Corporations tend to think that a SharePoint intranet solution is only necessary for companies with desk jobs. And because of this, some engineering and construction companies might see an intranet for engineers as an unnecessary investment. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
An Intranet for Construction and Engineering Professionals
Intranets allow companies to build a private and secure communication network for sole use by employees. An in-a-box solution provides a range of features with quick implementation. A SharePoint intranet in-a-box is one of the most common intranet solutions for the construction industry and is part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Why Should Engineering and Construction Professionals Embrace an Intranet?
Foundational work in engineering and construction begins in the office. This might include budgeting, designing, organizing, and collaborating. Professionals across several disciplines also need to work together to accomplish similar goals. This requires accessing the same information.
Engineers and construction workers can also enjoy the following functions:
- Documenting compliance
- Tracking acknowledgments
- Providing training materials
- Sharing construction policies
To add to this, administrative departments need access to specific data to complete their job functions. For example, the payroll department needs to see how many hours someone puts in per project, and accounting needs to see budgets for each project.
Benefits of Intranet Software for Construction and Engineering Companies
There are many benefits of intranet for construction and engineering companies. Above all, though, businesses that make use of such software become more competitive in a complex environment where supply chain issues impact every industry.
Generally, the first elements of engineering and construction take place in the office. For instance, engineering projects start with designing, collaborating, budgeting, and delegating tasks. As such, the use of intranet software for construction and engineering companies becomes integral.
There are also numerous helpful features that an intranet includes, such as the ability to share construction guidelines, track compliance, and supply training documents and programs.
Other benefits of intranet for construction and engineering companies include the following:
- Greater productivity
- Enhanced management processes
- Improved training and workplace safety services
- Access to remote collaboration tools among multiple teams
- A directory with contact information for your company’s employees
- The ability to draw revisions and document construction details
If your organization has access to the intranet, you’ll find fewer errors and a more streamlined system that saves time when handling document creation.
In other words, you’ll maintain greater productivity across your teams as you provide access to document management for all employees. You’ll have a platform for training information and a better management process in place to ensure your company remains compliant and follows all key regulations. Most importantly, by having a centralized intranet system, you’ll meet occupational health and safety regulations.
Thus, you can make sure your workers receive the proper training and use the correct equipment. You can complete standard risk assessments regularly and keep track of the information you gather via your intranet.
Employees will also have access to detailed incident reports, and even if your entire team of engineers is located remotely, the intranet provides an excellent way to connect everyone via its collaboration tools.
Further, still, an intranet directory like hubley’s StaffHub will collect and store the contact information of every employee at your company. You can search for individuals by their name, team, skills, role, office, or department. The contact info on file will include employee phone numbers, headshots, email addresses, and even activity status on Microsoft Teams.
Another vital benefit includes engineers and architects having the ability to revisit and revise their designs, drawings, or diagrams. The system also keeps track of changes made across a team. These advantages show exactly why engineers should leverage the intranet for construction.
How to Leverage Intranet Software for Construction Companies
There are four key ways for companies to leverage the intranet for construction solutions. These include the following strategies:
- Using central document management and advanced information search
- Boosting collaboration among multiple teams at different locations
- Improved management of health and safety training sessions
- Streamlined communications and connections across remote teams
Your company will see much greater employee productivity, and you will remain compliant with industry practices due to better health and safety training management. Follow these four key ways to leverage the intranet for construction companies.
What Are the Advantages of Choosing a SharePoint Intranet Solution?
While a SharePoint intranet in-a-box is not the only solution available, it is one of the best and most flexible options. At hubley, we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. As needed, we can make recommendations for you and your team’s specific workflows and needs. Consider the following perks:
Reduced Distractions
Employees with internet access are at risk of distraction. An intranet creates an ecosystem with company links and without distractions so that connected employees work in a productive environment.
Ease of Communication
It is vital for any organization with staff working out of the office to have an accessible and reliable line of communication to reach team members in the field and vice versa. hubley’s intranet can be accessed and interacted with from any device in any location. With customization functionality and a plethora of features, you can add a touch of personalization at every level to keep team engagement high.
Companies that invest in a solid social intranet setup create a network where workers can engage with each other, the company brand, and the company mission. Features like Microsoft Teams chats, newsletters, and built-in apps are the tip of the iceberg.
Effective Teamwork
When your whole project team has access to the same necessary information, team members feel more connected to the company and their coworkers. Intranets provide teams with a forum to help staff communicate more effectively. Despite not being in the same location, construction crews can simultaneously access company communications, project updates, and contact team leads.
Document Management
File management remains a primary concern of businesses, whether they organize these digitally or physically. An intranet makes it easy to create one file system and access point that everyone understands. It also significantly improves searchability. Digital files containing confidential blueprints, budget breakdowns, and project proposals can all be securely stored and accessed for collaboration on your SharePoint intranet.
hubley’s Endless Social Intranet Features
hubley is revolutionizing the capabilities of an intranet with regular enhancement and new apps and features. These are some of the features you can access with hubley’s intranet solution.
- Videos: Videos are proven to be a far more effective way to not only communicate with people but to engage them. Informative and entertaining video content enriches your intranet ecosystem.
- Alerts: Keep your crew up to date on project and timeline changes and weather advisories that can lead to project delays with push notifications.
- FAQs: Providing frequently asked questions and their answers reduces the need to reach out to management, HR, and other departments for answers.
- Document Enhancements: Tag support documents to improve filtering, searchability, and visual presentation.
- Quick Link Enhancements: Display quick links as a list or in the classic box style.
- Corporate Communications: hubley’s intranet platform provides a place to access corporate news.
- Employee Engagement: The Teams integration provides a greater collaboration platform to boost engagement among your staff.
- Integrations: With trusted APIs, hubley can help you connect to human resource information systems, project management tools, business intelligence and data analytics tools, customer relationship management databases, and e-commerce platforms. Make your life easier with endless integrations.
- Management: The intranet allows employees to filter and search for policy documents with a central access point.
- IdeaHub: The platform here allows users to submit innovative ideas for improvements.
- EventHub: This feature allows users to plan out meetings for construction projects.
hubley provides essential SharePoint features along with hubley innovation and bespoke apps to improve collaborations and connect employees at your workplace, including engineers, designers, and construction workers. With these intranet features, you’ll have access to management documents, training systems, informative videos, and FAQs.
Intranet Solution Built with Field Crews in Mind
You can improve your engineering or construction teams’ organization and collaboration capabilities with a modern intranet solution. Use hubley to build an intranet that achieves this goal and more. Request a demo today!
