1.  Do you have the ability to set and track specific custom goals?

Not every construction project has the same goals, in fact, many times the goals can vary greatly depending on region, funding, or internal business goals. It is really important to not only capture your data, but to be able to track if you are accomplishing your goals based on the data that has been entered. InSight empowers you to set and track project-specific goals as well as contractor-specific goals. We understand the contractor-specific goals are crucial in accomplishing your overall project goals. You can set and track labor and workforce goals (Minority Hours, Female Hours, Local) and business goals (MBE, WBE, DBE, SBE, Section 3, Veteran, Local etc.). You can also hold subcontractors to customized goal because you know they have the capacity, or not, to meet that goal.

2.  Can you develop a custom report to mirror the local, state or federal report I’m required to submit?

Not only do you want to ask if the software can produce a custom report, but you also want to ask about the timeline. We have heard horror stories of projects/clients going over a year without receiving their custom report. Be sure to find out if they can create it, how long will it actually take before you can see and download the report. With InSight we capture all the required data from every contractor and supplier at each tier. We can customize reports for projects or entire programs, making it easy for our customers to securely collect data, automate, generate and even e-sign reports. We also have a much shorter turnaround time on reports than our competitors.

3.  If I need to collect specific documentation from the contractors on each project, can I customize the documents I need to manage on each project?

Document storage can be an important part of any construction project. It helps to have one central software or place to not only track your data, but the accompanying documentation. The more functionality you can have in one software product, the less work for you and/or your employees. InSight empowers you to customize your document management feature for each project. On past projects, InSight’s Custom Upload feature has been used to store, upload and report on items like: Lien Waivers, required business filings, non-cash fringe, employee specific docs & more.

4. Am I able to export reports for specific individual projects or project phases, instead of exporting all the data within that designated time period?

This is important to know because often reports may need to be delivered monthly or quarterly, and there may be different reports for different projects. Some projects may have Davis-Bacon compliance and others may not. Some large P3 projects are often broken out into phases, and contractors need to report on the goals and the subcontractors of each phase. Our customers can generate reports for specific projects, project phases or all their projects, and for specific time periods (last month, last quarter, last year, project start-to-date, etc.).

5.  Will my subcontractors at every tier be able to enter or import their payrolls?

Payroll entry and data entry overall can be challenging for contractors. SkillSmart seeks to make payroll entry as seamless as possible, whether it’s having the ability for contractors to enter payroll themselves, import it into our system, or integrate with a payroll or accounting software. Not every workforce tracking software makes it this easy to import payroll, especially since many of them are built with outdated and process-heavy technology.

6.  Will your software help the users know and report if they are paying the correct wages or are out of wage compliance?

Not only is it important to track all of the data being entered into the system, but it’s important to know if there are issues with the data. Whether it’s a notification or a warning, you need to clearly and quickly know if you are out of wage compliance. We provide standard reports and downloads which include wage compliance reports. We also provide guidance in our software, to help the users know what the required wage rate is for a particular worker classification on that project. Our software also notifies the user when an employee is being paid less than they are supposed to, and are out of compliance.

7.  Is training and support included or is that an additional cost?

This is a significant issue to be aware of when shopping for any kind of DE&I or labor tracking software. SkillSmart is a Software-and-a-Service company. In app support, training, webinars, a live person on the phone are all apart of our service, included with your subscription.

It may be assumed that if you purchase a software product, training, documentation and support are included. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Many companies have paid training, paid support and even paid certifications for employees. This typically means that the systems are so complex to use, that the software company fully expects you to need a significant amount of training or time spent learning the product in order to use it effectively. SkillSmart continues to update our software to mirror the expectations of the market. When you deploy InSight you are not getting a software service that was developed 10 years ago, with expectations that it will function correctly for projects that are under construction or even development at this point.

8.  Is your software capable of integrating with my financial management software (SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft, JD Edwards, CMiC, Foundation Software)?

It may seem hard to believe, but based on the outdated technology of some of our competitors, they cannot easily integrate with other software. You may be looking at expensive custom development or a lengthy timeline to get an integration properly set up.

SkillSmart provides our customers with custom system integrations, either through securely exporting and importing data, or with APIs. This saves an enormous amount of time for you and drastically reduces or eliminates the need for repetitive data entry. We also know that workforce, labor, and business tracking all require different levels of tracking, but all connect together to keep your company running. SkillSmart is always seeking to form partnerships with other technology providers within the industry to add value for our clients and make it easier to manage the day-to-day needs of any project.

If you are interested in learning more about InSight technology and how this technology supports DE&I and labor compliance tracking across a variety of sectors, click here.