Want to hear a wild idea?
Here it is: a new app. One that perfectly replicates the current system of managing Change Orders and RFI’s, as operated by thousands of businesses every single day.
How does it work?
Glad you asked. Here’s a typical day in the office using the non-revolutionary, same old same old NoChange App. (NoChange is just a working title, by the way; it might end up being called Project MisManagement.)
Ding!
New email. Might be something to do with your projects, maybe. Open Outlook for a peek. Nope. Early Bird on Health & Safety Conference in mid-August next year. Delete.
Ding!
New email. Let’s take a look in case it’s urgent. Timesheets to be submitted before Teresa goes on holiday next Thursday.
Ding!
New email. Take a look. Cake on the second floor at 4 this afternoon for Jeannie who is celebrating 23 years with the company.
Ding!
New email. Better check. UPDATE!! Cake now at 3:30 instead of 4 for Jeannie who is celebrating 23 years with the company.
Ding!
Whatsapp message from Clive.
Ding!
Whatsapp message from Clive.
Ding!
Whatsapp message from Clive.
Ding!
Whatsapp message from Clive.
Clive’s the subcontractor on one of your projects. Bit of a clown. Still, must be urgent if he sent four photos. Maybe the concrete didn’t arrive. Or was it a problem with those curved steel beams, or… ?
Nope.
Clive just forwarded you a few ‘funny’ photos that went viral two years ago. You’ve seen them twenty times before. You didn’t find them funny the last nineteen times. In particular, if that last photo ever saw the light of day in court, you’d probably be disowned by your company, your wife and your parents. You reply with a laughing emoticon :-D.
Ding!
New email. Spam. Delete.
Which reminds you: better check the Spam folder as some of the emails from one subcontractor keep ending up in there.
Ding!
Missed call and voicemail from Jim. Jim’s the QS. Must be important. Beep.
“We’re playing golf over at Greenlawn House this evening if you’re interested. Tee off at ten past six.” Beep. Send Jim quick text. “Count me in.”
Ding!
New email. PRINTER OUT!! Repairman has been called. Please use downstairs printer.
Ding!
New email. Computer has automatically quarantined the email and stripped the attachment (may contain virus) showing the markups for the Change Order as agreed on site. Spend ten minutes swearing under your breath and trying to recover email. Call IT to get ‘Administrator’ approval to download attachment. Print attachment to have a proper look at it. Go back to desk to send attachment to downstairs printer. Spend ten minutes figuring out which printer is which on the list.
Ding!
New email. Half-paying attention to the printed attachment, you drag new email into the wrong job folder. This email will never again be seen. A pity, as it was fairly important.
Ding!
New email. ALLERGIES!! As Rita has a cake allergy, the lemon sponge cake will now be Rice Krispies minicakes.
Ding!
New email. DOWNSTAIRS PRINTER!! From the boss-boss. Refrain from printing if possible, as downstairs printer uses colour ink and is expensive. Reminder that we are a paperless office and are committed to the environment.
Ding!
Call from Clive. He pushes you into agreeing that those photos were ‘the funniest things I ever saw’. He then wants to know if you got the RFI email yet. You explain that you are looking at it, right this second, Clive.
Ding!
Weekly Reminder: Update the RFI/Change Order Spreadsheets for all Projects. Dismiss reminder. That would about three more hours than you have time for today.
Well, so far, so good. All of this has taken up about half of your morning, and you have achieved absolutely nothing, but that’s alright. You’ll look back fondly upon the morning as the productive part of your day, because it’s all about to go south.
Ding!
Reminder. Send Change Order to Jim the QS for review/approval.
Easy, you think. Unfortunately, that is the wrong answer.
- Open the company’s standard MS Word (or Excel) document template for Change Orders.
- Copy details of change order from three emails and a stream of Whatsapp messages into the template.
- Call Dave (who’s good at computers) to stop the numbers jumping around the page. Dave calls this formatting.
- Dave calls Linda (Receptionist) in from the front desk to fix the formatting.
- Forty-five minutes later, Dave and Linda call IT.
- IT send a representative from downstairs to explain (once again) that things like the MS Change Order Template are not their baby. Talk to Kevin, the company’s Documents Control man. Everyone groans. Dave and Linda go back to their own desks.
- Linda reports back that Kevin is not at hisdesk. He is in fact on a conference call this morning with head office.
- After lunch, Kevin appears. Dave and Linda reappear. Kevin explains that you cannot cut-and-paste numbers into templates. Linda politely disagrees. Tempers flare. Things are said. Linda is crying. Voices are raised. Kevin is filing a complaint with HR against Dave.
- Much later, you begin to insert numbers manually into the template.
- Figures look way off.
- Spend a half hour checking the template figures using your trusty calculator.
- Spend another half hour trying to change the numbers on Kevin’s Template so that they are correct.
- Sigh in relief. Job done. Well, almost.
- PDF document.
- PDF document in A4 Portrait instead of A2 Landscape.
- PDF document with correct job number.
- Write email for Change Order.
- Send email with attachment.
- Send email with attachment, including everyone this time.
- Send email with correct attachment this time.
- Reply to confused email from Jamie Sutton, asking him to please disregard and delete the earlier emails. Explain that he was accidentally included on the email instead of John Sutton.
- Respond to the emails from everyone else, thanking them for helpfully pointing out that you have included another Sutton and not John Sutton.
- Respond to phonecall from wife wondering why you didn’t pick up youngest child at 3:30. (It is now 5:45.)
- Call Jim the QS, apologising for bailing on golf at the last minute.
- Pen a threatening email to the makers of MS Word, the IT department, Kevin the template maker, and the makers of NoChange App, blaming them for ruining your life and stealing your sanity.
- Step away from your desk.
Ding!
What’s this?
New sanity-saving app announced. Welcome to the wonderful world of +AddJust.