Why construction planners are drowning in admin (and how to fix it)
Construction planners should be the strategic powerhouse of project delivery, creating robust programmes of work, mitigating risk and effectively allocating resources. Yet the reality for most planners is starkly different.
Despite advances in construction tools and processes, many planners find themselves spending countless hours on administrative tasks rather than applying their expertise where it matters most.
The disconnect between planners’ potential value and their day-to-day workload is a significant challenge for construction companies. When skilled professionals spend more time managing paperwork than optimising project delivery, efficiency and profitability suffer.
Admin: a planner’s daily burden
For many planners, the daily grind is relentless, updating multiple programme versions, manually compiling progress reports, responding to constant update requests and reconciling information from different teams. They often find themselves drowning in a sea of documents and fragmented communications.
The root cause for this is lack of consistency. When each project follows its own process, planners are reinventing the wheel for every single programme.
Without standardised processes, maintaining visibility across multiple projects becomes a herculean task. Planners spend valuable hours hunting down the latest updates, cross-referencing information from different sources and manually producing reports for stakeholders.
The pressure to keep everyone informed – from site teams to board members – creates a weighty admin burden that eats away at strategic planning time. As a result, planners can spend more time updating programmes than optimising them.
Convert admin time into action points
Rather than putting up with inefficient processes, smart planners are using construction planning and management software to dramatically reduce their administrative burden.
Let’s look at how two major construction companies have transformed their planning processes to reduce clerical work and increase their strategic focus.
GMI Construction Group: from monthly reports to real-time excellence
GMI Construction Group’s journey demonstrates the remarkable impact of using cutting-edge construction software to make planning improvements.
Managing over 30 live construction sites with 250+ employees, GMI faced significant challenges in maintaining accurate programme visibility across its operations. Planners struggled with fragmented data spread across multiple systems and spreadsheets, with no consistent structure for reporting.
The administrative burden was so significant that reports could only be produced monthly, creating a perpetual lag in decision-making capabilities.
The transformation since implementing industry-specific construction planning software has been remarkable.
GMI selected Asta Vision to centralise its digital planning environment. As Senior Planner Daniel Taylor explains: “we can track revisions and updates on the server and access files in real time. All new team members can access a template to get standardisation across the business.”
Instead of spending hours compiling reports, GMI’s planners now have instant access to live programme data, which enables them to:
- Quickly identify the source of any setbacks
- Take targeted action before delays escalate
- Maintain consistent standards across all projects
- Focus on strategic optimisation
VINCI Construction UK: digital transformation in action
VINCI Construction UK’s Building Division faced similar challenges when managing 25-30 concurrent live projects and planning up to 100 preconstruction and tender projects across nine UK offices.
The company’s journey to reducing the administrative burden began with its ‘Digital by Desire’ programme, aimed at embracing the opportunities of digital technology.
VINCI recognised that its planning function needed a significant overhaul – and Asta Vision delivered it. As Steven Tideswell, Head of Business Excellence at VINCI, notes:
“we have pre-coded, pre-costed and pre-resourced activities, and that frees planners’ time to use their knowledge and skill to optimise programmes instead of build them.”
This upgrade has delivered multiple benefits for VINCI’s planners, including:
- Standardised programming templates to ensure consistency across all projects
- Task pools that eliminate the need to repeatedly build common activities from scratch
- Automated workflows that reduce administrative overhead
- Improved governance controls to maintain quality without increasing the admin burden
- Enhanced data connectivity for real-time reporting without manual intervention
Previously, VINCI’s planners spent considerable time managing inconsistent filing systems and searching for the latest programme versions. Now, they can focus on valuable planning activities that drive project success.
Asta Vision: increasing the power of construction planning
For senior planners looking to break free from endless admin, Asta Vision offers a comprehensive platform for construction planning and project management.
Its integrated reporting capabilities don’t just save time – they transform how planners interact with stakeholders by delivering seamless, real-time project information that enables informed decision-making.
Asta Vision’s workflow automation ensures accurate, secure data sharing, providing complete visibility and control over construction projects. And by leveraging cloud technology, Asta Vision enables multiple planners and other project stakeholders to work on programmes simultaneously, eliminating siloed work and the administrative overhead it creates.
The impact on planning efficiency is significant, as Derek O’Neil, Head of Planning at Careys Civil Engineering, confirms: “with Asta Vision we have a common tool to help guide everyone towards using good planning principles and processes. It helps planners to focus on the day job and not be distracted by lengthy reporting processes.”
Time to transform your planning process
If you’re a planner, you’re faced with two choices: continue struggling with administrative burdens that limit your impact, or embrace construction planning and management software to focus on strategic success.
Asta Vision offers the opportunity to transform how you work, enabling you to spend less time on admin and more time on valuable planning activities that drive progress.
Ready to enhance your planning capabilities? Book your Asta Vision demo today to break free from administrative constraints.