The Contractor's Compass November 2016

THE

ASA’s

THE OFFICIAL EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SUBCONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION

WWW.ASAONLINE.COM Technology: The Key to Handling the Increased Administrative Requirements Associated with Subcontracts

Documentation That Makes Your Company Money— Daily Reports

Work Smarter, Not Harder with GPS Tracking

Why Small Businesses Should Use GPS Tracking

Augmented and Virtual Reality in Construction: How Using an App to Help Visualize a Project Can Save Time and Money

Mobile Technology:

Optimizations to Productivity Measurement and Field Data

5 Tips for Successful Certified Payroll Reporting

Is Your LED Retrofit Safe?

Legally Speaking: Beware of Inadvertent Disclosure of Electronic Information

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March 15-18, 2017 Denver, Colorado

NOVEMBER 2016

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THE

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November 2016

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EDITORIAL PURPOSE The Contractor’s Compass is the monthly educational journal of the Foundation of the American Subcontractors Association, Inc. (FASA) and part of FASA’s Contractors’ Knowledge Network. The journal is designed to equip construction subcontractors with the ideas, tools and tactics they need to thrive.

The views expressed by contributors to The Contractor’s Compass do not necessarily represent the opinions of FASA or the American Subcontractors Association, Inc. (ASA).

EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief, Marc Ramsey MISSION FASA was established in 1987 as a 501(c)(3) taxexempt entity to support research, education and public awareness. Through its Contractors’ Knowledge Network, FASA is committed to forging and exploring the critical issues shaping subcontractors and specialty trade contractors in the construction industry. FASA provides subcontractors and specialty trade contractors with the tools, techniques, practices, attitude and confidence they need to thrive and excel in the construction industry.

Technology: The Key to Handling the Increased............................. 8 Administrative Requirements Associated with Subcontracts

by Chad Pearson

Documentation That Makes Your Company Money­—Daily Reports........................................................ 10

by Anwar Hafeez

Work Smarter, Not Harder with GPS Tracking................................. 12

by Jenny Malcolm

Why Small Businesses Should Use GPS Tracking ........................... 14

by Ryan Driscoll

Augmented and Virtual Reality in Construction: How Using...... 16 an App to Help Visualize a ProjectCan Save Time and Money

FASA BOARD OF DIRECTORS Richard Wanner, President Letitia Haley Barker, Secretary-Treasurer Brian Johnson Robert Abney Anne Bigane Wilson, PE, CPC

by Christopher Czachor

SUBSCRIPTIONS The Contractor’s Compass is a free monthly publication for ASA members and nonmembers. Subscribe online at www.contractorsknowledgedepot.com.

by Julian Pisani

ADVERTISING Interested in advertising? Contact Tony Kozak at (716) 844-8174 or advertising@asa-hq.com.

by Mark Douglas

EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS Contributing authors are encouraged to submit a brief abstract of their article idea before providing a fulllength feature article. Feature articles should be no longer than 1,500 words and comply with The Associated Press style guidelines. Article submissions become the property of ASA and FASA. The editor reserves the right to edit all accepted editorial submissions for length, style, clarity, spelling and punctuation. Send abstracts and submissions for The Contractor’s Compass to communications@asa-hq.com.

ABOUT ASA ASA is a nonprofit trade association of union and non-union subcontractors and suppliers. Through a nationwide network of local and state ASA associations, members receive information and education on relevant business issues and work together to protect their rights as an integral part of the construction team. For more information about becoming an ASA member, contact ASA at 1004 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314-3588, (703) 684-3450, membership@asa-hq.com, or visit the ASA Web site, www.asaonline.com.

LAYOUT Angela M Roe angelamroe@gmail.com

Mobile Technology: Optimizations to Productivity......................... 19 Measurement and Field Data 5 Tips for Successful Certified Payroll Reporting............................. 21 Is Your LED Retrofit Safe?....................................................................... 24

by Matthew Sallee

Departments CONTRACTOR COMMUNITY..... ........................................................... 4 LEGALLY SPEAKING............................................................................... 26 Beware of Inadvertent Disclosure of Electronic Information

by James Yand

Quick Reference

© 2016 Foundation of the American Subcontractors Association, Inc.

ASA/FASA CALENDAR...........................................................................28 COMING UP............................................................................................. 28

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Contractor Community Nov. 8 ASA Webinar Examines Change Orders How should subcontractors maximize their collection of change orders? When should subcontractors be concerned? Should subcontractors ever refuse to perform change orders without a signed change order? What happens when the general contractor or owner disagrees with the proposed change value? Joseph Sweeney, Esq., Sweeney, Mason, Wilson and Bosomworth, Los Gatos, Calif., will answer these and other questions about change orders in the Nov. 8 ASA webinar, “Change Orders—The Bane of All Subcontractors.”

This live, 90-minute webinar will begin at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time/9:00 a.m. Pacific time. The registration fee is $99 for members and $179 for nonmembers and allows access with one Internet connection. Register online.

FAR Council Proposes New Audit Threshold for Terminations On Sept. 14, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council proposed an amendment to the FAR to raise the dollar threshold requirement for the audit of prime contract settlement proposals and subcontract settlements from $100,000 to $750,000. Under the FAR, a “settlement proposal” is a proposal for effecting settlement of a contract terminated in whole or in part, submitted by a contractor or subcontractor in the form, and supported by the data.

Termination clauses and other contract clauses authorize contracting officers to terminate contracts for convenience or for default, and to enter in to settlement agreements. Other than the dollar amount, there will be no link between the requirements for

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certified cost or pricing data and the audit threshold for termination and settlement proposals. The proposed amendment is intended to help alleviate contract close-out backlogs and enable contracting officers to more quickly deobligate excess funds from terminated contracts.

Interested parties can submit comments at www.regulations.gov, the federal government’s regulation portal, on or before Nov. 14, 2016.

DOL Proposes Rule Intended to Improve Longshore Benefit Payments On Aug. 26, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs proposed a new rule intended to provide clarity regarding maximum and minimum compensation rates for claims payable under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act and its extensions (i.e., Defense Base Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and the Non-Appropriated Fund Instrumentalities Act).

DOL had expressed concern that its current regulations offer little guidance to employers and injured workers on applying the maximum and minimum provisions. The proposed rule would clarify DOL’s interpretation of relevant statutory provisions. It also would establish concrete directions on how to apply the maximum and minimum provisions in an individual case.

Generally, the employee’s average weekly wage at the time a disabling injury or death occurs is the basis for determining the amount of compensation payable. The LHWCA sets an overall cap and bottom floor for compensation based on the national average weekly wage determined by the secretary of labor

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each fiscal year. The maximum rate is twice the applicable fiscal year’s national average weekly wage, while the minimum rate is the lower of 50 percent of the national average weekly wage or the employee’s actual average weekly wages. Specifically, the proposed rule would: • Implement a U.S. Supreme Court and two courts of appeals’ decisions interpreting the act’s maximum compensation provisions.

• Clarify how the act’s minimum compensation provisions apply.

• Outline the relationship between maximum and minimum compensation rates and the act’s annual adjustment provision, which is designed to prevent time from eroding the compensation’s value.

NLRB Revises Treatment of Search-for-Work Expenses The National Labor Relations Board, in a 3-1 decision on Aug. 24, revised how the agency will treat reasonable search-for-work and interim employment expenses. Under the ruling in King Soopers, employees will now be compensated for such expenses even when interim earnings are nonexistent or less than those expenses.

Under Board law, discriminatees have a duty to mitigate losses due to their unlawful discharge, which generally means securing and maintaining interim employment.

In the course of seeking new employment, discriminatees often face significant additional expenses such as transportation, room and board, and/or relocation costs. Previously, the Board has treated these expenses as offsets to interim earnings, rather than as a separate component of the makewhole remedy.

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Prior to this ruling, those who were unable to find interim employment received no reimbursement for their reasonable search-for-work and interim expenses. In addition, individuals whose interim earnings were less than these expenses would not have been fully compensated for their losses since such payments could not exceed interim earnings.

out of auto-enrollment arrangements.

The rule went into effect on Oct. 31. The proposed rule would expand the safe harbor to include a limited number of larger cities and counties in response to comments received from members of the public.

Federal Contractors Increasingly Challenged DOL Announces Final Rule by Government Change Orders on State Pension Plans for Construction contractors that do Private Employees

On Aug. 30, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a final rule intended to help states create pension programs for workers who do not have access to workplace savings arrangements, such as 401(k) plans. At the same time, DOL issued a proposed rule that would allow some cities and other local governments to launch the same kind of programs. Eight states already have enacted laws to create retirement savings programs for private-sector workers. Most of those laws require employers that do not offer workplace savings arrangements to automatically enroll their employees in payroll-deduction IRAs administered by the states, while other state laws create a marketplace of retirement savings options geared at employers that do not offer workplace plans.

Although other states are considering similar measures, uncertainty over the application of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s preemption provisions has proven to be a roadblock to broader adoption of such programs.

The DOL final rule provides guidance for states in designing programs by providing a safe harbor from ERISA coverage to reduce the risk of ERISA preemption of the relevant state laws.

The rule also protects worker rights by ensuring they have the ability to opt

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work for the federal government report that they are experiencing a growing crisis on how federal agencies process, approve and pay for change order work, according to the Construction Industry Procurement Coalition. More than 83 percent of the respondents to a survey conducted by the coalition reported that during the last five years the time it takes for contracting agencies to process and pay for change order work has lengthened; almost 65 percent reported that payment for such work usually is made well after the contractor has completed the change order work. More than 85 percent of the respondents said that government agencies take more than 90 days just to execute and pay for change order work.

Failure to process and pay for change orders drives up the cost of doing business for the government, an expense that ultimately is passed on to the government itself. The seriousness of the change order challenge is multiplied by the very number of change orders issued on federal projects. More than 64 percent of the respondents said that there are dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of change orders on the federal projects on which they work. Not a single respondent indicated that they have worked on a project without a single change order.

Much of the delay is driven by the

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failure of agencies to articulate or reach agreement with the contractor on the precise scope of the change order work needed, thus requiring contracting representatives and contractors to pass price and technical proposals back and forth multiple times. Perhaps, more seriously, more than 71 percent of the respondents indicated that they do not believe the government representatives “consistently negotiate in good faith.”

ASA is a member of the coalition, which is exploring a range of solutions to the change order dilemma, including: • Requiring agencies to report during the solicitation process when it is the agency’s policy or procedure to bundle change orders for approval and payment at the end of the job, long after the contractor has completed the work.

• Requiring agencies to maintain and make available to the contractor and subcontractors on the project a report showing the status of each change order.

• Requiring an agency to pay for 50 percent of the actual (incurred or committed) cost to perform change order work, as required by ConsensusDocs Form 200, Standard Agreement and General Conditions Between Owner and Constructor.

DOL Opens Preassessment for Prospective Federal Contractors and Subs On Sept. 12, the U.S. Department of Labor launched its preassessment process of labor law compliance for current and prospective federal government contractors and subcontractors. Under guidance issued on Aug. 25, DOL will assess whether a labor compliance agreement may be warranted. If a contractor that has been assessed by DOL subsequently submits a bid to the federal

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government, and the contracting officer initiates a responsibility determination of the contractor, the contracting officer and the agency’s labor compliance advisor may use DOL’s assessment that the contractor has a satisfactory record of labor law compliance unless additional labor law violations have been disclosed.

As a preassessment is not associated with a specific acquisition, it is a proactive and voluntary way for current and prospective government contractors to be reviewed on labor compliance history. Participating in a preassessment: • Provides current and prospective contractors the opportunity to be assessed on their labor law compliance history, and how it would be reviewed as part of the acquisition process.

• Serves as a proactive and voluntary measure if there are labor law compliance history concerns, because the contractor can develop a labor compliance agreement and start taking steps to mitigate issues before there is a specific acquisition.

• Will be considered in future acquisitions as a mitigating factor when submitted by the contractor.

For more information on DOL’s preassessment process, visit the DOL Web site. Also, see ASA’s FAQ on the DOL/FAR rules.

OSHA Details Results of First Year of Amputation Reporting OSHA has issued its first report summarizing data collected under a reporting requirement that took effect Jan. 1, 2015, that employers report to OSHA within 24 hours any work-related amputation, in-patient hospitalization or loss of eye. In

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the first full year of the reporting program, employers notified OSHA of 10,388 incidents involving severe work-related injuries, including 7,636 hospitalizations and 2,644 amputations. The reports were from federal OSHA states only and do not include injuries from states that administer their own safety and health programs.

Nineteen percent of hospitalizations and 10 percent of amputations involved construction workers OSHA responded to about a third of all injury reports, and 58 percent of amputation reports, with an inspection by a compliance officer after determining that the hazardous conditions described warranted one. OSHA believes that many severe injuries—perhaps 50 percent or more—are not being reported.

OSHA bases this conclusion on several factors, including injury claim numbers provided to by state workers’ compensation programs. Because the majority of first-year reports were filed by large employers, OSHA believes that many small and mid-sized employers are unaware of the new requirements.

OSHA believes that, in other cases, employers are choosing not to report because they perceive the cost of not reporting to be low.

ASA Chief Advocacy Officer E. Colette Nelson reminds ASA members that “the unadjusted fine for not reporting a severe injury has increased from $1,000 to as much as $12,741.” She added, “If OSHA learns that an employer knew about the requirement but chose not to report it promptly, the fine can be much higher, as much as $124,709 for willfully failing to report.”

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Commercial Drivers May Soon Be Subject to More Diabetes Restrictions The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has requested comments on recommendations made by its Medical Review Board concerning drivers with stable, wellcontrolled insulin-treated diabetes mellitus (ITDM). In May 2015, FMCSA published a proposed rule on this issue. Subsequently, it submitted the 1,250 comments it received to the MRB for review. The MRB recommended that ITDM drivers be medically disqualified unless they meet the following requirements demonstrating their stable, well-controlled ITDM: • The driver must provide an FMCSA Drivers with a Completed Insulin Treated Diabetes Mellitus Assessment Form (set out in the recommendations) to a medical examiner.

• The driver must receive a complete ophthalmology or optometry exam, including dilated retinal exam, at least every two years documenting the presence or absence of retinopathy/macular edema and the degree of retinopathy and/or macular edema if present.

The MRB recommended that medical examiners be allowed to certify an ITDM driver as medically qualified for a time period of no longer than one year only if the driver has not experienced any of the eight disqualifying factors below: • Any episode of severe hypoglycemia within the previous six months.

• Blood sugar less than 60 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) demonstrated in current glucose logs.

• Hypoglycemia appearing in the absence of warning symptoms (i.e., hypoglycemic unawareness).

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Contractor Community

• An episode of severe hypoglycemia,

blood sugar less than 60 mg/dl, or hypoglycemic unawareness within the previous six months; the driver should be medically disqualified and must remain disqualified for at least six months.

• Uncontrolled diabetes, as evidenced

by Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level greater than 10 percent. A driver could be reinstated when HbA1c level is less than or equal to 10 percent.

• Stage 3 or 4 diabetic retinopathy; a driver should be permanently disqualified.

• Signs of target organ damage; a driver should be disqualified until the matter is resolved by treatment, if possible.

• Inadequate record of selfmonitoring of blood glucose; a driver should be disqualified for inadequate records until the driver can demonstrate adequate evidence of glucose records (minimum 1 month).

In addition, the MRB stated that, if a driver is medically disqualified due to not meeting the ITDM criteria listed above, the driver should remain disqualified for at least six months.

GSA Proposes New Construction Rules On Sept. 9, the General Services Administration issued a proposed rule on construction contracts, including provisions and clauses for solicitations and resultant contracts, to clarify, update, and incorporate existing construction contract administration procedures. The proposed rule is intended to maintain consistency with the Federal Acquisition Regulation and to clarify, update and incorporate existing construction contract administration guidance previously implemented through internal Public

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Building Service policies. The proposed rule changes fall into five categories: 1. Incorporating existing agency policy previously issued through other means.

2. Reorganizing to better align with the FAR. 3. Incorporating agency unique clauses.

4. Incorporating supplemental material.

5. Editing for clarity.

The proposed rule includes a total of five new agency unique provisions and clauses, six new supplemental clauses, and revision and reorganization of eight existing provisions and clauses.

Topics coveredinclude: • Commencement, prosecution and completion of work.

• Liquidated damages.

• Time extensions.

• Payments under fix-price construction contracts.

• Superintendence by the contractor.

• Schedules for construction contracts.

• Contractor responsibilities.

• Use and possession prior to completion.

• Specifications and drawings for construction.

• Submittals.

• Subcontracts.

• Equitable adjustments.

• Basis of award in sealed bid construction.

• Government’s right to exercise options.

PBGC Lessens Burden for Plan Sponsors, Reduces Late Premium Penalties The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is reducing penalties for late payment of premiums in an

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effort to reduce regulatory costs and make it easier for plan sponsors to maintain traditional pension plans. As premiums have risen, so have the penalties for late payment because they are calculated as a percentage of the premiums.

Under the final rule, published on Sept. 23, penalty rates and caps are both cut in half. For pension plan sponsors with good payment histories that pay promptly following notification of late payment, PBGC will reduce the penalty an additional 80 percent. The changes apply to both single-employer and multiemployer plans, and will apply to late premium payments for plan years beginning in 2016 or later. The new rule took effect on Oct. 24.

EEOC Releases Online Resource Center for Small Businesses The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released a new online resource center designed to help small business owners comply with the laws enforced by EEOC. The Small Business Resource Center, located on EEOC’s public Web site, provides a one-stop source for information on federal employment anti-discrimination laws. In addition to providing general information on EEOC’s laws and ways in which EEOC can assist small businesses, there are also answers to frequently asked questions, guidance in making employment decisions and tips for small businesses on a variety of potential workplace discrimination issues. EEOC also introduced the first in a series of short videos for small business owners on frequently asked compliance questions. EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.

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Feature Technology: The Key to Handling the Increased Administrative Requirements Associated with Subcontracts

by Chad Pearson Today’s subcontractors are challenged by ever-increasing administration requirements. More specifically, regulatory changes, billing requirements, forms, reports, audits, certifications, documentation management, submittals, RFIs, change order management, legal, the list almost seems endless and it can change on a job-by-job basis, making it difficult to manage and maintain profit.

Some subcontractors have overcome these challenges with great success by using technology to automate as many processes as possible. The effective use of technology has enabled these subcontractors to turn the challenge of rising demands into an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

Below are three success stories that can provide insight for other subcontractors who want to create a strategy to handle the rising expectations of the industry.

Richard Thompson, Director, Unique Building Group, on converting its team to a single-source platform For too many years, we used a mix of software for takeoff, estimating, project management, and accounting.

All systems were separated, so there were many steps to move a project from an estimate, to budget, to running the job, managing changes, and creating financials. Data would literally be manually entered in each system and spreadsheet. Additionally, administrative tasks kept increasing, so we had to keep adding solutions or

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spreadsheets to manage them. More time than we could afford was being swallowed.

We found technology that both consolidated all of our data into a single system while giving us the ability to add functions to handle the increasing needs of our customers.

We decided to unify our entire company from office to field, and now we move budgets from an estimate into accounting by clicking a few buttons, manage jobs with ease, and the accuracy of the information is now unquestioned.

With our complete database being shared between accounting, the field, and estimating, the ability to execute purchase orders, manage change orders and the documentation needed to expedite payment, process AIA billings, monitor job costs and maintain financials and project documents is unparalleled.

The reports are live and updated as accounting initiates input. The labor and material items are not only tracked in dollars, but the quantities of each are brought in from the estimate, are tracked against the same items as they are purchased, allowing a comprehensive review of costs and amounts of materials/labor being used.

With all the data in one system we now have extensive reporting options across all business units that are live.

Prevailing wage, certified payroll, HR reports, safety certifications, financial reports, or almost any report you can imagine is available at the touch of button.

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Technology has freed up the time we need to exceed our customer’s expectations, increased our capture percentage of jobs estimated versus bid, increased our profitability, and helped us expand operations without increasing overhead at all.

Kyle Glines, Director of Operations, Nevell Group Inc., Northern California, on automating processes in the field Most important to us is exceeding our customers’ expectations. Part of our strategy was to maximize the time we can keep our eyes on the job, while staying far ahead of administrative tasks. The most effective way to do this is to automate as many tasks in the field as possible through mobile apps.

The first major app Nevell Group implemented was a timecard app.

Careful consideration and test runs were conducted to ensure the app had the right features, and most importantly, responsiveness.

Keys to success for the timecard app include: • A direct integration with the back office, so the app auto-populates with job specific sections, employee information, and cost codes.

• Making completed timecards instantly available to supervisors for approval and digital signature.

• Elimination of data entry for payroll.

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• Enabling foreman to see hours

entered by other foremen when employees work on multiple jobs.

• Online/offline modes, so foremen can enter data without an internet connection.

Next, extra work orders in the field were taking too much time to manage, so digitizing EWOs are now a high priority. Functions we looked for in an EWO app included: • Direct connection to the items database and budgeted materials, so material selection can be completed quickly with no typing.

• Direct connection to equipment database.

• Job-specific sections and cost codes should be pulled in, simplifying labor budget.

• Picture taking, picture attachment, and annotation to help with communication and supplementary documentation.

• Auto-pricing of changes and digital storage of documentation and communications within job’s file.

We also recognized the growing number of forms and reports required by foremen. Streamlining these forms would free up significant time, while improving the quality of the information, so we are currently creating digital forms for: • Forman daily reports.

• Safety reports.

• Impact statements.

• Job applications.

• Workplace inspections.

We learned that two specific things make form apps effective. The first is having the forms directly connected to HR data and job information, so all known information can be auto-filled for foremen. Without this, the forms take way too long for foremen to complete, making the apps a waste of time and money. The second function

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is a simple voice-to-text feature, so foreman do not have to type.

It is important to recognize that every small feature that saves time is worth considering, even if the feature only saves minutes, but you need to be careful, because too many features and functions can result in foremen spending more time on tablets than on the job.

Another significant challenge is making sure foremen have anytime access to critical information. Most apps pull data from accounting systems, which provide data that is too old to be useful. Nevell Group’s Job Info App is directly connected to live job information, budgets, including pending and approved change orders, and daily timecard data. This gives foreman visibility into live material breakouts in quantities, labor breakouts in man hours per cost code, and purchase order details.

Currently, we are experimenting with a purchase order requisition app that connects directly to budgeted materials and the items database, so foreman can easily generate requisitions for PMs to approve.

Also on the agenda is having the ability to manage and collaborate on the latest drawings from a tablet.

There are many apps that provide effective drawing management and collaboration, so the goal is to have an app powerful enough to aggregate all relevant data from all departments.

In today’s app-driven world, where there are so many apps for just as many tasks, it can be difficult to find the right mobile platform to invest in. Regardless of how daunting this may seem it is a must for any subcontractor.

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Craig Daley, President, Daley’s Drywall and Taping, on using technology to eliminate as many systems, spreadsheets, and processes as possible Our processes were fragmented, so we invested significant time selecting technology that was aligned with our progressive attitude, commitment to excellence, and our drive to achieve the highest levels of quality and cost management.

After implementing our current solution, we eliminated many systems, spreadsheets, and processes, which freed up valuable time and enhanced the integrity and the access to our information. The automation of tedious tasks liberated our employees, so they could focus on the things that matter. In addition, having more time with better information helped all departments perform their best.

The results speak for themselves.

Bringing our operations together on a unified platform enhanced our performance with existing customers, strengthened the competitive advantages we worked so hard to attain, and gave us the time to develop strong relationships with new customers.

Despite the fact that the demands of the market have continued to increase, we have almost doubled in size from 60 million to over 100 million without adding any internal staff.

Chad Pearson is the business developer for Plexxis Software, a technology firm that specializes in connecting the field and office with a single source solution that unites estimating, digital takeoff, project management, mobile apps and accounting on the world’s most powerful database. He can be reached at (905) 889-8979 or chad@plexxis. com.

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Feature Documentation That Makes Your Company Money—Daily Reports

by Anwar Hafeez The new paradigm is that we are a communication company disguised as a subcontractor. Construction projects are built on communication. No one person can build a project without great communication. If you can’t communicate—you can’t manage. We communicate with the GC, CM, A/E, owners, other subcontractors, and inspectors.

There Are Five Levels of Communication:

• Two Way—Face-to-Face:

Most effective—both verba and non-verbal expressions are apparent by both parties; instant feedback is possible.

• Two Way—Written:

Effective—RFIs and emails.

• Two Way—Not Face-to-Face

Not as effective—feedback possible; non-verbal expressions not apparent.

• One Way—Not Face-to-Face

Least effective—no feedback possible; no non-verbal expressions.

• One Way—Written

Effective when prepared correctly.

Why Good Communications Equals Project Success • Project coordination.

• Resolving conflicts.

• Documents labor/materials equipment spent on COs. • Opposition backs off when they know that you have great documentation.

Verbal Communications • In-person conversations. This is your best chances of success.

• Walkie-Talkie—Don’t assume the listener is alone. Ask, “is this a good time to talk?”

• Telephone and Emails—Have you noticed that people are much

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bolder than when they are faceto-face? The reason is that a lot of people hate confrontation. To get a problem resolved/get approval on COs, meet face-to-face.

Written Communication • These consist of, but are not limited to, RFIs, memos, letters, submittals.

Why Do We Prepare Daily Construction Reports?

To furnish information to off-site persons who needs to know details of construction that occur daily/ hourly, to prevent problems, get COs, document delays/costs, have a legal bearing, used to resolve disputes and negotiations.

Readers are not fully informed about your project. To understand the progress made to date/problems anticipated/encountered, readers must understand what the project involves.

You should assume that the reader does not know the technical/concepts details. Thus, go into lots of details to inform your audience.

Include in Daily Report?

• Date, weather, segregate labor/ materials/equipment for each activity of work, segregate CO work and contract work, delays, verbal conversations, directions, safety, and visitors.

Why Is the Daily Report so Important?

• Contemporaneous documentation—very credible to all parties.

• Source for tracking—crew movements, change work (identify separately), disruptions and delays.

• Piece of an emerging puzzle, when reviewed by experienced PM, when should PMs review daily reports?

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Answer: DAILY.

• As the subcontractor’s PM—

Restoring an historic train station.

Daily Report stated rented saw/ cutting bricks in half. I knew that the GC did the demolition of the existing brick work—fallen down during an earthquake. At the jobsite, I asked why he rented a saw since there should have been full/half-bricks on-site. No halfbricks on-site. The GC’s PM said his laborers threw the half bricks away (trash).

• As the PM building the convention center, we encountered lots of abandoned utilities/debris on the west side, while excavating.

CM told us to take it out and that they would pay us for it.

One day we broke a PVC line that was connected to the main storm-drain line which dumped into the bay; without having a flapper valve. During high tide the line floods; which we didn’t know about. My superintendent and I were on the west side and saw the PVC line was broken, took a photograph, met with the CM and showed them what we found, CM said to get rid of it. That night high tide came in; main line flooded due to broken line, all the water came down the slope and washed mud from the bank onto 4-1/2 acres into Slab-on-Grade.

Our emergency crew repaired the PVC line. Next day, CM denied that he told us to abandon the line and blamed us for being grossly negligent. We/Owner had the same insurance company; during the hearing they believed us instead of the CM since the Daily Report/My Diary supported the time and who we talked to about the broken PVC line, and were provided direction.

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What We Learned: • PMs know the project

better contractually than superintendents—my superintendent was doing his job in renting the saw, I got a CO to cut the bricks in half.

• If I had not read my superintendent Daily Report till the next day and/ or wrote my diary that day, we would not have prevailed with the insurance company.

On Daily Reports, You Need to: • Segregate labor, materials,

equipment for contract and CO work.

• Specify exact locations of work— Use room number, station number, attach photographs, drawing and detail number.

• Identify disruptions and delays.

• Put copies in “CO files” daily.

Can Daily Reports Testify?

• They are considered hearsay.

Anything said or written that is not under oath at the time and not subject to cross-examination is hearsay.

How Can a Daily Report Testify?

Can this eventually be used in evidence? (It wasn’t written under oath; nor was it subject to cross examination).

The answer is “yes”—your Daily Report can testify. You can introduce it into court (or arbitration). Daily Report, properly done and maintained, may be the best witness of all.

The Business Entry Rule is an exception to the Hearsay Rule.

Documents—records used in connection with running a business or project—are assumed to be credible.

For that reason, business records are given a shroud of credibility and can be admitted into evidence even though they are technically hearsay.

The Daily Report below documents the (ST/OT/DT) hours, location, cost codes, CPM activity, equipment and materials, attaching photographs: • Contract work and location.

• Backcharge against the GC.

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• Change order due to over-zealous

inspector.

• Each change order.

Using this format we were able to successfully backcharge the GC, got paid for the delays and disruptions caused by the inspector and other delay costs.

Your superintendent/foreman in preparing Daily Reports becomes the Project Contemporary. Literally, this means that little or no time has passed to dilute or intertwine the items being recorded, making this documentation pure and strong. Companies must train their personnel—takes six to eight weeks of training to be good in writing Daily Reports.

Do’s on Daily Reports • The people who read and use Daily

Reports don’t know the field work like you.

• Post-project reviews rely on Daily Reports to learn about the project.

• Your report is, at best, your side of the story. But, if facts are recorded accurately, they belong to the actual story no matter who tells it. On one project the owner’s representatives fabricated their Daily Reports— everyone got fired.

• You want the reader to comprehend your side best of all.

• Be specific. A statement that at the time you wrote seemed descriptive may be without value later. Consider this entry: “We were installing that pump—anchor bolts were too short.”

Problem: Which pump? Location?

What is this delaying? What is the follow-up and when is it expected?

In the future, note when the problem was resolved and how.

Don’ts on Daily Reports • How Daily Reports are used by

non-project parties. Aim at making daily report as strong as they can be. Why? • Attorneys (yours and opposing), forensic experts, percipient witnesses, judges, and others can agree on what the report says and to remove basic identifying arguments.

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• Remember this simple question:

What can be read on your report by others? Exactly what you have written. If your writing is not clear and facts are incomplete/missing, what happens next? Daily Report is either discarded as useless or others, using their related or similar experience, will interpret what you said.

• Either way, your Daily Report did not serve to the purpose intended by contemporaneous documentation. It may become a “loose cannon.”

• Do not vent your feelings.

• Do not state attitudes/opinions.

• Everything you write will be read— and will be subject to interpretation.

• Don’t use foul language, it only degrades you.

• Weather is important if it delays your work.

Daily Reports in Summary • Stay factual.

• Do not put in conjecture or your opinion.

• Follow the list of do’s and don’ts.

• Document delays—start/end dates.

• Document CPM activities—start/ finish dates.

• Code PM activities to work.

• Train foreman/superintendents to

write great Daily Reports.

• Attach photographs/graphics.

• Foreman/superintendents must be understand how important the Daily Report is.

• Set up a check and balance system.

• Great Daily Reports makes you money on CO and quantify delays.

Armed with this knowledge, subcontractors improve your Daily Report documentation so that you can increase the profits of your company.

Get a copy by email.

Anwar Hafeez is president of SDC & Associates, Inc., a construction claims consulting firm that prepares and negotiates change orders/claims; CPM scheduling; and teaches seminars on project management and change orders/claims. Hafeez can be reached at (800) 732-3996 or ah@sdcassociates. com.

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Feature Work Smarter, Not Harder with GPS Tracking

by Jenny Malcolm processes, it also allows businesses to more proactively manage their fleets. By selecting an intuitive and user-friendly platform, it takes the manual work out of fleet management altogether.

Simplify Cost Tracking

Is it possible to manage fleet operations more efficiently without adding to the workload? With the use of a GPS tracking solution, the answer is yes. Using GPS tracking technology to automate processes and implement new fleet management methods, fleets are able to work more effectively than ever before. By incorporating technology that streamlines traditionally manual processes, businesses are able to work smarter and allocate time in more productive ways.

So how does GPS tracking software offer a smarter approach to fleet management? Not only does GPS tracking software replace inefficient

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Of all the fleet management practices, systemizing cost tracking can benefit the most from a smarter approach through GPS tracking technology. The ability to eliminate the paperwork and manual processes associated with tracking payroll, fuel expenses, labor costs, billable hours, and job costing saves countless hours that would have otherwise been spent quantifying this data.

Reporting on all fleet expenses from one portal simplifies cost tracking and provides the most insight into fleet expenses. Tracking costs with a GPS tracking solution reduces the time required to complete this task, which allows fleet managers to analyze the results in-depth. It is important for fleet managers to analyze expenses to ensure the business is not spending more than necessary on fuel, labor, maintenance, or any other overhead costs. By monitoring all fleet expenses with a GPS tracking solution, fleet managers have the ability to easily identify unnecessary costs and take action right away.

Bridging Gap Between Office and Jobsite Most businesses on the move need to streamline communication from the office to mobile workforces out in the field. GPS tracking has

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bridged the gap between the office and the job site by allowing fleets to manage their mobile workforce in real-time. Businesses use GPS tracking to dispatch resources more efficiency, send information from the job site to the office instantly, automatically track time-on-site and the number of visits for billing, and more. With GPS tracking in place, processes are streamlined and information becomes immediately actionable. There is no lag period that can increase the chance for error, which can make a significant impact in areas like billing, inventory, and payroll.

Manage on the Go Using a GPS tracking solution’s mobile app allows fleet management to monitor and actively manage their fleet from the convenience of their mobile phone. Having the ability to log in and see what is happening with the fleet from anywhere at any time has changed traditional fleet management for the better. Using a mobile app allows fleet managers to view vehicle locations and current statuses, send messages straight to drivers, and much more.

Share Data Between Software Platforms It is common for businesses to require several technology platforms to run their operations, so it is valuable to share data between software to increase their effectiveness. As integration becomes more common practice, businesses are realizing how sharing data between platforms simplifies operations considerably and helps to make better business decisions.

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Integrating GPS tracking data with other data platforms provides a complete view into fleet operations without the need to log into multiple interfaces. Any modern software should have the ability to send data back and forth for streamlined daily workflow. Businesses that integrate GPS tracking data with other backend systems are able to improve outage response times, prevent fuel card fraud, verify payroll accuracy, improve maintenance management, and much more.

Automate Maintenance Keeping track of maintenance items due for a fleet of vehicles and equipment can be one of the most labor-intensive responsibilities for a fleet or maintenance manager.

Manually logging odometer readings, run time, and services is not just an inefficient use of time, it often results in critical oversights. One of the

most beneficial ways fleet managers can use GPS tracking is to stay on top of maintenance. With electronic odometer readings, there will be no need to manually check vehicle mileage; fleet managers will already know this information.

In addition to saving time for fleet managers, automating fleet maintenance ensures that vehicles do not miss important services. Setting automated maintenance reminders for services like oil changes, tire rotations, emission testing, and registration renewals will notify fleet managers and/or drivers via email or SMS when their vehicles are due for service. Using GPS tracking to automate maintenance ensures all services are up-to-date, which may prevent expensive repairs and extend the life of the fleet.

GPS tracking has made it possible for fleets to work smarter, not harder by eliminating manual processes

traditionally associated with fleet management and providing new solutions to help businesses be more effective overall. Implementing GPS tracking has allowed fleet managers to be more productive with their time, manager their fleet in the best way possible, and even make advancements to how they run their operations.

Jenny Malcolm is the content marketing specialist for GPS Insight, a top technology provider of fleet tracking software for businesses with fleets of vehicles and other mobile assets. GPS Insight provides flexible solutions that include a wide range of reports, alerts, and other features to fit the needs of customers and ensure the maximum return on investment. GPS tracking technology makes it possible for businesses with vehicles and equipment to manage their mobile assets like never before.

Malcolm can be reached at (866) 4774321 or info@gpsinsight.com.

ASA EXCELLENCE IN ETHICS AWARDS 2016 ASA will honor selected firms that demonstrate the highest standards of internal and external integrity during an awards ceremony at the ASA annual convention, SUBExcel 2017, March 15-18, 2017, in Denver, Colorado.

HELPFUL LINKS • Watch the Excellence in Ethics Awards Video.

• Download the 2016 Excellence in Ethics Awards Brochure.

• Download the 2016 ASA Excellence in Ethics Awards Application.

• ASA provides useful model documents to help with your submission and your ethics program. View the 2016 Excellence in Ethics Awards Resource Guide.

• Download the 2016 ASA Excellence in Ethics Awards Timeline.

• ASA’s Excellence in Ethics Awards Program Q&A LinkedIn Group—a forum for getting answers to your questions about the award and application process.

This forum includes current award recipients who have been through the application process and are willing to help guide new applicants through their application process.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: DECEMBER 16, 2016

• Recipients of the 2015 ASA Excellence in Ethics Awards may re-apply for 2016 using the Re-Certification Form.

AMERICAN

SUBCONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION

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Feature Why Small Businesses Should Use GPS Tracking

by Ryan Driscoll Whether you are a startup looking to grow your business or you are an established business that only needs a few trucks to run your operations, it is important to track your vehicles and assets. GPS tracking technology is now more user-friendly and costeffective than it has ever been, making it the right time for small businesses to invest in a solution to streamline fleet operations.

Every business should be focused on employing methods to stay competitive, drive productivity, and contain costs, but it is especially important for small businesses. For a large corporation, taking control over high costs could mean a higher profit margin, for a small business, it could mean saving your employees’ jobs or even your business.

GPS tracking solutions provide small businesses with simplified fleet intelligence, easy installation and implementation, and deliver tremendous value at a price point small businesses can afford. Don’t hesitate to take control over your fleet with GPS tracking technology.

Simplified Fleet Intelligence A GPS tracking solution that provides a way to quickly and easily understand where your vehicles and equipment are located in real-time is ideal for most small businesses. Your time is valuable and you’re focused on running the entire business, not just the fleet, so the GPS tracking

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solution should make your life easier, not add to your list of tasks and responsibilities.

Automate Fleet Management GPS tracking solutions automate fleet management practices to help you manage your mobile assets in the most efficient way possible.

By automating manual and timeconsuming processes traditionally associated with fleet management, you and your team will have more time to focus on other tasks and business challenges.

A few ways that GPS tracking will make your fleet operations more efficient through automation include: • Automating Maintenance—Easily stay on top of all fleet maintenance with a GPS tracking solution. Set reminders for services like oil changes, tire rotations, emissions testing, registration renewal, and more.

• Simplifying Cost Tracking—Track and report on your fleet’s expenses from one portal. GPS tracking solutions can help you monitor how much your business is spending on fuel, maintenance, labor, and more.

• Improving Dispatch—Don’t waste time picking up the phone to call a driver to find out their current location, with a GPS tracking solution, you will already know. By utilizing GPS tracking to improve dispatch efficiency, you will be able to improve response times and serve more customers.

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Solve Your Business Challenges Simplifying fleet management is not the only benefit of using a GPS tracking solution; you will also have access to the tools you need to solve business challenges your fleet faces, like reducing costs and taking control over fleet maintenance.

Reduce Costs One of the most beneficial reasons for small businesses to implement a GPS tracking solution into their operations is to reduce costs fleet wide. With the right usage of GPS tracking software, small businesses are able to reduce fuel costs, labor costs, maintenance expenses, and more.

Idle time is one of the easiest metrics to monitor with a GPS tracking solution that will significantly reduce costs. Most small business owners would be shocked at how much fuel is wasted due to excessive idling because the engine was left running during a delivery or a driver’s lunch break. GPS tracking solutions monitor excessive idling through advanced reports and alerts to help fleets eliminate this unnecessary expense. By sending automated alerts when vehicles surpass an acceptable threshold of idle time, you can significantly reduce fuel costs for your fleet. Idle time is only one of many metrics that can be monitored to help cut costs.

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Take Control over Maintenance Using a GPS tracking solution to manage fleet maintenance will save time, ensure accuracy, and extend the lifecycles of vehicles and assets for your small business. Along with sending automated maintenance reminders, scheduled service reports that include all upcoming and overdue services are available for business owners and fleet managers to view on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Monitoring that all services are up-to-date will prevent your fleet from having to replace expensive vehicles and equipment sooner than needed.

With GPS tracking, take control over maintenance and save your business this big expense.

Get Your Fleet Back to Work Faster Some small businesses may think that implementing a GPS tracking solution or installing devices will take up time you just don’t have.

Although this is a legitimate concern to avoid taking a dip in productivity, implementing a GPS tracking solution can be completed very quickly.

User-Friendly Solutions Implementing GPS tracking software into your operations is straightforward because solutions are designed for ease of use. By going with a provider that is focused on software development, you can ensure that there will be consistent advancements to the solution to increase its usability. Make sure to

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choose a solution that is simple, yet intuitive, so your team will be able to quickly learn how to use it and get back to work even more efficiently than before.

Plug and Play Devices Plug and play devices are growing in popularity for small businesses because they completely eliminate the hardwire installation costs and vehicle downtime. In the past, these devices were not ideal because as soon as they were unplugged by a driver, vehicles could no longer be tracked. With recent enhancements, plug and play devices will now continue to track location even if they are unplugged, making them the ideal option for small businesses looking for a quick implementation. Since you will be able to simply plug in these devices, you will be able to start tracking your vehicles and equipment immediately, rather than a few days or weeks.

Cost-Effective Now is a great time for small businesses to invest in GPS tracking technology because advanced solutions are the most cost-effective they have ever been. Prices have recently dropped by about 50 percent.

As a small business, you are now able to receive high quality GPS tracking software that is right for your business, at the right price point.

Although cost is definitely important, it shouldn’t be the only decision-making factor when

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selecting a GPS tracking solution.

It may seem like all GPS tracking software is inherently the same, but that is not the case. Many GPS tracking providers that boast to be the cheapest are often much lower quality and consequently fall short of expectations.

It is advised to select a GPS tracking provider that offers a solution at a price point that is right for your business and has the capability to solve your business challenges so it is worth the investment long term.

GPS tracking technology is becoming widely adopted by businesses across North America to help solve business challenges facing the fleet industry. As a small business, now is the right time to invest in GPS tracking because advanced solutions are becoming increasingly userfriendly, are easily implemented into your operations, and are the most cost-effective they have ever been.

Take full control of your fleet by investing in a GPS tracking solution that will streamline operations for your small business.

Ryan Driscoll is director of marketing for GPS Insight. He can be reached at (480) 663-9463 or ryan. driscoll@gpsinsight.com.

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15

Feature Augmented and Virtual Reality in Construction: How Using an App to Help Visualize a Project Can Save Time and Money

by Christopher Czachor When getting ready to tackle a new job, one thing that all construction subcontractors and specialty trade contractors can agree on is that it is important to get everyone on the same page before beginning the work. No one wants to waste time, energy, or money on a project without the proper guidance and vision that will ensure that the final product will be exactly what the project owner wants as the end result.

It can be hard to believe that some of our country’s most important and beautiful landmarks were built with limited, analog technology.

Cutting-edge technology and software have revolutionized the

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building landscape and has allowed the industry to tap into new realms.

The evolution of construction technology began back in the 1970s when large-scale developments were formed from computerized project planning.

In the years following, building information modeling technology and laser scanning became available.

These tools allowed a project team to capture a cloud of data according to a construction site’s shapes and appearance.

It wasn’t until 1984 when the first 3-D capability became available, mainly in the manufacturing industry.

Computerized testing with this tool

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was used, but it was not until 2014 that construction subcontractors and specialty trade contractors were able to print an entire house in 24 hours using 3-D technology.

The early 2000s presented a breakthrough when convenience became mobile and portable with the invention of the smartphone. The mobile element of the tool gave the simplicity of a computer with a cell phone aspect, making a project that much more efficient for construction workers. The smartphone launch opened the floodgates for even more advanced tools, including the iPad, which is the single most important and common device used among

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construction subcontractors and specialty trade contractors today.

There is no doubt that the evolution of digital blueprint and 3-D imaging and gadgets have saved construction industry workers much time, money, stress and risk, all while increasing productivity and keeping projects on set timelines.

Now, there are companies that are making the process that much easier.

Knowing that everything has gone digital, companies have designed platforms to specialize in crafting virtual commerce tailored to industries—such as retail, packaging, education and industrial and manufacturing.

Take Marxent, for example. Marxent is a leader in virtual and augmented reality visualization for retailers and manufacturers. Marxent’s VisualCommerce™ platform supports virtual and augmented reality apps that retailers such as Simmons, Energy Recovery, AZEK and TimberTech can use to help people better understand the application of their products and make better purchase decisions.

Construction and building companies are able to provide customers with a more realistic and contextual view of a project through their partnership with platforms such as Marxent’s VisualCommerce™.

As Marxent knows—and the companies that work with them know—visualizing a project can offer peace of mind to the customer, while also reassuring the subcontractor that they are focusing their efforts on the right work so that the final build will meet the expected result.

The importance of using technology to get an idea of what the end result will look like is helpful because it makes it possible to gain a better understanding of the layout and how the build will change the space. Often, the person who contracts the project may think that they want something, but they might not understand just

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what the build will entail and how the project will look, ultimately wasting valuable time and money while also bringing frustration onto everyone when the project needs to be reworked or follow a new plan.

Virtual and augmented reality make it possible for project owners to visualize their design choices before actually building the project. Owners and contractors are able to virtually design the project in realistic 2-D and 3-D views, changing product colors, zooming in and out, and rotating the view 360 degrees to make sure that everything looks perfect. Essentially, it is a way for one’s project to come to life before building it. Completely portable, users can pick the colors and materials and use their fingers to walk around for a view collection.

The apps created and built by Marxent provide a visual experience that replaces the need for showrooms and samples. Although showrooms can be a great asset to help see products in real life, and samples can help to really hone in on a color when deciding between multiple options, without using the app, there is no way to truly get a sense of how the finished project will look. The app really helps streamline the entire process while also leaving the project owner and subcontractors feeling confident in the project.

Augmented Reality blurs the line between what people perceive as real and what is computer-generated, which has become beneficial in the construction industry. When building a project, this type of technology is essential as it prevents any confusion on what the project is intended to look like.

The idea behind Augmented Reality is to provide a realistic visual and enhance the experience of bringing a project to life. As such, it manipulates the senses and creates a tangible perception of what and vision could look like. It also gives users access to design analysis and allows them to have the ability to change the way a

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building or structure looks. It allows individuals to virtually look through a completed model prior to picking up the toolbox.

Devices, apps and platforms that generate Augmented Reality can also be used as a progress and status checker. When construction subcontractors and specialty trade contractors are working on projects, they are given the ability to refer back to the image they were given to ensure that it matches the expectations of the customer.

Looking through the Augmented Reality lenses, construction industry workers, project owners, and designers can all be on the same page. The evolution of construction technology has been a work in progress ever since the mid-1900s.

On the same front, construction is an industry that has and will continue to be around forever. Beautiful buildings were built long before technology advancements; however, the launch of Augmented Reality has completely revolutionized and streamlined the entire process. By providing realistic views and giving designers and builders the ability to actually see a project come to life, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality have tapped into new horizons.

You will probably never see a toolbox without an iPad in it anymore. The construction industry will continue to see technology advancements. Looking back at the evolution of construction technology is pretty unbelievable in how it has completely transformed the industry.

It is now seen as a vital part of the initial construction process. Project owners and designers now rely on this technology when first consulting construction subcontractors and specialty trade contractors.

Christopher Czachor is the marketing manager for AZEK Building Products. He can be reached at (224) 246-0977 or Christopher.Czachor@ cpgbp.com.

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Feature Mobile Technology: Optimizations to Productivity Measurement and Field Data

by Julian Pisani The construction industry faces a productivity challenge. In fact, it faces many. The one-off nature of construction projects, fragmented stakeholders and participants, and challenging procurement approaches are some of the factors blamed for persistently poor construction productivity compared to other industries.

The construction productivity curve, developed by Professor Paul Teicholz at Stanford University, indicates how, since 1965, construction productivity has declined relative to other industries. Not only does it indicate that construction lags behind other industries, but it suggests that construction productivity is

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deteriorating year on year. In a 2013 update of his 2004 work, Prof. Teicholz confirmed that construction industry productivity exhibits a general rate of decline of -0.3 percent per annum, while other industries experience a 3 percent annual improvement. For those interested in really digging into the factors impacting measurement of the industry at a national level, a comprehensive analysis of historical construction productivity trends and measurement approaches is included in an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Productivity at the task or project level can be defined relatively simply as the output production compared to the labor inputs. These take the

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form of unit rates, established in the estimates and used as the basis of productivity calculations and ongoing performance monitoring throughout a project. For the wider industry and the national level however there are significant challenges to benchmarking, especially when trying to identify changes over time. First, one has to rely on measurements made by others across sectors at the national level. In the United States, the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics are responsible for gathering data and establishing benchmarks across industries. The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses this data, and others, to establish economic indicators

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such as GDP, and other indicators of economic activity. Secondly, while these data can inform trends and patterns in the construction industry, the measurement is rife with challenges and an understanding of the underlying causal factors that contribute to productivity can be difficult to extrapolate. Looking deeper, there are significant challenges with benchmarking across industry sectors—namely residential, commercial/institutional, industrial and infrastructure—in which subcontractors operate.

Notwithstanding the complexity of productivity data and measurement techniques, what else is driving productivity trends in the industry?

Construction is, by its very nature, highly variable, while the output is highly differentiated; every project is a little bit different. Procurement processes, incentives and the distribution of risk and reward between project stakeholders is often misaligned. Communications and data have long been siloed and disconnected, and many of the tools that the construction industry leverages have not empowered productivity. Fundamentally, the issue comes down to one of reliable measurement, both at the company, and industry level.

Reliable measurement of productivity is both a challenge and an opportunity. A significant obstacle to improving measurement is the industry’s continued reliance on pieces of paper for reporting critical project data.

The 2015 JBKnowledge Construction Technology Report determined that 45 percent of respondents leveraged manual processes for gathering critical field

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data in their organizations, while 5 percent did not gather field data at all.

Of 2,000 respondents across a broad cross-section of the industry, over half are reliant on paper processes to gather important production data, or are not collecting it at all. A similar number are reliant on manual processes and spreadsheets to share valuable insights within their companies. These numbers make the conclusions from Paul Teicholz is easier to understand. How can the industry improve productivity when it is so reliant of pieces of paper and manual processes to efficiently manage critical project data?

Manual processes are defined by time-consuming data entry in the field, inefficient data transfer processes to get data into your systems, as well as data inaccuracy.

Most critical is the data that is never gathered at all. With manual processes, it is almost impossible to collect all the different inputs required to paint an accurate picture of what is happening on your jobsites.

Timecards record the hours spent on tasks, ideally against accurate cost codes, but what happens to the important contextual data information that helps managers know if crews were productive or not. Daily reports often stack up on a desk, to be used to support change requests in the future, but the data they contain is key for understanding what is happening on your jobsites, however so often the data remains unused.

A solution lies in the greater adoption by the industry of mobile technology. Applications and associated cloud-based software solutions can collect timekeeping and production data and combine it with

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the important context of impacts, delays, productivity, from the field, in real-time, as events unfold on the jobsite. Some have the ability to upload photos, easily taken from smartphones, to add a rich imagery and detail to jobsite events and conditions that are otherwise difficult to explain. Your foremen, empowered with the right tools, can easily create accurate and valuable insights that help them explain what is happening on projects, and help you understand what is contributing to project success.

Data gathered in this way has a number of advantages over its paper-based information. It often is accessible to managers and project engineers immediately. Simple fact-checking assures that errors and omissions, which are understandable, can be rapidly identified and corrected. Only reliable data makes its way into your productivity data. Data on delays can be identified and used to determine actual and achievable production rates. Factors impacting productivity can be rapidly identified, and managers can make fact-based decisions to improve performance. In simple terms, by gathering data in a more intelligent way, and doing more with it, construction firms can use it for much more than just processing payroll. It can finally become the tool that helps the industry resolve persistent productivity issues, and assure that construction can become the productive and efficient industry that it can and needs to be.

Julian Pisani is director of growth for Rhumbix. He can be reached at (855) 748-6249 or jpisani@rhumbix. com.

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Feature 5 Tips for Successful Certified Payroll Reporting

by Mark Douglas The world of wage rate requirements was first developed in March of 1931 when President Hoover signed a law called the Davis-Bacon Act. The act received its name from former Republican Secretary of Labor James J. Davis and Republican Representative Robert L. Bacon who sponsored it. Since then, there has been a whirlwind of controversy and further development leading to stateby-state requirements.

The intended purpose of the DavisBacon Act is to level the playing field in project bidding and hinder the efforts of contractors who use low-wage and unskilled labor to win projects by providing the lowest bid.

These low skilled workers would then provide shoddy work and longer construction times. By requiring the payment of prevailing wages, minimum base rates and fringe packages, there is a greater chance of the highest quality contractor winning bids. These wage payments are tracked through certified payroll reports submitted to the awarding body in the case of a prime contractor or to the prime contractor from subcontractors.

The modern day certified payroll reporting may also be used to help the federal, state, and local governments with economic planning by utilizing the workforce data being captured while submitting certified payroll data. With the improved understanding on how projects impact the local economy and communities, the government can better decide where to invest public funds and what projects have the greatest impact.

So where are we now? The current climate of prevailing wage involves dynamic reporting and intensified

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attention to detail. Matters become a bit more complicated when taking into account the different interest groups that must be accounted for, such as the agency that has awarded the contract, and where the public funds are coming from.

Each interest group may have different requirements and goals that must be met. Nearly half of the states in the United States follow the Department of Labor prevailing wage reporting requirements to file the WH -347 and WH-348. A fourth of the remaining states have developed their own prevailing wage requirements and forms and the last fourth have multiple state agencies within their state, each with their own requirements.

Luckily for contractors nationwide, technology solutions have evolved alongside the requirements and there are a variety of options for staying ahead of the game with certified payroll, labor and workforce compliance reporting.

Here are five tips that can help you feel like a labor compliance expert:

Understand Your Requirements Every stakeholder in a project has different goals. If you find yourself working on a project for the City of Seattle, for example, you will notice they have stepped up their game on local and minority hire and take great pride in reaching their goals.

Some states such as Colorado have a variety of reports that must be filed in addition to the most widely-seen reporting template, the WH–347.

Recognizing the variety of reports and initiatives affecting your project will help you be better prepared.

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Identifying dual-funded projects, or those with both state and federal prevailing wage requirements, early on and becoming aware of the different needs can help you avoid future headaches and noncompliance.

Make sure the terms of the contract are clearly defined and the wage rates are listed with any increases that may be predetermined during the life of the project. In summary, this tip is about understanding where the money is coming from. Put forth your best effort to show that you take compliance seriously and earn yourself a good name with prime contractors and agencies.

Know Your Tools Some states, such as California, have taken the initiative to create online reporting tools to aid with audits and transparency. While they do little to alleviate the day-to-day burden for contractors, it is important to know when you are required to preregister for these systems and pay any fees that are associated with them. California’s recent law SB854 requires all contractors bidding on work in the state to pay a $300 registration fee and upload weekly certified payroll reports into an online collection system. While the law has received some push-back from contractors, it has given the state an increased ability to perform audits and hold violators accountable and California is not alone in this endeavor. The increase in ability of state and federal agencies to collect payroll data has created a demand for tools to ensure information is accurate before submittal. Some third-party companies have brought technology into the certified payroll reporting world with online solutions

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SCIROCCO GROUP I N S U R A N C E

Scirocco Group Construction Solutions Scirocco Group is committed to serving the construction industries with comprehensive insurance products, surety bond programs, and risk management solutions. As the owner, developer, construction manager, general contractor or subcontractor, you can trust that our team of construction insurance professionals will meet your needs. Whether your plan calls for an all-inclusive program or coverage for a specific project, partnering with Scirocco will allow you access to our relationships and resources.

• General Liability & Umbrella/Excess • Employment Practice/Crime/D&O • Workers Compensation - “Pay As You Go” Programs • Professional & Pollution Liability • Surety Bond Programs • Cyber Risk Coverage • Auto & Equipment Coverage • Builders Risk/Installation Coverage • Financial Statement Consultations • Loss Control & Claims Analysis • Group Health Insurance & 401K Plans • Safety Manual & Employee Handbook Assistance • OSHA Log & Compliance Resources • Pre-Bid Surety & Insurance Cost Analysis • Assistance with General Liability & Workers Compensation Audits • Snow Plow Coverage

Fran Lusardi

Bill Billnkas

Sales Executive 201 727-0070 ext. 301 973 714-8243 flusardi@sciroccogroup.com

Sales Executive 201 727-0070 ext. 307 973 713-8569 wbillnkas@sciroccogroup.com About Scirocco Group

Scirocco Group, founded in 1950, has 10 locations throughout the NY/NJ metropolitan area and South Florida. The agency offers comprehensive and proactive business solutions including risk management, loss control and workplace safety programs.

To learn more about Scirocco Group, visit our web site at www.sciroccogroup.com

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SCIROCCO GROUP I N S U R A N C E

to streamline and simplify the process. A few online solutions offer an extensive list of both state and federal reports and prevalidate information against a multitude of common compliance and data completeness checks. Do your research, find a company that has been in the game long enough to truly understand the dynamic needs of compliance reporting, and do not fall for lower value, non-customizable options that will leave you wanting more. Look for solutions that offer unlimited training and support so you know you will have the confidence needed to thrive.

Streamline This tip rolls right into the next nugget of advice. Find software tools that work together. States such as California, Illinois, Colorado, Pennsylvania and more are working with electronic systems to help facilitate easier reporting. In addition to states getting on board, payroll companies such as Paychex, Viewpoint and ComputerEase, with a long list of others, are partnering with certified payroll and labor compliance reporting solutions to create data exchange templates for easy data transfer. The construction site software tools mentioned above eliminate the hassle of foreman on-site reporting and allow instant reporting of workers on site, hours and safety reports, as well as, knowing who is on your jobsite at all times, why, and how long they stayed. There is no reason to continue your process on paper. There are numerous horror stories of rooms full of paper copies of certified payroll reports. Excel sheets printed and taped to the wall to that apprentices and journeymen could be tallied. It doesn’t have to be that way. Some solutions cost less than the storage fees of old payrolls. Take a look, the solution is out there.

Guard Against Inaccuracies Using an online tool with data validation and verification capabilities can eliminate much of the human error associated with certified payroll reporting and catch mistakes or missing information before they become a problem. By taking steps to guard against unintended inaccuracies, you can ensure peace of mind. With increased regulations and transparency requirements, auditors have access to more information than ever. There are options available on the market now that offer cloudbased data so it can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Be sure that the solution you choose also includes a validation engine that notifies you of discrepancies, failure to pay prevailing wage, missing information, duplicate entries, misclassification and other prevalent reporting errors.

Use your tools to perform self-audits and identify mistakes or weak areas sooner rather than later.

Seek Education You are not alone in your search for Davis-Bacon, prevailing wage and labor compliance education, and many opportunities have been made available for you to learn the tricks of the trade. The U.S. Department of Labor and Housing and Urban Development more often than not provide both free or fee-based education. Joining groups such as ASA can give alerts and notifications for upcoming training and offer a consistent network or industry peers.

Third-party software developers have also come forward offering seminars and classes designed to give training and hands-on scenarios for immersive learning experiences.

Ensure that all members of your team are trained on proper compliance procedures.

In summary, there are many ways you can prepare and educate yourself to ensure that you do not get caught off guard on an audit. If you are not being diligent with compliance processes, you are putting your company at risk! It takes only a quick Web search to learn about the huge fines (such as ones in California) that can amount from non-compliance in regard to certified payroll reporting.

Don’t wait until the auditor comes knocking to tackle your labor compliance and workforce reporting issues. You are in control of your compliance efforts, and following these tips will help you to feel better prepared and manage your reporting with maximum efficiency.

Mark Douglas is the principal owner of LCPtracker, Inc., a privately held company providing online services to government agencies, primes and subcontractors to administer Labor Compliance Programs to enforce the prevailing wage provisions of state and federal law. Based in Orange, Calif., LCPtracker is one of the fastest growing small companies in Orange County, based on a survey by Orange County Business Journal. The company was also ranked in the Inc. 5000 for 2016. Douglas manages all aspects of daily business and prides himself in creating and maintaining a team of highly motivated and dedicated individuals. The LCPtracker software solution first launched in California in 2003 before expanding nationally in 2006, and now aids over 400 clients and 100,000 contractor users nationwide, including 19 of the 25 largest cities in the United States.

Feature Is Your LED Retrofit Safe?

by Matthew Sallee In 1893, electric light technology was put on display at the world’s fair in Chicago. These lights were installed inside paper-mache buildings, and Chicago earned the nickname “White City.” A lesser known fact is that lighting caught many of the paper buildings on fire. These fires resulted in the creation of Underwriters Laboratories, or UL. Now, almost 125 years later, UL provides a safe path for new lighting technologies to be installed into commercial buildings. That path is UL1598C Certification.

UL and LED Retrofit UL1598C certification provides building owners and managers a safety standard when considering LED Retrofit. Certified LED Retrofit products are labeled as UL “CLASSIFIED.” By using the word “classified,” UL can distinguish field-installed LED Retrofit products from Fixtures, which bear the “LISTED” mark, and LED Lamps, which bear the “RECOGNIZED” mark.

LED Fixtures

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What Does UL LED Retrofit Certified Mean?

Certified LED Retrofit kits are truly kits—as they must include the following: LED Retrofit Drivers, Modules, and Engines: These are the LED components that provide power conversion and light. These come in many shapes and sizes, and are typically designed for specific fixture types. LED Retrofit kits are evaluated in the same way as full LED fixtures, providing confidence in the field safety of the LED Retrofit.

Fixture Types: LED Retrofit Kits are typically designed for specific fixture shapes, sizes and light outputs. UL certification requires that LED Retrofit kits meet specific requirements for installation into various fixture types. These requirements typically vary between surface-mounted and recessed fixtures, open and sealed fixtures, and fixtures rated for dry, damp and wet locations.

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Interior volume of a fixture also plays an important role. Traditional light source is also a factor in the certification process. The UL classification label on the LED Retrofit Kit will provide information around the appropriate fixture types, lamp types and building areas where the LED Retrofit products can be safely installed.

Installation Hardware: Installation hardware is also evaluated by UL to ensure that the installer has everything necessary to safely install the LED Retrofit kit.

Typically this includes wirenuts and 8/32 screws for mounting to the fixture or junction box.

Installation Process The final piece of a UL Certified LED Retrofit kit is the installation instructions and process. This provides a certified path for installers to follow, to insure safe fieldinstallation. These instructions can vary in complexity from manufacturer to manufacturer. Often a retrofit will require going above and beyond UL requirements, by removing the existing lamp-holders and ballasts.

In many cases, the existing lampholders are yellow and brittle, and no longer suitable to make an electrical connection. They can even crumble.

Over time, the heat and radiation

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effects of Pin-CFL lamps can be highly damaging to lamp holders, and this equipment should not be reused.

Ballasts present a different issue.

Over the life of a building, ballasts are replaced with a wide variety of replacement parts. It is highly unlikely that 100 percent of the ballasts in any given fixture type are all exactly the same.

Furthermore, LED bulbs that rely on existing ballasts, rarely meet their published wattage, and are only compatible with a handful of ballasts.

In most cases, the only way to safely retrofit with LED bulb solutions is to remove both the existing lamp-holders and the ballasts. It’s significantly cheaper to retrofit right once, than to retrofit poorly once, and then correct the installation later.

How Can I Tell If an LED Retrofit Is UL Certified?

UL certified LED Retrofit kits will be labeled with UL Classified mark. The manufacturer can also be looked up on UL’s Certification Database.

Matthew Sallee is an entrepreneurial technologist based in Denver, Colo.

He has spent 20 years in the B2B technology space—from large-scale Storage Area Networking labs to enterprise analytical platforms (ERP and BI). He has expertise in hardwarebased solid state lighting components and IoT internet-connected building energy systems. He has held various sales, marketing and leadership roles in Fortune 500 and start-up companies: Oracle, HP, Verizon, UL—Underwriters Laboratories, and Core Project, and currently serves as director of strategic marketing for Terralux. He can be reached at retrofit@terralux.com.

New On-demand Video from FASA TM

When it comes to managing your business, the Foundation of ASA is your partner in education. View and listen to FASA’s on-demand videos at an individual workstation or in a conference room for group training.

Your order includes access to the on‑demand video any time, and as many times as you’d like! This is just one of the on-demand videos available through the FASA Contractors’ Knowledge Depot to meet your business management training needs.

“Using the ASA Subcontract Documents Suite” (Item #8093)

In “Using the ASA Subcontract Documents Suite,” Eric Travers, Esq., Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter, Columbus, Ohio, ASA’s legal counsel, examines the ASA Subcontract Documents Suite, a suite of model contract documents that includes: (1) the ASA Subcontractor Bid Proposal, (2) the ASA Subcontract Addendum, (3) the ASA Short-form Subcontract Addendum, (4) ASA Wrap-up Insurance Subcontract Conditions, and (5) ASA Wrap-up Insurance Bid Conditions. In the video, Travers explains how these tools provide subcontractors with the “ammunition to fight back” against unfair subcontract terms and illustrates how and why ASA’s efforts in preparing these documents give its members a tremendous negotiation and risk management tool to strengthen your business and bottom line.

Price: $65 ASA members; $95 non-members

Order online at www.contractorsknowledgedepot.com or call ( 703 ) 684-3450, Ext. 1321

Legally Speaking Beware of Inadvertent Disclosure of Electronic Information

by James Yand Information is the lifeblood of any business. It documents the work performed and often serves as the center point of a dispute, especially when a lawsuit is filed. Our litigation system is designed to allow each side to find and use relevant nonprivileged information in proving its case or defense. Therefore, the modern business owner must be able to navigate the information repositories, regardless of their form, including the ability to ask for and produce electronically stored information (ESI).

In addition, the business owner and its legal counsel must be able to comply with the duty to preserve information once a lawsuit is reasonably anticipated, including the obligation to identify, locate, and maintain ESI held by the business. The failure to do so may result in serious sanctions and referral to disciplinary counsel.

New terminology helps define whether you are familiar with, and prepared to handle, the challenges of the digital world. For example, do you know what a “litigation hold” is, and how to use it? If asked by a judge, would you be familiar with your company’s computer systems, and what your record-retention policy states? Could you craft a discovery request asking for production of

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electronic records in a form that is readily searchable and adaptable to your litigation database?

Pitfalls of E-Discovery Requests More than 95 percent of all information is now generated in electronic form. Yet, the discovery rules that exist in many state courts are designed to deal with the world in which typewriters and copiers were the primary means of generating and duplicating documents.

Electronic records offer a very different reality and require knowledge of a medium that is different in nature and quantity. For example, Microsoft receives from 250 million to 300 million email messages per month from outside the company.

It generates another 60 million to 90 million internal emails a month. Its firewalls delete 85 to 90 percent of all incoming emails.

This task of controlling electronic information can cost millions of dollars and dwarf the dispute underlying the lawsuit itself. This has serious implications for our justice system that are contrary to the notion of cases’ being resolved on their merits in a just and efficient manner. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 1.

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ESI Is a Dynamic Medium Paper is one-dimensional. It can be stored in a file and then copied when needed. Electronic information is alive. It changes as its environment changes. It contains metadata that describes the “DNA” of the record: how it was created, when, and by whom; and how it was changed, when, and by whom. Thus, when electronic information is disconnected from its lifeblood and rendered onedimensional by being sent to the printer, it loses its very essence. This is why digital information is best collected, reviewed, analyzed, and offered into evidence in its electronic form. Without its DNA, the electronic information lacks authenticity, and may be easily manipulated or faked. This fact fundamentally drove the changes in the federal rules to recognize that the world of documentation now exists in electronic form in addition to paper.

Electronic discovery refers to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, preserved, and collected with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case. The key is to know what you have and where it is stored and backed up.

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Metadata and Unauthorized Disclosures In addition to final product data stored in the locations mentioned above, metadata is embedded within each document. The simplest definition of “metadata” is that it is data about data, similar to how DNA is the building blocks for one’s body. This metadata includes information beyond its printable content, such as previous revisions (think “Track Changes” even if you do not see it), hidden text, comments, document properties, user email addresses, server names, and routers. Be aware that even a document that you copy for reuse (e.g., “Save As”) brings with it all previous metadata.

In everyday work product, do you want to provide recipients with a document’s hidden changes and modifications? A solution to this critical problem is to implement an outgoing email policy at your business—the sender must always scan (or at least create a PDF of) or “scrub” any electronically transmitted file.

Creating a read-only PDF or scanned file breaks the metadata chain, since only an image is created. If you create a PDF file from your desktop computer rather than a scanned image, however, metadata will still exist. Using these measures to protect your electronic records and files reduces risk of embarrassment.

The best way to avoid this risk is to establish a comprehensive policy of rules to scrub metadata from all outgoing documents before they leave the company. A successful security software application will not ask the end user to remember to do something, but will automatically scrub documents before sending. Even with the best of intentions, employees will still forget to manually scrub metadata on each document.

What Is the E-Discovery Problem?

The ediscovery problem is essentially a result of the sheer volume of business conducted electronically.

Go back even 10 years—how much of your firm’s business was done via mailed letters and other documents?

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Do you remember waiting for a signed document to be mailed or couriered back before proceeding? Now think about how much work is accomplished based on emails, scanned documents, file-sharing, or AutoCAD. Computer forensics is booming for those companies tasked with analyzing a firm’s electronic records, everywhere they reside. And even unsolicited, deleted emails are recoverable and discoverable.

What Are Effective E-Discovery Solutions?

What kinds of ediscovery solutions are most effective? First steps involve defining record-retention policies, determining what processes and technologies will be used, training staff on those processes and programs, and then implementing them. The following are some common methods or work practices: • Doing regular backups, preferably automatically, so that reliance on human effort is not necessary.

Backups can be disk-based/online, or on tapes.

• Using programs that start each document clean of prior metadata, but allow the same template to be used again.

• Centralizing data storage so that multiple copies are not in multiple locations.

• Managing your documentation to enable data hierarchy, versioning, and classification. There are programs to help manage tags and metadata, but they are not the whole solution.

• Saving only what is truly needed for project records. Avoid the “let’s keep everything because we may need it someday” philosophy. It may come back to bite you.

• Using email archiving programs or services. Establish an email retention policy with limits on what kind of email is to be sent and received in the workplace.

Unwanted email should be blocked or deleted immediately. Do not allow personal email to mix with business email.

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• Consistently using the email subject

line to identify the topic or email attachment. Send a follow-up email to the recipient to verify that he or she received what was needed. Also, do the same for email attachments you receive. It is hard to make or defend a case with holes in communication.

• Requesting each party that you subcontract with to abide by the same rules and policies that your firm follows.

• Eliminating potentially embarrassing or incriminating metadata before sending documents electronically.

Metadata scrubbers are available from a number of sources.

• At the genesis of a project, establishing with clients, consultants, contractors, etc., the ground rules for dealing with electronic information.

• Considering increasing insurance coverage for potential retrieval of network/electronic document-type scenarios, and taking a hard look at your insurance limits to ensure that they cover your potential risks.

• Establishing a written documentretention policy, and being prepared to issue a litigation hold on all paper and electronic files once a lawsuit is filed or reasonably anticipated.

A company is only as strong as its weakest link, and with this area of risk, the damage from being hacked or inadvertently disclosing electronic data can be fatal to the company and its business reputation. To mitigate this risk, create a comprehensive documentretention policy and follow it! In a legal proceeding, this may be your ticket to avoiding sanctions and resting assured that the company is protected from these risks.

James Yand is a partner with Miller Nash Graham & Dunn, LLP, Seattle, Wash. He has more than 20 years of experience resolving disputes for business owners and individuals in construction law, products liability, e-discovery, franchise and commercial law. He can be reached at (206) 6228484 or james.yand@millernash.com.

This column originally appeared in the March 2015 edition of The Contractor’s Compass.

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ASA/FASA Calendar

Coming Up in the December 2016 Issue of ASA’s

8 – Webinar: Change Orders—The Bane of All Subcontractors

14 – Webinar: Cost Coding Made Simple

THE

February 2017

November 2016

March 2017 December 2016 6 – Chapter Leadership Webinar: Building a Collaborative Community with General Contractors (Complimentary) 13 – Webinar: U.S. Election Outcome & Potential Impact (Complimentary) January 2017 10 – Webinar: Most Popular Benefits Employees Are Purchasing Without Employer Contribution 12-14 - ASA Mini-Committee Week: Executive and Finance Committee and Rap Council Meetings, Napa, Calif.

24 – Webinar: OSHA Transgender Bathroom Requirements (Complimentary)

1 – Webinar: OSHA Silica Rule—Applications for Subcontractors (Complimentary) 15-18 – SUBExcel 2017, Denver, Colo.

THEME: Construction Forecasting • Looking

Ahead: Construction in 2017

• How

April 2017 11 – Webinar: Incentive Compensation Plan Best Practices

the New Political Landscape May Impact Construction

• It’s

May 2017 9 – Webinar: Prompt Payment and How/When to Suspend Work

a Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, Crazy World and We’re Just Building It

• Planning—The

June 2017 13 – Webinar: Killer Contract Clauses

to Growth

Key

• Dodge

Construction Outlook 2017

• Legally

Speaking: Eliminate or Reduce Financial Impact of Retainage

Contact information for all ASA and FASA events/programs: www.asaonline.com education@asa-hq.com

Look for your issue in December.

PAST ISSUES: Access online at www.contractors knowledgedepot.com

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Cloud-Based

Project Management Software for Subcontractors Complexity.

That’s the biggest obstacle to implementing a new technology. The more complex it is, the less your people will use it.

That’s what sets us apart.

Our software was created for subcontractors by subcontractors. It speaks your language. It mirrors the way you work.

And it strips away all the confusing bells and whistles that make other systems so complex.

With Project DocControl, it’s never been easier to stay connected to all your projects from the field. Or to access project information from your mobile devices.

Discover why so many ASA members have implemented Project DocControl.

For more information, or for a no-obligation online demo, call 813.903.9446 or visit ProjectDocControl.com.

“The flow and consistency of the documentation in Project DocControl was exactly what we had been looking for. We needed a tool that would allow employees to generate documents easily and consistently.”

—Stephen Rohrbach, CPC President F.A. Rohrbach, Inc. Past ASA National President

50!

Congratulations to ASA on your 50th anniversary!

Project DocControl is proud of its decade-long ASA national sponsorship.

MAY 7 TH , 8:10 A .M .

A HANDY REFERENCE TOOL BRINGS HIGHER PROFIT WITHIN REACH

IN AN INS TANT, A R IK M U L L EN R E A L IZE D THE VA LU E O F M OTI O N I S M O NE Y ®

AmSlab Solutions founder, Arik Mullen, is always finding ways to solidify his concrete business.

So when he learned how a simple workbook available through CNA’s Motion is Money® program could highlight hundreds of hours of worker inefficiencies, he called his Risk Control Specialist, conducted a worksite audit, and developed a plan to minimize bending, lifting and reaching for tools.

Now AmSlab productivity is up 3%, and Arik’s enjoying a much healthier bottom line.

When you’re looking for programs that help keep workers safe and businesses strong … ® we can show you more.

To learn how CNA’s insurance programs for contractors can help your business grow more profitably, contact your independent agent or visit www.cna.com/construction.

The examples provided in this material are for illustrative purposes only and any similarity to actual individuals, entities, places or situations is unintentional and purely coincidental. Please remember that only the relevant insurance policy can provide the actual terms, coverages, amounts, conditions and exclusions for an insured. All products and services may not be available in all states and may be subject to change without notice. “CNA” is a service mark registered by CNA Financial Corporation with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Certain CNA Financial Corporation subsidiaries use the “CNA” service mark in connection with insurance underwriting and claims activities. Copyright © 2016 CNA. All rights reserved.