system, the workflow bar automatically updates the item's status, ball-in-court, and due date to increase transparency and keep the review process on track. The final reviewer submits the item to the external recipient for signature. Throughout the approval workflow, all activity is captured in the activity log for reference later.
This capability exemplifies how Autodesk Construction Cloud’s enterprise-grade construction cost control solution is flexible yet controlled. Watch our video below to see this feature in action:
In addition to our new feature for Cost Management, this week we announced 50 new updates for Autodesk Construction Cloud products. Take a look at our blog to learn more. You can also subscribe to our blog to learn more about the latest product news and updates.
