In construction project management, data is just as crucial as concrete, and success increasingly depends not just on bricks and mortar, but on bits and bytes.
But the traditional CRM systems construction companies often use to manage all that data were designed with a one-size-fits-all approach. They often fail to meet the specific needs of construction companies, which then find themselves struggling to adapt standard CRM record types to fit industry-specific data structures with data coming in from many disconnected systems.
Record types aren’t the only obstacle construction companies face, either. They must figure out how to effectively manage project data, resource allocation, compliance records, and communication with subcontractors and clients, all within a system that wasn't built with their needs in mind.
But there is a better way.
Let's explore how you can transform chaotic construction CRM data management into a well-oiled machine that drives your projects to new heights. We'll delve into the complexities of construction data management, address common challenges, and introduce solutions that can help you overcome the hurdles that construction companies face in traditional CRM data management.
Construction companies don't just build infrastructure—they also generate mountains of data that must be managed, including:
While construction companies likely subscribe to software to track and manage their project data, they also must include much of it in their CRM. Here’s why:
CRMs are built to help companies track relationships. Project data is critical to managing relationships with project stakeholders. Sales teams must be aware of ongoing client projects to be precise in new sales discussions. Operations teams may want to trigger CRM automation based on project-related triggers, such as a project reaching 50% completion. Marketing teams can segment customers and send highly targeted campaigns using project data.
Let’s explore some of the common issues that exist for construction industry project management as they track a diverse range of data in their CRMs.
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Construction companies face unique challenges in managing their data. Let’s take a look at some of these issues.
Most CRMs are like Swiss Army knives—versatile, but not always the perfect tool for the job. As a result, construction companies often try to fit square pegs into round holes when adapting standard CRM record types to their needs.
For instance, a typical CRM may have contact, 'company, and deal record types But where do you put building sites, equipment, or material suppliers? It's like trying to organize dozens of specialized tools in a toolbox with only three compartments. Inevitably, critical information will get lost in the shuffle, leading to miscommunication and inefficiencies.
And while your initial reaction might be to ask if that data really needs to be in your CRM or if it can live in the systems designed to house that kind of data—you'd be missing out on opportunities to segment, report, personalize, and utilize that data in marketing and sales processes.
The Dilemma: Custom Fields vs. Custom Objects
When standard record types don't cut it, construction companies face a dilemma: Should they use custom fields or custom objects to track their unique data?
In some cases, such as tracking suppliers or partners, you could store those fairly easily as contacts or companies. For other data, such as project data, you almost certainly have to use a custom object and give the data its own bucket to be stored in.
Custom fields are easier to implement but can quickly clutter a CRM. Additionally, asking your teams to input data manually into custom fields slows them down and can be expected to be forgotten regularly. On the other hand, custom objects offer more flexibility but require more setup and maintenance.
For example, you could choose to track vendors, clients, partners, competitors, government and permitting contacts, and others all on the standard contacts object inside of your CRM. But to do so, you would have to create a range of custom fields to track the data that is specific to each type of contact. As a result, records might be harder to filter and segment when all contact types are stored on the same object.
Or, you could create custom objects to track each entity separately. And while that may follow academic database management best practices, help with organization, and ease reporting — the truth is that using custom objects in most popular CRMs means losing access to features available for standard objects. For example, your custom object might lack deduplication or reporting features. So there are pros and cons to both approaches that need to be considered.
Off-the-shelf CRMs often lack features tailored to the construction industry's complex data structures. For example, most CRMs struggle with hierarchical project structures. A large construction project may involve multiple sub-projects, each with its own timeline, budget, and team. Standard CRMs may or may not offer hierarchal associations for custom objects and often can't represent these relationships intuitively, leading to fragmented data and a lack of big-picture visibility.
This limitation means your teams will spend more time wrestling with their CRM than managing projects. And in an industry where time equals money, that's a problem you can't afford to ignore.
In construction, your CRM must integrate well with other systems, particularly project management systems (PMS), like Procore, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software like Deltek, which represent popular options.
Unfortunately, many construction companies struggle to achieve seamless integration between these systems and their CRM. When systems aren’t integrated, business operations rest on an uneven foundation of multiple, often conflicting data sets, which is sure to cause problems across the company.
Construction projects are marathons, not sprints. Big projects can take years and may be subject to many timetable alterations throughout the life of the project. Tracking progress and performance over extended periods and feeding that data back into CRM processes is crucial for using it in sales and marketing campaigns, but is very challenging.
Let’s say you want to use data from projects completed in the last few years to inform your sales strategy for similar upcoming projects. If your CRM isn't set up to store and analyze historical project data, you'll be flying blind.
This leads to missed opportunities for process improvement, inaccurate forecasting, and a failure to leverage past successes—or learn from past mistakes—in future projects.
Construction projects involve numerous components and stakeholders, making management a significant challenge, especially if your CRM isn’t suited for this complexity. For example, on a single project, you may deal with the client, multiple subcontractors, various suppliers, and your employees. Each of these relationships must be tracked, managed, and nurtured.
Without a robust CRM for construction to manage these interconnected relationships, communication breaks down, responsibilities fall through the cracks, and suddenly, your project timeline looks more like a pretzel than a straight line.
In construction, data without context is like a blueprint without measurements: useless. Many CRMs struggle to provide the deep, construction-specific analytics needed to make informed decisions.
Without robust reporting and analytics, companies miss valuable insights that could improve efficiency, reduce costs, and boost profitability.
But, in many CRMs, using custom objects can limit your access to reporting features.
In the next section, we'll explore how Insycle tackles these challenges head-on.
Insycle offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to tackle construction companies' unique data management challenges. Here are some of the ways Insycle can help you get your construction data management under control.
With Insycle, you can work with custom fields, custom objects, or a mix of the two approaches. Insycle integrates with custom fields by default, and custom objects can be added to your plan and prioritized as needed.
With both options, you have access to custom fields and objects in all Insycle modules, allowing you to perform any data management task just as you would for standard objects and fields.
Insycle's Customer Data Health Assessment feature acts like a vigilant site inspector for your database. It continuously monitors for common errors and allows you to create custom templates tailored to construction-specific data issues.
Out of the box, the assessment tracks more than 30 common data issues in your database but can also be customized to track issues specific to your company or industry.
For example, you could set up alerts for:
The screenshot below shows the alerts you can set for the Health Assessment.
Insycle's powerful filtering capabilities are like having x-ray vision for your CRM. Whether you're dealing with thousands of stakeholders all crammed into your contacts object or have custom objects for every type of hard hat on site, Insycle can break through the clutter.
You can easily filter and analyze data across any record type or field. Need to find all subcontractors with expired insurance policies? Or perhaps you're looking for all active projects with a budget over $1 million? Insycle makes these complex queries as simple as reading a blueprint.
For example, the screenshot below shows how you could segment your data to show contacts in the home services industry and view the records in that category. Then, you could refine your filter by adding additional rules, such as viewing home service industry contacts that had engaged with your emails within the last six months.
A construction project requires seamless coordination between various teams, which is impossible without solid relationship data. Insycle helps you manage the intricate relationships between records in your CRM. Whether you’re using standard CRM objects or have built a custom data structure, Insycle ensures all your stakeholders are properly connected.
Using Insycle, you can link subcontractors to specific projects, associate employees with their certifications, or connect suppliers with the materials they provide. This relational data management maintains a clear overview of your projects and stakeholders.
For example, the screenshot below shows how you can associate contacts to companies in Insycle, in bulk, using the email domain of the contact and the domain name of the company. And while this example is for contacts and companies, you can create associations for any custom object using Insycle.
Insycle's deduplication feature removes duplicates with surgical accuracy.
Using any field as a matching criterion, you can deduplicate any record type, whether it's contacts, projects, or equipment. For instance, you could merge duplicate subcontractor records based on license number, ensuring you retain the most up-to-date information from each record. In the example below, we’re matching duplicates based on first and last name and email domain.
The screenshot below shows how you could use Insycle to match duplicates using first name, last name, and email domain. You could build multiple templates to help you catch more duplicates.
Inconsistent data throws a wrench into your operations, but Insycle's standardization features ensure your data is uniform. You can standardize any text field in your database, from job titles to project statuses. In the example below, variants like C.E.O., CEO, Chief Executive, have been standardized to Chief Executive Officer.
With your entire database standardized, you improve your personalization, project management, segmentation, and reporting—all of which help to facilitate better decision-making across your organization.
With Insycle, construction companies can build a solid foundation of clean, well-organized data to support efficient project data management and execution and informed decision-making.
Poor data management in construction can be devastating, leading to project delays, compromised safety, inefficient resource allocation, and ultimately, reduced profitability. But just as modern engineering has revolutionized construction techniques, Insycle transforms how construction companies manage their CRM data.
That being said, Insycle isn't just a solution for construction CRM data. It's a comprehensive customer data management platform.
Insycle provides a robust set of tools tailored to the construction industry's needs, facilitating customizable data monitoring and advanced filtering, complex association management, and precise record deduplication.
Ready to lay the groundwork for better data management in your construction business? Don't let poor data quality be the weak link in your projects. Explore how Insycle can help you build a stronger, more efficient program for construction industry data management.