Construction Contract Administration

This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Practice Management Member Conversations and Construction Contract Administration .
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We are punchlisting a project in the very near future, and are interested in using a smartphone or tablet.

What kind of systems do you or your practice employ to make this process more streamlined?  

Are there any good applications to use?

Thank you,

Brad

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Bradford Prestbo AIA
Project Architect
Sasaki Associates, Inc.
Watertown MA
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You might take a look at Evernote. It is an amazingly versatile program for creating, storing, and finding notes. There are apps for iPad and iPhone, and for other tablets and phones as well, I believe. You could create a "form" for punchlists (and periodic site visits as well), and simply record everything into the form as you go. For a very small investment you can buy the "premium" version which would allow you to "share" the notebook into which you put your punchlist notes with others, both in and out of your organization. Or you can simply print the punchlist and distribute it as paper or a PDF. The basic program is free, and has both an internet and desktop version that stay synchronized with each other.

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Scott Lyford
Mills Shirley
San Antonio TX
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Show Original Message -------------------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 03-01-2012 18:16
From: Bradford Prestbo
Subject: Punch List

This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Practice Management Member Conversations and Construction Contract Administration .
-------------------------------------------

We are punchlisting a project in the very near future, and are interested in using a smartphone or tablet.

What kind of systems do you or your practice employ to make this process more streamlined?  

Are there any good applications to use?

Thank you,

Brad

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Bradford Prestbo AIA
Project Architect
Sasaki Associates, Inc.
Watertown MA
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I suggest you look at DocumentsToGo. It's the one app that I felt was worth the cost.

You can edit Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and sync them back and forth with your laptops/PCs. I've been using it for some time now, dating back to the original iPhone I have. I now use it on my iPad.

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Alan Itzkowitz AIA CSI
Specifications Consultant
ABI Specifications Consulting
Buffalo Grove IL
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Show Original Message -------------------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 03-02-2012 12:29
From: Scott Lyford
Subject: Punch List

You might take a look at Evernote. It is an amazingly versatile program for creating, storing, and finding notes. There are apps for iPad and iPhone, and for other tablets and phones as well, I believe. You could create a "form" for punchlists (and periodic site visits as well), and simply record everything into the form as you go. For a very small investment you can buy the "premium" version which would allow you to "share" the notebook into which you put your punchlist notes with others, both in and out of your organization. Or you can simply print the punchlist and distribute it as paper or a PDF. The basic program is free, and has both an internet and desktop version that stay synchronized with each other.

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Scott Lyford
Mills Shirley
San Antonio TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-01-2012 18:16
From: Bradford Prestbo
Subject: Punch List

This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Practice Management Member Conversations and Construction Contract Administration .
-------------------------------------------

We are punchlisting a project in the very near future, and are interested in using a smartphone or tablet.

What kind of systems do you or your practice employ to make this process more streamlined?  

Are there any good applications to use?

Thank you,

Brad

-------------------------------------------
Bradford Prestbo AIA
Project Architect
Sasaki Associates, Inc.
Watertown MA
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Hi Brad,
I wanted to do something like this, also for home inspections on a tablet and I wanted to run my own Excel template software that I wrote on a tablet.  No one, to my knowledge, at this time, can run Excel on a tablet.  There evidently is a program for tablets called "Numbers" that works, that is supposed to be perhaps a lightweight spreadsheet for tablets.  But, at this time, I do not think it is entirely compatible with Excel, although you might be able to run a "Numbers" spreadsheet on a tablet, then perhaps import it into Excel.  But before you buy, I would bring a laptop into Best Buy or wherever you are purchasing your tablets and also bring a 2 to 8GB flash drive with your Excel or Word inspection list on it, then plug that into the tablet to see if the tablet can run your checklist.  Then, edit your list on the laptop (if it will run it), save it, then copy back to the flash drive, in whatever format the tablet can produce, then plug the flash drive into your laptop and see if Excel or Word can open it.  Do that before buying, as you and the salespeople of the tablet really won't know for sure until you try it.  I hope this works for you.  I have been told that not until Windows 8 will tablets be able to run Excel (but who knows for sure, until you try it).  Let me know what happens; I'd like to be able to do the same thing!  Good  luck.

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Rand Soellner AIA
Architect/Owner/Principal
Rand Soellner Architect
Cashiers NC
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Show Original Message -------------------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 03-01-2012 18:16
From: Bradford Prestbo
Subject: Punch List

This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Practice Management Member Conversations and Construction Contract Administration .
-------------------------------------------

We are punchlisting a project in the very near future, and are interested in using a smartphone or tablet.

What kind of systems do you or your practice employ to make this process more streamlined?  

Are there any good applications to use?

Thank you,

Brad

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Bradford Prestbo AIA
Project Architect
Sasaki Associates, Inc.
Watertown MA
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Bradford,
Our firm is nearing completion on the final punch of a 740,000 sf hospital project.
The whole notion of generating a punchlist the 'old fashoined' way was daunting to say the least.
In collaboration with the construction managers, we employed the use multiple tablet pc's that were sync'd up
after every session to a web-based tracking program that goes by the name, FinishLine.

Upon establishing select menu of pull down categories of work, additional activity items were pre-linked to related action oriented tasks and the trade contractors that would most likely need to be involved in completed them.
Each of these entry fields can also be revised or modified as needed as well as augmented with additional comments, if necessary. The FinishLine program has a very intuitive interface that allows users to easily import and annotate photos, too.

The key driver however, involved importing all of the different plan views (from cadd or pdf files) we felt would be needed for our use to post comments. A unexpected benefit of doing this was the creation of a readily accessible project map that could be accessed and utilized by various stakeholders to use to review, comment and generate reports for their very own specific needs. So, what started out to be our primary tool for just identfying punchlist deficiencies also became a very dynamic tool for identfying and tracking a whole assortment of other project tasks (inspections, equipment locations, etc), due to the FinishLine programs ability track items under separate modules. 

Check it out, I think you will be impressed. It has served us well.
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Gregory Schneekluth AIA
CO Architects
Los Angeles CA
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Show Original Message -------------------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 03-01-2012 18:16
From: Bradford Prestbo
Subject: Punch List

This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Practice Management Member Conversations and Construction Contract Administration .
-------------------------------------------

We are punchlisting a project in the very near future, and are interested in using a smartphone or tablet.

What kind of systems do you or your practice employ to make this process more streamlined?  

Are there any good applications to use?

Thank you,

Brad

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Bradford Prestbo AIA
Project Architect
Sasaki Associates, Inc.
Watertown MA
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