Building a digital future for the construction industry

When it comes to digitisation, the construction industry has a bit of a bad rap. Despite being one of the biggest industries in the world, McKinsey reckons it has been one of the slowest to digitise and innovate. Yet things are changing, fast.

You only need to glance at the conference agenda from the recent Sydney Build Expo to see how far things have come. Many of the sessions at Australia’s largest construction and design show covered tech topics like AI, digitisation, and innovation. For the 20,000+ attendees — comprised mainly of contractors, architects, engineers, developers and construction professionals — the message was clear. Digitise, or get left behind.

Knowing just how much manual, paper-based agreement processes can slow down construction projects, while increasing costs and creating financial risk, we couldn’t agree more. Indeed, even just small steps in the digital direction can yield great results — a recent Docusign survey found that construction companies with fully digital, paper-free agreement processes experience 4% higher profit margins and 3x faster contract turnarounds.

Living up to its vision

To explore the impact that Docusign can have in the construction industry, we hosted a fireside chat at the Sydney Build Expo (where we were a proud sponsor). We sat down with David Kamel from project management firm Creative Vision to discuss how they’ve integrated Docusign into their operations to enhance efficiencies and simplify their processes. 

According to its website, Creative Vision pushes boundaries for its clients — while exercising efficient and optimal execution methods, and ensuring deliverables that are timely, cost-effective and ultimately, successful.

There are some keywords that really stand out in this mission: ‘efficient’, ‘optimal’, ‘timely’, ‘cost-effective’. Traits that are best served with streamlined, automated and digitised processes. It’s why Creative Vision has always been at the forefront of technology adoption in the project management space. And Docusign is the ideal fit. 

Creative Vision uses Docusign eSignature to procure consultants, manage onboarding, and facilitate the design phase of construction projects. It ensures a seamless flow of client contracts from tender to design approval. 

“The good thing is, we’re getting directors to sign these contracts — not just anybody — so we’ve got control, and that’s an important aspect of our process,” said David. “We’re dealing with 30-40 entities with every project. Then when it heads off to the head contractor, there’s another run of contracts. Then there’s 40 or so subcontractors, around 15 suppliers, and then we have a consent authority sign off which is another 15 documents.”

David estimates that Docusign helps drive a 40% increase in efficiency in the procurement process, saving significant time and effort for all stakeholders. It all adds up, with around $5,000 in savings on contract management per project.

Docusign’s seamless integration with Procore, the construction management software that Creative Vision uses every day, is another big win. “When we onboard the commitments of subcontractors on Procore, we’ll go out to tender using the tender tool on Procore. Once this is finalised and we’re ready for the execution of contracts, we’ll upload this contract and issue it seamlessly via the Docusign plug-in with Procore,” David said.

“I’ve used Docusign for over eight years. Since the inception and since I started Creative Vision, it was one of the first software packages I implemented immediately. The whole team is upskilled with it and we operate blindly with it. Our clients love it. Our stakeholders love it.”

Are you ready to modernise?

If your organisation operates in the construction industry and you, too, want to reap the significant time and cost savings that a solution like Docusign delivers, it’s easy to get started. Explore Docusign for Construction or get in touch to find out more.