How digital workflows simplify collaboration in real estate

Automation isn’t about taking responsibility away from those involved in projects or replacing them with technology. It’s about giving them their focus back, writes Sarah Geiger of Alasco.

Standardised, digital workflows in modern software like Alasco free up project participants by automating lots of traditionally manual tasks. This lets them concentrate on what’s important: their contribution to the project’s success.

What are workflows?

This question, and what impact digital workflows can have on collaboration, efficiency and safety in construction and real estate projects, is now in focus.

Workflows are standardised sequences of steps required to achieve a specific goal. They define how work flows. For example, who does what, when and how, and who handles the next step. The goal is to achieve the greatest possible efficiency.

Digital workflows: 4 benefits for construction and real estate companies

1. Simplified collaboration and communication

Digital software can assign tasks to the appropriate people and prioritise them by urgency. As soon as a task is completed, the next person in the process is notified automatically.

Worried about invoices or supplements being missed if someone’s on holiday or off sick? Digital systems can store substitutes in the workflow too, so essential steps are always covered. Because all project participants work in a single system and update information with a quick comment, time-consuming and potentially misleading agreements that are made via email become a thing of the past.

2. Increased productivity and significant time savings

Who actually releases the invoice when Brian’s on holiday? And where’s the stamp, again? With digital workflows, you no longer need to ask these questions.

Firstly, tasks are automatically passed on to the person responsible. Secondly, every step in the process is digitised, including your invoice verification stamp.

Alasco customers reported that they now release invoices three times faster than they did previously, showing that digital workflows provide significant time savings by automating slow manual tasks.

3. Transparent and traceable steps

Pre-defined, standardised workflows ensure that every step in the process is 100% transparent and traceable.

As well as keeping your projects on track more efficiently, this reduces the training period required for new employees. When tasks are passed on automatically and every procedural step is transparent, new starters can get to grips with them much more quickly and carry out tasks efficiently and safely.

Digital workflows in modern software like Alasco ensure traceability by making it easy to check the change history at any time.

4. Less potential for error

Automated workflows help all project stakeholders reduce risks, errors and delays by providing structure and clarity. Stakeholders always have a clear understanding of how and when to complete tasks, and what standards they must meet. This is how digital software prevents misunderstandings and simplifies collaboration between everyone involved in a project.

• Sarah Geiger is director of UK at Alasco