RedSky launches Project Connect project collaboration platform
RedSky, a UK construction software company, is launching Project Connect, a user-friendly and cost-effective cloud-based solution. It enables project stakeholders to collaborate efficiently and share information to deliver jobs on time, to scope and budget by relying on a single source of ‘information truth’. Project Connect is the latest solution from a stable of connected cloud applications designed to help construction firms achieve and maintain their competitive edge even in the most challenging market conditions.
Straightforward to implement for a single project, or across multiple projects, the application offers contractors an easy-to-use and low-cost entry to project collaboration for building and infrastructure projects. To mark the launch of Project Connect, RedSky is offering customers a 75% discount on software license fees after the first year. That cuts the total cost of ownership by up to 60% compared to competing solutions, the company says.
Solutions from RedSky, part of the international JDM Technology Group, are used by over 1000 companies, many of which are long-term users of its construction business and project financial
control applications. Managing Director, Phil Kent, says Project Connect complements RedSky’s core software technologies that enable construction firms to connect project sites to the office, and
to the back-office:
“Built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, RedSky Project Connect offers an affordable, light-touch way for companies to integrate key business management applications with information from ongoing projects, sharing best practice and avoiding ‘double-handling’ of data.”
“We have a proven track record of supporting finance and commercial leaders in construction. Now, we can help even more project teams with our standalone project solution offering single or multiple projects, document and process management tools, including powerful forms captured on mobile and actionable insight for compliance purposes. We hope that project teams will reduce time and costs by replicating best practice across their entire project portfolio and reap the often small but incremental and cumulative gains from digital transformation. ”
Intuitive functionality
The browser-based Project Connect system has been designed to resemble familiar Microsoft interfaces, making it simple to adopt and use via desktop computers, tablets and smartphones. Project users can upload information so that it is visible to and accessible by other team members, with dashboard views highlighting items that need user attention.
Documents and drawings can be opened, annotated and redlined, with all changes tracked. Project Connect can also be used to replicate any paper- or spreadsheet-based forms or templates. Fields can quickly be configured to help end-users capture site data which can then be reported and summarised by the platform’s reporting tools.
Brendan Magill, Product Manager, adds: “Many construction businesses suffer from weak project controls, which increases project risk. With Project Connect, RedSky customers can connect line-of-business systems to live projects, helping them to surface key information more quickly. We have focused on getting the fundamentals right. As a buyer of project information management systems in the past, I know that users find some software complex and clunky. We are confident that our functionality for project managers works really well, and are particularly proud of our Forms capability that allows users to digitise any paper-based form, capture data and report on it.”
Lower-cost collaboration
RedSky’s Commercial Director, Mohammad Daudi says: “We believe many small to mid-sized contractors are deterred by complex ‘Common Data Environment’ (CDE) platforms, and by pricing models based upon fixed percentages of the customer’s turnover or upon percentages of project capital values. Project Connect allows all system users, including supply chain users, to access any number of projects for a fixed monthly fee which, after 12 months, will be significantly reduced, rewarding continued use.”
RedSky says Year 2 costs for Project Connect will be 25% of those in the first year, helping customers achieve up to 60% total cost of ownership savings against competing solutions, while also encouraging use across all of a company’s projects.
