How Restoration Management Software Can Help Automate Your Production Workflow

Streamlining business processes is, at its very essence, about reducing duplication. Technology can help mitigate this duplication, especially when managing workflow. Management software lets companies map out their workflows visually, so stakeholders can see all the steps in completing a task. By automating workflow, the management of these tasks can be made more efficient, decreasing the time it takes to complete them while improving the efficiency of the entire operation. For those in the restoration industry, automating workflow management is one of the easiest ways to improve a company’s efficiency.  

How to Streamline Workflow Management

Workflow management software helps improve business processes by automating monotonous and labor-intensive tasks. Automation allows businesses to augment productivity, improve efficiency and lower the chance of human error. For restoration contractors that must often juggle various duties throughout the workday, software that helps manage workflows is a game changer.

Workflow management software can help restoration contractors manage:

• Competition between contractors bidding for the same projects allows them to stand out by offering superior services.
• Costs for equipment, labor and materials.
• Demand can be tracked and operations scaled according to market needs, enabling overall and seasonal adjustments. 
• Industry changes, including the increasing use of technology necessary to stay competitive.

By using automated reporting and integrating various software tools on a single platform, contractors can better track their projects, speeding up a restoration team’s progress on jobs, and get paid faster.

Benefits of Automated Workflow Management

Analyzing Data 

Businesses that base their decision-making on data can better optimize their time and resources. Automating workflow management allows contractors to quickly collect and analyze huge amounts of data. This enables them to identify bottlenecks and make decisions based on insights produced by this data. For example, a contractor can use data collected at a worksite to create a digital moisture map while still in the field. Being able to perform such tasks from anywhere means not having to return to the office, improving overall productivity.

Decreasing the Number of Manual Tasks

In the not-so-distant past, a renovation contractor’s job involved manual work, even without ever picking up a hammer. Insurance companies required reams of paperwork that included work authorizations to ensure contractors get paid, while estimates were also printed on paper. These days, workflow management tools allow contractors to easily digitize such documents and photos from job sites to reduce workload and augment efficiency. 

Helping with Employee Management 

For contractors, knowing where teams (and their equipment) are in real-time is helpful when streamlining workflow. Cloud-based management software can help contractors to create work orders, generate reports, schedule jobs, and track materials from in the field or anywhere there’s an Internet connection. Workflow management software also allows restoration business owners to better evaluate the performance of project managers and other employees, identifying any issues that may impact worker productivity to enable quick resolutions.   

Reducing Mistakes

For each one hundred words typed, the average typist makes eight mistakes, an accuracy rating of 92 percent. When applied to data entry, this can lead to clerical errors, making data management headaches and adding doubt to the integrity of the recorded data. Automating workflow management helps reduce these kinds of human errors. Whether flagging errors in a financial report or maintaining regulatory compliance, automated workflow management systems help reduce the administrative burden for restoration contractors.

Optimizing Efficiency

Automating workflow management can optimize the efficiency of a restoration company in multiple ways. Just enabling access to digital documentation tools from a central location will help team members communicate with each other, reduce errors and save time. Digitizing documents on a cloud-based workflow management platform also ensures that documents won’t get lost and will be stored securely.

Workflow management software allows contractors to better:

• Generate reports to identify possible areas of improvement.
• Improve collaboration and communications between team members, insurance representatives, clients and other stakeholders.
• Keep up to date with projects with real-time updates.
• Make decisions and recommendations based on data.
• Manage all tasks from a centralized platform, including communications and documentation.
• Screen applicants during the hiring process.
• Share and store documents digitally.
• Supervise and prioritize projects based on the availability of resources and the need for urgency.
• Track accounts, budgets, job costings, timelines and other relevant project information.

With all these advantages, teams can concentrate on the task at hand to improve productivity and complete projects more quickly.

Integrated Workflow Management

When short-term goals aren’t tied to longer-term goals, information silos can develop in a business. When this happens to a restoration contractor, it can negatively affect workflow. Management of these separate silos also hampers communication between team members and other stakeholders, as information from one team member may not be readily available to the next. Any project manager will tell you that communicating with others on a project helps teams meet deadlines and milestones, so connecting emails, phone calls, text messages and other communications will help projects run more smoothly.

Integrating workflow management software into a restoration company’s system can help streamline operations within a contractor’s existing systems. Integrating a contractor’s processes with restoration management software helps eliminate information silos, allowing important information to be shared more easily.

Choosing the Best Workflow Management Software

For restoration contractors, the best workflow management software should come from someone who understands the industry. Albi is such a platform– whose makers have substantial experience and know the restoration industry intimately. To learn more about Albi and how it can benefit your restoration business, book a demo today.