Survey reveals opportunities in project cost management

New survey results announced today from Procore are shedding light on both the challenges and opportunities for the Canadian construction industry when it comes to project management costs.

Developed in partnership with Dodge Data, the survey revealed that Canada (at 68 per cent) leads the way in one specific area: knowing where they’re making or losing money at any given moment.

Still, with under one-fifth of respondents stating that they’re spending the right amount of money on technology, there’s definitely room to grow here in terms of adoption and scaling up.

Among the highlights of the survey:

• Canadian organizations are split when it comes to employing technology to track projects and costs. Many still use multiple apps and spreadsheets to manage information. There’s a fair amount of confidence among respondents in terms of their ability to track project information well enough to help their businesses, but clearly, there’s room for improvement in certain areas.
• Owners are more confident that they can manage their costs than contractors, while general contractors are more sure about this than specialty trades.
• The biggest cost-management challenge for Canadian organizations is determining appropriate contingency amounts.
• In terms of future needs required to improve project cost management, forecasting real-time data from the field was the top response, globally. Canadian respondents cited the ability to dynamically track every dollar in their budget as the most important factor.

“The report shows that construction owners and contractors alike are ready and able to participate in a more holistic and integrated cost management approach,” said Stephen Jones, senior director of industry insights, Dodge Data.