InEight Inc., a global leader in construction project management software, today announced enhancements to its planning, scheduling and risk offering to deliver the most intelligent and multi-dimensional planning solution for capital projects.
With increased infrastructure spending widely seen as a path to global economic recovery, the need among capital project owners and contractors for data-backed confidence around project cost and schedule is more important than ever before. Now InEight helps project managers, schedulers, workforce planners and estimators remove risk from the bottom line and increase confidence with the most complete risk analytics toolbox on the market today.
“At Project Controls Cubed, we are successfully managing cost and schedule risk for several multi-billion-dollar projects simultaneously. You can’t do that very efficiently without using state-of-the-art software solutions that automatically identify risks and suggest ways to mitigate them,” said Jeff Campbell, director of virtual planning, Project Controls Cubed, a virtual design and construction consultancy.
“InEight not only enables us to do that with today’s projects but tomorrow’s projects as well with built-in artificial intelligence that continually learns from past projects to improve the plans and schedules for future ones.”
InEight Planning, Scheduling & Risk uses artificial intelligence (AI) and data from previous projects to identify threats in current projects and recommend risk mitigation strategies. The solution’s intuitive interface enables a seamless user experience that delivers clear and actionable insights on risk management.
“We’re democratising access to world-class risk assessment for construction by building the most complete risk analysis and mitigation capabilities on the market and making them easy enough for anyone to use,” said Nathan St John, head of product, scheduling and risk, InEight.
“Risks are not static – they move with the ebbs and flows of the project, so getting an accurate picture of total risk exposure across an entire capital project in real-time has been something reserved for organisations with big budgets and a dedicated risk expert on staff. With InEight, now you have a complete Cloud-based solution that continuously monitors total project risk, finds threats and then takes the extra step of surfacing and prioritising mitigation options.”
New InEight capabilities for total project risk management include:
- Multiple Risk Mitigation Assignments and Tracking completes the cost schedule risk assessment (CSRA) and fills the gap between identifying threats and taking the right corrective measures by using AI to intelligently recommend mitigation actions with the highest probability of success.
- Schedule Critique an always-on AI assistant that runs in the background to offer real-time assessments of the soundness of a project schedule, suggest improvements, and give feedback to ensure the schedule is ready for risk analysis.
- Enhanced Risk Register allows for better management of threats and opportunities with advanced categorisation, tracking and analysis of risk across multiple projects and seamless promotion of risk items previous to current projects.
- Cost Risk integrates risk from two key pillars of project controls – cost and schedule – to provide total project risk analysis. If a schedule takes longer, it is likely to cost more. Breaking the silo between two critical aspects of a capital project can help reduce added costs.
The democratisation of data-driven risk analysis in construction has long-reaching implications, including a potential shift in owner/contractor relationships.
As risk analysis matures in the capital projects space, contractors who can use data to prove a higher chance of meeting their proposed budget and schedule – even if at a slightly higher price tag – will see more winning bids and improved performance. This not only boosts owner confidence, but also helps to improve owner/contractor relationships once the project is underway. With real-time visibility into risk exposures and their impact on project cost and timelines, a collaborative and assured approach to project management helps to protect the bottom line and achieve timely outcomes.