John Foster, group sales manager, Baris Facades and Linings
What we used to do with laptops in the past is now being done on iPads and smartphones. All of our project managers get given one. We’re a Nottingham firm with a nationwide reach, so tablet technology sits well with our need to information-share on a national level. They are used as a matter of course in project progress meetings — we can connect with our main server and update information and schedules from them.
We see this as just the beginning. We’re aiming for ISO90001 quality assurance and hopefully a paperless office. We’re considering BIM as a long-term aim, but in this economic climate, we want to concentrate on the task in hand rather than being distracted by that.
Sajeesh Nair ICIOB, contracts director, Davis Builders
All our contract managers have them, allowing them to connect with the office. For projects, you have to be a bit savvy — there’s no desktop to speak of, so you have to organise storage of files in a dropbox so that you can then remotely download it at a meeting or on site. It’s also fantastic for general emailing between us and the architect.
Apart from obviously being good for photos, we don’t find it’s so useful for snagging, as this is more about distributing hard copy information to the design team and the subcontractors so that everyone knows what needs to be signed off. An iPad could do that, but it would involve everyone having one.
It has made a difference to us as a firm. When we were using laptops before, there were always software problems and always monthly charges from our IT support consultancy. While there’s less functionality with the iPad, it’s far easier for everyone to use, less problematic, and has less costs associated with it. The iPad merges hardware and makes day-to-day working more hassle-free.
Steve Gilbert MCIOB, director, Advanced Project Solutions
As a construction consultancy, we’ve found a lot of use for the iPad in our day-to-day office functioning. We’re all allocated them and they’re a business expense. We’re writing reports on them and analysing contractor estimates and surveyor specifications sent to us. Frankly they’ve been superb. Information can be emailed between consultants without the paperwork. For taking site photos and note making on site it’s extremely handy.
They’ve just proved themselves so good at cutting down admin, paperwork, and misinterpretation. People write up their own meeting notes and take greater responsibility for them. As a result there’s more quality control.
Celeste Williams-Condor MCIOB, risk manager, Mace Group
Though I’m not using them specifically, certainly as a company-wide drive to tech-up, the company is putting structures in place, so things are bubbling just under the surface — mainly with the setting up of the Microsoft “Link” remote collaborative tool. Directors are all equipped with iPads.
In risk management, I would say that we still very much veer towards laptop usage rather than tablets. We use a lot of standalone software systems that aren’t compatible with tablets, so their use is limited in my particular specialisation.
Ian Brant MCIOB, associate director, Brant Associates
As consultants, we’re dealing more with dispute resolution and final accounting, so our iPads aren’t being used as site tools, so to speak. It’s definitely a tool used for meetings. We’re using Excel, Word and Outlook — it’s easier to use and far less cumbersome than a laptop, although we do always have to have the latest version of Power Project on there. For what we do, I can’t see us purely using the iPad with its current level of functionality.
To some extent we’ll also use it as a marketing tool, connecting with Twitter and LinkedIn — although this can be done as easily on a phone. Dispute resolution can involve going through reams of contract paperwork, all of which we need to electronically archive at some point. We would aspire to being a paperless office, but given the nature of the business, that may be some way off.
Click here to read about tablets’ involvement in augmented reality
