What makes the best app for construction management?

Every sector makes different demands of its apps. It shouldn’t be news that retail requires different functionality than catering, and that manufacturing tends to have different app needs than services. The first lesson of Design 101 is “fit your solution to the sector”.

So what is the best app for construction? The best app agencies will always tell you that the best app is the one that has been designed specifically for your needs – and that’s true. But it’s also true that app development for construction will need to tick particular boxes whichever specific business has commissioned the app.

Consider our own effort for the sector, Under Construction. It’s a project management tool that offers real-time form submission and statuses, visualisation of jobs and remote access 24/7, accurate reporting and paperwork management – it’s the ultimate tool-kit.

All construction firms will benefit from this sort of centralised and auditable project management tool. Within its features, many elements are configurable – and it’s here that the important tailoring for a specific company, project or even worker comes into its own.

In other words, our answer to the question, “What is the best construction management software?” is: whichever app offers the greatest flexibility within your sector’s shared frameworks.

Our Under Construction app, for instance, enables users to ensure that every aspect of their work is compliant with all safety regulations. It push notifications to supervisors to ensure nothing is missed – and features ‘sign-off’ functionality so all workers are aware of what has and has not been approved.

These requirements are in place across the sector – meaning the tools Under Construction provides are broadly applicable. Our view, however, is that this is the start rather than the endpoint: the best apps for construction will within this wider framework provide a large degree of customisability.

For example, precisely which forms a company uses, and what their format might be, can change across competitors. Likewise, the precise supervisory structure will be different across separate companies. Good app development for construction – and indeed in any sector – will ensure the flexibility necessary to account for these differences.

The best apps are intuitive and seamless: they need to become part of a team’s workflow easily and with minimal resistance. That requires an app not just to be easy to use and comprehensive in how it records and displays actions, reports and notices: it means an app must fit exactly each individual company’s needs – while also fulfilling all those sector-wide requirements.

This mix of the general and the specific is the key to all great app design. An app that is customisable for an individual business whilst being based on a sector-wide framework is also cost-effective: the wheel just has to be checked, not reinvented.

Easy, affordable, efficient and compliant: that’s what the best construction management software needs to be. It’s what Under Construction achieves – and, honestly, we think that’s what makes it the best app for construction management!