The heavy civil contracting sector needs specific job management software.

From his own experience as a project manager, Engineering Technology student Abdullah Faisal was aware that some companies still use paper timesheets to capture what work each staff member is doing on what job. This is particularly so in small to medium enterprises (SMEs) employing 20 or fewer staff, and in industries like mining and forestry services where employees are engaged on various work sites.

For his final year research project Abdullah decided to investigate the need for sector-specific software and how that need might be met.  Abdullah began by carrying out a competitor analysis. Some industry-specific software tools were not suitable for heavy civil contracting, while others were too expensive for SMEs.

Abdullah designed a minimum viable product that would meet the needs of the heavy civil contracting sector for a job management system, including the back-end architecture, data capture and management, and user interface on a smart phone. It is built around the individual timesheet where an employee can record the time spent on each job. Having a digital job management system would automate and streamline contracting to save time and money and drive business profitability:

• Real time reporting on job progress and costs, as soon as an employee comes back into cellphone coverage
• No processing delays for wages
• Avoid duplication in data entry for payroll and job management
• Increased productivity and efficiency with job allocation able to occur while employees are already out at work

Abdullah is continuing development of this product for the New Zealand market and he has started a company, Entivik, with a team of collaborators. 

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