InEight has announced its next instalment of software innovations for the construction sector. This includes automated earned value management (EVM) metrics to accurately track project progress, real-time data to improve oversight across project lifecycles, and accurate predictive scheduling.
In the wake of COVID-19 related supply chain disruption and skills shortages, the latest releases from InEight harness automation and smart data to help capital project owners and contractors anticipate and avert delays or budget overruns, the company states.
Automated, auditable EVM metrics will accurately track real-time progress across two core project constraints - cost and schedule, to support transparent, agile construction, according to InEight.
Augmented intelligence tools and a knowledge library will drive accurate project schedules, while additional enhancements are designed to make it easier for customers to bring their program and project data together, bringing more control and operational confidence to project stakeholders.
InEight chief product officer Brad Barth says, “COVID-19 affected delivery times and costs for raw materials. Combined with skills shortages, this has fast-forwarded the digitalisation of construction as the industry seeks greater transparency and control over costs and schedules.
He continues, "These technologies can reduce delays and budget overruns by allowing projects to accurately benchmark progress against plans, expedite deliveries from material vendors, analyse project performance in real-time and adjust schedules based on robust forecasting.
"Smart data and automation will enable project owners to adjust to rapid fluctuations in costs and risks caused by supply chain disruption and skills shortages. Crucially, we are opening up the murky black box metrics behind EVM through auditable and traceable metrics that accurately map project progress against plans."
Alongside this release, InEight has also formed a strategic agreement with Felix Group Holdings Ltd, a global company operating a cloud-based enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) procurement management platform and vendor marketplace.
This agreement will further enhance InEight's project management capabilities for project owners and contractors across planning, construction and turnover phases, the company states.
Felix's platform adds comprehensive procurement and vendor management capabilities to InEight's project controls platform which enable stakeholders a deeper supply chain understanding by leveraging up to date vendor insights during the estimating process.
The integration will provide a single source of truth for vendor libraries, reducing administration costs and time on manual updates.
Felix co-founder and CEO Mike Davis commented on the agreement with InEight. He says, “Our technologies are highly complementary and this new significant agreement with InEight is a great endorsement of our best of breed vendor management and procurement technology platform which will allow InEight customers to reduce their risk when it comes to supply chain management. We both share a deep value for productivity and making life easier for project teams essentially helping them build a better way.