Live Demo: See Construction 365 Deliver a Complete Project View

Mike Paul:

Welcome everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today. We’re excited to present live for you. A selection of integrations that are part of the Construction 365 Solution. Construction 365 is really the unification of CRM, ERP, BIM, Risk, EDMS, and Project Controls all into one solution. Combining InEight and our products with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 offering for the ERP. It’s really focused on construction and capital project sector and we’re excited to have you here today. First, let’s introduce our team.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Hi everybody. My name is Elia Burgueño. I’m a Client Success Manager with InEight. I’m currently located in the Netherlands and I will be doing the demonstration of today. I’m a civil engineer so my background is in construction. I implemented InEight solutions myself in my former company and I had many roles in the past with InEight implementing the solution. So it’s very nice to meet you all today. And hopefully this is a great webinar for everybody. Syed over to you.

Syed Sadiq:

Thank you Elia. Hi everyone. This is Syed Sadiq from HSO. I’m a Technical Lead there. I’m part of the implementation team, I mean the product team, which builds design interfaces between InEight and D365. I’m also part of the team, which is implementing these interfaces to our D365 customers. I’m here to answer any of the technical questions around these interfaces. Thank you. Turn it over to you, Petter.

Petter Merok:

Thank you, Syed. My name is Petter Merok and I’m the Industry Executive for the construction in AEC industry in Norway. We see in Norway quite a lot of excitement around both the InEight solution and what we’re trying to do here in bringing together all those concepts that Mike was saying, to increase the value, reduce expenditure obviously, and increase margins, and reduce waste, et cetera. So quite a lot of excitement, and I’m glad to be part of this team and conversation.

Mike Paul:

Well, thank you, Petter. That comes to me. So I’m the moderator today. My name is Mike Paul. I’m the Managing Director of the Europe, Middle East and Africa operations at InEight. But I’ve also most recently been Vice President of industry solutions where I became one of the internal experts on the Construction 365 solution, and really developing it into the packaged product we have today, a product that is available on the Microsoft app source. So you’re actually able to go in and see it and see that it is certified by Microsoft and is more than just a custom integration for one client. It is a readily used, and readily available, and almost entirely out of the box set of integrations. So we’re excited today to have this opportunity and we thought the best way to do it would be to show it live. So many integrations don’t have that opportunity because they have to be tested to such an extent. And they’re unique for certain environments.

Mike Paul:

We are using the off the shelf offering of D365, the off the shelf offering of InEight with a selection of the 32 off the shelf offerings of these integrations. So quick background on InEight, we’ve been around for over 30 years, focused on the construction and capital project sector, virtually all industries, commercial, civil, oil and gas, mining, energy, and we’re all over the world. So we have over 300,000 users on six continents, and we have a complete platform that we believe is set to deliver project certainty. Meaning if you start at the beginning and finish and use that information, everything along the way is something that is more predictable and manageable and helps you finish under budget, finish within the schedule, and learn and continually learn from every project and every opportunity so that mistakes are minimized and corrections are made as quickly as possible.

Mike Paul:

Our company is full of engineers that come from the sector and we believe in constantly building and enhancing the product to meet the needs of the industry. And we have very good relationships with our clients because we do come from the sector and can usually understand a lot of the challenges being faced today. So we are excited to be a part of this. Syed?

Syed Sadiq:

Yep. Thanks Mike. The HSO ProServ partnered with InEight in building these interfaces. So we have the gold partner and also be a part of the inner circle for Microsoft. We are a Microsoft leading global provider for Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions and services to professional services organizations under the project-driven industries. HSO ProServ combines the power of Microsoft cloud, internally developed and we have many ISV solutions which are built in-house to support these service industries. Our key industries, we cover our A/E/C, accounting, consulting, and legal.

Mike Paul:

Wonderful. Thank you. And you bring up a point that I think is worth mentioning. InEight is also built with the power and the power apps of the Microsoft cloud in Azure. So the coming together was made more seamless by the fact that we both had the same backend power and technology. We’re an independent product, but we use many of the tools that are available from Microsoft to provide the best integrations within our system and with other systems as well. Elia, I’d like to now turn it over to you so that you can introduce C365 and take us through some of those integrations today.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Perfect. Thank you, Mike. So, as Mike was mentioning at the beginning, we kind of put together the Microsoft platform and the InEight platform to build what we call Construction 365, which is really a unified enterprise platform that we’ll cover for you, your back office, your project offers, and your field operations. We can handle all your project needs from marketing to pre-construction, including also project and financial close out. We will also talk about four specific interfaces and specific areas for these demonstration today. So first we’ll talk about master data. There’s always data that we share across multiple projects, things like equipment, employees, the users, the materials that we may need to build those purchase orders. So all these information, it’s part of our integrations. Then we’ll touch on budget and revenue. Of course, part of that integration is when we talk about budget, if there’s any changes to that budget, the forecast associated to it, but we will be also receiving actual costs and maybe a revenue as well from the Dynamic side as well.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Then we will move over to manpower data, really field executions. So what happens when we capture hours and quantities in the field, what can we do with the data and how we receive back this information from a budget and actuals perspective. And last but not least, we’ll talk about purchasing, and invoicing, and the vendor data. So with that, we are going to go through a process of the purchase order. We are going to talk about receipts, accruals, and how we can actually do the three way matching with the payment forms and receive payment back from Dynamics. And with that, I’m going to go ahead and start sharing my screen and we’re going to kick off the demonstration.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

All right. So one of the first areas that we discuss is regarding master data. Now you’ll see that on my left side of the screen, I do have InEight, I do have a project open already. And on my right side, I do have Dynamics, finance and operations solution. And when we talk about master data, one of the first things that we discussed is the materials for purchasing the equipment, employees. But first I want to show you also vendors because actually, because we are going to show some vendor data, we are going to show also the integration between vendors. And in order to do that, I’m going to go ahead and go here. And I’m going to pull the all vendors screen and in InEight we are going to do that by going to our master data libraries and go to our vendors list. Now you’ll see that the vendor list, there’s information that we share in both systems.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

So when we create a vendor in Dynamics, this is automatically push to the InEight Suite. It’s not only the vendor data or any associated fields that this vendor may have. It’s also, when we talk about the type, what we call the vendor type, or also the vendor group in the Dynamic site. So all this information comes across automatically. We also talk about those employees and equipments. So we are going to go to see those employees and we are going to do the same on the InEight site. We’re going to first focus on employees, again, information that we are going to share across both platforms. We create them in Dynamics and they are automatically pushed over to InEight.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

And the same thing will happen when we talk about pieces of equipment. So if we go to the equipment, you’ll see that the same information is actually share between both systems, when we talk about pieces of equipment. Now, for employees and equipment, something that also happens is the assignment of those employees, users, equipment, or materials at the project level. And we can do that assignment also through Dynamics and be automatically pushed into InEight. So we are going to go to that specific project. The Belky Building project that we had before and see what are the assigned resources at that project. We’re going to pull the old projects here and we’ll, that is being open. I’m going to go to these projects and see which are the assigned operational resources. I’m going to search for this project on the Dynamic side.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

And while I do that, you will also see, allow me to make this screen bigger. And we are going to see which are the assigned resources in this project. Now you’ll see that for both systems, we do have the list of assigned resources, same will happen with the assigned piece of equipment. We also share those pieces of equipment that we are going to use when we create those daily plans. And when we start executing the work in the field, we are going to claim man-hours and equipment hours. So these are the resources that we are going to use to claim those hours and quantities as the work is being executed in the field. There’s other pieces of the master data integration that we displayed on the PowerPoint. We can also talk about materials. Again, we will display them later when we pull them to a contract, but there’s other pieces of information that we share between Dynamics and InEight such as the project details when there’s a project creation, we can do that process also simultaneously in both systems.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

And with that, let’s go ahead and start talking about budget. What happens once we have created that project in InEight once we have that cost breakdown instructor, how do we integrate that information between InEight and Dynamics? So in order to do that, I’m going to go to our control solution, our control solution and InEight allows us to track the budget of the project, any changes associated to it. We can also receive actual information from an accounting system. In this case from Dynamics, for example, and we can also talk about forecasting, multiple changes that we can create in the system. And it’s also the place where we do have the deliverables, the milestones, the pay items that we have agreed with the client that we are going to build this project based upon. So with these, you’ll see that right now in my left side of the screen, I do have open InEight control and I have what we call the cost breakdown structure register.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

These cost breakdown structure register may contain as many detail as you want. It can contain also many different levels of information. I’m going to do the same here and go back to these project and opened the work breakdown structure. Now you’ll see that we can actually push this information from one place to the other, and these sync options that we have are available under these action menu, they can be triggered by the user, or they can also be a scheduled. So that if there’s any changes that we know that we’re going to affect our budget, or any changes on the forecasting, or it’s at the end of the month, we need to receive some actuals or, at the end of the week. We can trigger these synchronizations manually, or they can be a scheduled so that they happen when users really know that information is going to be pulled or push.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Something information, something that is key also, when we talk about our cost breakdown structure is what we call the WBS phase code. And if I scroll to my right here in Dynamics, you’ll see that we have information such as phase code, if there’s where any change or there’s, or even the account code is information that we are pushing over to Dynamics in case users need it. But these phase code is unique at the line item level. And it’s actually the unique identifier that we use to push and pull information so that it really matches the level and the cost item, the activity that we want. If we keep scrolling to our right, I created this summary view in the InEight control solution so that we can talk a little bit about budget too.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Because the first time that we actually create this project, we do have a baseline that we want to compare us against and that’s what we call the original budget. As the project starts and execution also starts, there’s always changes that we want to do with what we had in our baseline. We may want to adjust productivity, quantities, man-hours. We do have these sandbox, these current estimate that we use to make those changes. Now, some of these changes may become changes that we go through our project manager or upper management, and they may become approving this project. And when that happens, they affect what we call our current budget. So these current budget is actually the one that contains all the changes that have been approved in this project. Now, when we talk about budget, this is also something that we can have visible in our Dynamic site. And in order to do that, you’ll see that we have a section here to analyze the project budget. And these project budget area will contain all those numbers and changes that we just talked about.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

What is the original budget, how many changes have been approved, and the total budget approved. We also talked about forecasting briefly and we do have a lot of functionality around forecasting. We even have our own forecasting view where users can compare multiple forecasts, see variances, and decide which is the forecast that they push as the live forecast. And that’s really the one that we also push to Dynamics what we call the live forecast, but users have multiple options when we talk about forecasting. They may decide to basically assign a different forecast methods for different cost items. And again, once they have decided that, that will be the live forecast that again, if you remember, we also push to Dynamics. Back into Dynamic site, you’ll see that we also have this information available. So if I go back to my project, we can see the forecasting that has been pushed again from InEight to Dynamics, at the line item level, at which cost category we have pushed that. And what are the amounts and the prices that we extend with this information.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Another important piece, when we talk about the integration between InEight, and Dynamics, and the Construction 365 level is when we talked about billing revenue. And before we actually do that, there has to be somewhere that we actually push those deliverables. Those milestones that we have agreed with our client, we call those pay items. And if I click here, you’ll see that we do have the pay items for these projects. There could be as many pay items as you want. And there’s an obvious association between pay items and our cost breakdown structure. Each cost item may have been identified or assigned to these pay items. Now, part of this integration is actually that we can see the billed revenue details as the work is being executed in the field. And as quantity is being progress, we can decide from InEight what is going to be billed to our clients. We can decide what’s the billed revenue, what’s the billed quantity, the category that we want to assign these.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

And if there’s even an specific cost item that should be assigned to these billed revenue record, we can also see the billed history that has been claiming this project from here as well. Now it’s something that I would like to mention here now that we’re talking about billed revenue, is that there’s two ways that we can actually do this integration with our construction through C365 platform. Obviously we are going to push these pay items. So over to the Dynamic side, we are going to see these pay items available. So we are going to go to our billed section here and open to see these pay items. But once we decide to create the billed revenue in InEight, the next step would actually be pushed that billed revenue to Dynamics. Now this may not be how you want to do this. Maybe you decide that the billed revenue is actually created in Dynamics because Dynamics has that information. We create that billed revenue in Dynamics and we push it over to InEight.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

So that again, the users that have access to our platform from a project perspective, and again, in the job site, they have access to what has been billed, how much revenue has been gained so far, and they can do revenue and margin analysis of the project. Once we have all these information, again, in both systems and visible based on your role and the access that you have to the different solutions we can talk about what happens when we start tracking actual information in the field. We’ve been talking about how important that piece is for the billed revenue, but also to receive actual man-hours, actual quantities, and actual costs back into the system. So in order to do that, InEight has our progress application. Now these progress application that you’re going to see today, I’m going to show it on the website. We do have an application that you can download on your tablet so that your foremans or superintendents can fill out the work that has been executed in the field as the day goes by.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

And it actually doesn’t need internet connection while the users are tracking this information, they can fill it out in the field as they go, and as work is being executed. And at some point at the end of the day, just click the sync button and send this information in the back office. Now with that, let me make the screen bigger. We do have here the list of all the daily plans of work that has been executed in the last few days for these project, you’ll see that some of these daily plans, they have these final processing complete. That means that we have already processed these man-hours, equipment hours, and quantities. So we may have to receive back some actuals in control, but you’ll see that there’s two other daily plans that have the pending here awaiting approval. So I’m just going to open one of these daily plans.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

And we are just going to focus on our time sheet tab just to focus on the man-hours that we are going to claim. You’ll see that there’s three activities where I’m claiming all these amounts of man-hours for each of these resources. You’ll see that we have manpower, employees, and equipment also. And you can see the association between the employee and the equipment. So there is an employee that is actually operating this piece of equipment. And then in our quantity staff you’ll see the quantity that has been claimed for these daily plan. Now, for each of these activities, there has been actually a quantity that has been claimed for each of the components or the cost items that we had in our time sheet tab. So with that, you’ll see that my form work activity, I can say that I claim maybe one on my rebar.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

I can also claim quantity. I can see my plan quantity, the quantity of that activity. There’s any claim quantity today. I can make these adjustments here. My installed quantity and for the concrete pour, we do have installed 300 cubic meters. And again, we can do this analysis of the quantities expected, finally installed. There’s even a productivity tab when we can see these variances. Once I’m good with this information, I’m just going to click on my approved button and I’m going to approve the quantities and hours of this daily plan. Now, the system will prompt me once we have those approved and while this is happening, you’ll see that these daily plans that we approved, they are actually also sent to Dynamics as well for their processing and for payroll processing. So we can go to our daily plan employee and you’ll see that we have all of these daily plans from the same project that have been processed.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

And these are the hours that have been processed for each of these cost items, activities that we’ve claimed, but also for each of those resources, those employees and equipment that we just were talking. And the same thing happens with the equipment. In this case, you’ll see that the plan that we just approved here, the 272, it has those equipment hours that they haven’t been processed yet. Same thing will happen with the man-hours, right? We have to process them, process payroll, make sure that those hours they have a way to go so that our workers get paid. And once that happens, if I refresh my screen here, you’ll see that we will receive the final processing message on our status bar.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

So what that means, if we go back to control is that we can actually process these hours and get those actuals back in our project. So I’m going to go back in control and we are going to claim these quantities, these man-hours, and equipment hours, so that we can start progressing our project. So back in this actions menu, allow me to scroll here back so that you can see some actual information, I’m going to sync. First, I’m going to get actual costs then man-hours. So I’m going to click in that sync option. And second, I’m going to also claim the quantities as well. Now, while I do that, you’ll see that we have different columns available when we talk about actuals in InEight. So what we do have this first, we do have the actual man-hours (to date), actual cost (to date). We do have an estimated actual column.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Basically we allow users to have an estimated value based on what is going to be claimed and approved in the field. So that gives users an idea of what may come at the end of the month or at the end of the week, depending on when do we pay and we receive also. And then a confirm actual cost, which again, we have to make sure that there is a reconciliation between confirmed estimated and actual at some point in the project to make sure that all the numbers are good in both systems and everything is looking good. And last but not least, the person complete of those activities, we will also see this obviously going up as we progress the work. Now, while we can see these from a project perspective, we can also go into an a specific cost item and see the actual details. So we can see what has been claimed in this cost item, in this activity. The entire history of what was going and when was claimed, regarding costs, quantity, hours, et cetera.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Now, the last piece of our integration is when we talk about contracts. And for that, I’m going to go to our contract solution. And here on the Dynamic side, I’m going to do the same, but I’m going to focus on what we call the Project suite integration log, just so you can see that this is actually giving you all the inbound and outbound direction of the synchronizations, that everything is being a success. Or if there were any issues with an integration, we will see all this information here, for everything. It’s not only actuals, budget, changes, but when we talk about purchase orders, goods receives, et cetera, this is also being handled in these place as well. So you’ll see that we have the reference of the purchase order. And here InEight, you’ll see that I have all my contracts that have been created inside InEight.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Keeping mind that InEight contract is really meant for the users in the field to keep track of the contracts of the work that is being executed in the field by subcontractors, vendors, and suppliers. Some of these users may not need to have access to Dynamics, but we want them up to date with what’s being posted, what’s being processed with this vendors. So they can create these purchase orders from InEight. You’ll see that I will open these partitions purchase order, this contract. Right now, this is on a draft status, just going to make this bigger. You’ll see that it’s on draft status, we do have some information associated to the contract. If we go to the line items, you will also see that I have the scope of these line items. So the service of installation of this partition walls, also the materials that I’m going to use as partitions.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

We do have some information about this. And if I click in one of these line items, this is where you’ll see that from a line item perspective, we can add materials, goods, services, credits that we may need for our vendors or suppliers, but also the materials are actually being pulled from a list of materials, the materials masters that Dynamics contains. So that’s an important and a key feature in our integration when we talk about materials. Once we have our detailed information for this contract and our line items to find, the next step would actually be click this button that says, create purchase order. Now, when that button is click, what will happen is that the purchase order will be created in Dynamics. And that purchase order will contain the line items that we have specified in this contract.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Once we have this information and you’ll see that from a Dynamics perspective, the contracts have also been created in Dynamics. I’m going to pull a contract where we have already created some actuals. I’m going to open this contract, which is our concrete contract. The next step would actually be, start creating some receipts, basically what has been delivered from that contract or what has been installed, executed so far. And when we create these receives in InEight, you can assign obviously the contract where you’re claiming that something has been received. Also, the line item where we are claiming the quantity, but also any pictures of what has been received onsite can also be attached in this process.

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

Once that happens, we will actually be receiving goods receipts back in InEight. So what that allows users is to actually see this information again in InEight from a goods receipt perspective. So I’m just going to briefly pull what we call the progress view so that you can see that I can visualize my quantity receives, my goods receipts to date. The goods receipt percentage and other information pertaining to quantities that have been claimed. Next, a step in the process, once we have goods receipts in both systems is to talk about payment. We do have a step in between before we receive payment progress from Dynamics. And it’s what we call payment forms. This is important because we allow users to do the three way matching. What we mean by that is that based on what has been delivered, based on what I said that I delivered and we’ve confirmed as goods receipts, I’m going to tell my vendor supplier, this is what I will be expecting, right?

Elia Burgueño Rayo:

As something that we are going to invoice as payment from our site. So we can do that three way matching with this process. We create the payment form in InEight, and then we would receive the payment progress automatically again from Dynamics. Once those invoices are posted in Dynamics, based on the quantities that have been claimed and based on the invoice that has been received from the vendor or supplier, we will receive the payment progress here in InEight. And last, before I turn it over to Mike, I just briefly wanted to show this Sigma feature that we have in InEight, which really allows users to see the contract totals, right? A summary of that contract with has been received to date, submitted to date, paid to date, retained to date. Even if there were any changes associated to this contract, we will see this information here. So with that, I’ll turn it over to you, Mike.

Mike Paul:

Nice work Elia, way to talk right on through and get as much as we could squeeze into this time today. So let’s just recap what we saw. So using two Microsoft technology based solutions, D365 and the InEight Suite. We watched two products, one for the back office, one for the front office and, or the project office and field come together and show live synchronizations with the idea being that certain information is stored in one system, certain information is originated in another system and we’ve properly aligned them back and forth. So the right data goes to the right system and you’re not producing double entry. You’re not making errors upon that entry. You’re not omitting information. You’re not checking emails, and spreadsheets, and phone calls for the information. It’s all streamlining the communication. So well done on that.

Mike Paul:

Who’s using it? While we have actually, this product is being used on five different continents right now. It has grown in popularity and we representation across mining, industrial, construction, and energy. So we’re excited about that as well. Really. It is meant to reduce errors. Clients ask us all the time about the ability to integrate with an ERP system, but they’re very cautious, very hesitant. Will it work? How do we test it? How much work does it take to set up? Is this ever going to be in place? And really, it all works. It’s great. It’s built to be fairly simple to install and really eliminate the errors in the double entry so that you have the accurate information in a timely manner. Most importantly is where do you get it? While you can go, you’ll see the screenshot on the right, I’m right in the app source, search for InEight. And you will see information right there about our certified integration, right available on the Microsoft site. So this is well beyond just an in-house designed integration. We did a lot of work with Microsoft to make this work.

Mike Paul:

You can also reach out to sales@ineight.com or if you have a Microsoft representative on D365, you can tell them what you’re looking to do and they’ll help reach us directly. So I think now that we’ve kind of come to an end, I’m just going to check the chat box here and see if there are any questions, I hope so. I like to have a little bit to say, as we wind down. How much work and time are needed to set up an implemented InEight and D365? It really depends, but they’re known as faster than the industry standard. They both come mostly ready to play with some workshops. They can configure them as they need to be configured, but really they’re faster than most. You could be, depending on the complexity. You could certainly be, the whole solution within a year. You could have bits of it within months. So this is not a multi two, three year, very heavy consulting engagement. This is meant to be, you deal with some of the options, and questions, and configurations, but we’re not coding it from scratch.

Mike Paul:

And then it looks like there was a third question sent, how is it determined which system is the source of the original information? We really worked hard to try to understand, from our experience in the industry and from interviews, how to determine who makes up these decisions. So the budget usually comes from the field. Forecast, come from the field. The protection of costs, and the payment, and the accountant information comes from the ERP system. Same thing with purchase orders, the information about the line items and the contracts comes from the purchase order, comes from the actual project team, but the approval and the payment comes from the accounting or ERP system. So really we’ve aligned it so that in most cases it’s pretty consistent who it is. There are a few options where you may be able to choose, but once you really sit down and look at it, it makes the most sense that certain things happen at the project and certain things happen in the office and there’s approvals that go back and forth.

Mike Paul:

So I think that’s the last question that was given to me. So I want to thank everybody for their time today. I want to very much thank Elia for her hard work and running through the demonstration. And for Petter and Syed for their attention and participation today. Wanted to show that we’re working with Microsoft and one of their top partners to make this a better place, make this a better product and really help the digital transformation for the construction sector. So with that, I will say goodbye from all of us.