For Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) project managers, software can mean the difference between success and failure. Having the right tools is always important, and for EPC software that is especially true.
Before digging into the nuances of EPC project management software, let’s quickly review what an EPC project manager does, and the key features they should be looking for in their core software solutions.
What is an EPC project manager?
In Engineering, Procurement, and Construction, a project manager is the person who keeps a project and task on track and on budget. According to the Project Management Institute, an EPC project manager is in charge of overseeing
- The “engineering and construction labor and expense costs”
- The “equipment and materials quantities (e.g., concrete, steel, and process equipment)
- Minimizing “the constructed or installed cost, including engineering.”
To accomplish these tasks, the EPC project manager will need to
- Track projects
- Track progress on each part of a project
- Maintain visibility into the work of small teams collaborating on the project
- Assign tasks
- Practice expert resource management
- Oversee budgets, cash flow, and expenditures
- Schedule crews
- Manage documents
- Communicate with all stakeholders
As we said at the start, this is a huge task, and EPC software can play a crucial role in it.
What is EPC Project Management software?
EPC project management software is designed to help the project manager juggle all of these tasks. The specific tools that a project manager uses will vary based on the type of EPC project, the reporting and management demands involved, and even the personal preferences of the project manager. Some will opt for an EPC-specific tool, others for a more general construction project management tool, and others for a combination of several softwares.
Here are 4 essential EPC software options to consider and implement to help make life easier on your job site.
Bluebeam
When it comes to issue tracking and EPC project management software, Bluebeam is a very popular choice. “Over 2 million professionals worldwide,” including scores of EPC project managers, turn to Bluebeam to “to finish projects faster, reduce risk, and maximize ROI.”
A few of Bluebeam’s key features include:
- Desktop and cloud collaboration solutions that “are built on open standards, so you can seamlessly access documents and data on any web or iOS device, onsite or off.”
- Bluebeam Revu, which is a “powerful, highly customizable document management, markup, and automation tool with a built-in collaboration space, Studio.”
- A cloud-based “suite of web and mobile solutions that seamlessly connects with your documents and toolsets in Revu.”
CloudEPC
Cloud EPC is a project management software built specifically for EPC project managers. As such it features a wealth of options that meet the specific duties we discussed above. They feature a range of EPC tools for the most complex projects. These include tools for
- Cost management
- Change management
- Progress measurement
- Enterprise analytics
- Project reporting
- Safety tracking
Monday.com
Monday.com’s intuitive and user-friendly construction management software features a series of excellent organization tools. ProjectManagement.com explains Monday’s strengths, saying:
“Monday.com is an effective way to manage construction projects, time, and people. Keep a clear view of all activities and communications and show real-time progress across your projects. Using a timeline that provides an overview of project progression synced in real-time, easily track the execution of the plan.
Simplicity is key to keeping your people focused, in sync with all activities, and providing accountability through easy-to-use tools that remove the complexity. Monday.com scales to fit any project or number of projects that you may have and can customize to your workflow. Provide a new way to manage and collaborate in your construction projects.”
With features including a highly visual kanban board, project managers can balance even the most complex task lists with a drag-and-drop workflow feature.
JP Interactive Viewer
No list of construction project management tools would be complete without our JP Interactive Viewer. As we’ve discussed elsewhere in our blog, the JP Interactive Viewer allows project managers to “integrate management software systems and databases, asset information, and operational data to bring value to point clouds and BIM data. It centralizes all your infrastructures in one, easy-to-use digital platform.”
There are many things that the JP Interactive Viewer does well. These include:
- Virtual Inspections: Perform visual inspections anytime, anywhere, with just an internet connection and a web browser.
- Design and Planning of Modifications: Overlay and visualize new components with BIM models, Point Clouds, and 360 images.
- 3D Data Management: Visualize, manage, and share your project with your stakeholders in a single platform. This is a core feature of ours.
- Dynamic Collaboration: Leverage collaborative features, like the annotation tool, to improve communication flow among stakeholders.
- Project Information Integration: Host all relevant project information and 3D data in the same platform, resulting in a single source of truth.
While all of these tools may be useful to an EPC project manager, the last three represent solutions for many of the project manager’s most essential tasks.
In the field of engineering, JP Interactive Viewer allows you to:
- Collaborate and communicate essential design project details with others.
- Keep track of all versions of Point Cloud files and/or BIM models.
- Perform remote QA/QC as part of the monitoring and control activities of the project.
- Keep your engineering documentation updated as well as track progress with physical contextualization.
- Review and revalidate P&IDs digitally.
While the JP Interactive Viewer is already integrated with a number of third-party systems, our team is happy to help you to develop additional integrations wherever possible.
As you can see, the JP Interactive Viewer is an excellent EPC project management software. We’d like to tell you more about how it can help make your job easier.
Are you an EPC manager or know one? Tell them to try this out!
