Industry Success: The Construction & Engineering Sector

Construction and Engineering organizations often provide professional services that include management of project schedules, costs, quality, safety, and other important functions. This growing sector has recognized the need for collaboration and communications solutions such as SharePoint and Office 365, with Construction Managers (CMs) and their stakeholders leveraging these tools to help them better manage multiple capital projects in parallel, and with the extranet playing a central role in their management solution.

Within each Construction and Engineering organization, the CM provides oversight of the entire project, working with all stakeholders to determine the sequence of construction operations and deliver projects on time, within budget, and meeting all requirements, scope, and quality standards. To accomplish this, the CM may need to regularly coordinate between the capital project owner who funds the project, the architect and engineers who design the project, and the general contractor who manages the day-to-day activities and operations, including management of the various sub-contractors working on the project. Additionally, there are many different associations, government bodies, and clients involved at various stages of a project, all of which can add complexity to the process.

Professional CMs use industry-standard practices to manage projects successfully. External collaboration and communication is key to managing this complexity, and Extranet User Manger has been successful in alleviating many of the management issues surrounding external users within the Construction and Engineering sector.

Some of the common concerns that Extranet User Manager helps address include: 

• Varied technology and IT skills among organizations and sub-contractors
• Changing scope and unrealistic expectations
• Poor communication among project team members
• Need for real-time data and collaboration to avoid project overruns

In one of our industry case studies, we highlight how Associated Engineering (www.ae.ca) is leveraging Extranet User Manager and Microsoft Azure AD B2B to provide a powerful solution for inviting external partners into Office 365 groups and SharePoint Online sites. Associated Engineering is an award-winning Canadian consulting firm providing services in planning, engineering, environmental science, landscape architecture, project management, and asset management.

Working with AE, Extranet User Manager provided a highly available and scalable solution on the Office 365 platform, utilizing SharePoint Online.  A site request form, automated provisioning (including automation of EUM), and a projects landing page were delivered as part of the solution, providing AE with greater visibility and operational control over their capital projects. You can read more details about their project sites and provisioning on our website.

Extranet User Manager is a cost-effective, standalone business solution that can support authentication, self-registration, and delegated administration, making it an essential tool to leverage all of the capabilities of SharePoint and Office 365 when collaborating with external stakeholders.

For Construction and Engineering organizations looking to improve their external communication and collaboration capabilities, be sure to review our in-depth case studies about how Extranet User Manger helps create better experiences for the sector. Find out more on the EUM Construction and Engineering Industry Success site, or test drive our solutions today.