VeilSpot Blog

Originally published 8/22/2019; Updated 3/31/2020

For construction companies, keeping the work flowing is critical to every project’s success. That’s why there’s always such a premium placed on quality project management tools. And, although a lot of construction companies rely on the traditional method of sticky note pull planning, VeilSun is offering a better way for teams looking for digital solutions that will help them keep their projects on track in the age of physical distancing. This blog will give a brief summary of what pull planning is, why it’s so great for construction, and why QLean from VeilSun can be such a perfect option for taking your pull planning to another level.

Originally published 12/1/2019; Updated 3/31/2020

Curious about the pros and cons of digital pull planning and if it could be your solution for strategic construction project planning during the age of physical distancing? There have been several blogs that have covered what pull planning is, how it works for construction, and firsthand accounts of how the last planner system works in practice. This blog will continue the series by addressing common misconceptions of digital pull planning and outlining its distinct advantages compared to traditional pull planning. PLUS: How digital pull planning can be used with remote teams.

Originally published 10/10/2019; Updated 3/31/2020

No matter the size or scope, every construction project seeks to benefit from strategic planning and efficient execution. In our current time of physical distancing, construction companies are in need of an alternative to the traditional sticky-notes-in-a-room solution. Enter digital pull planning.

With this software, construction companies can achieve strategic planning goals in a cost-effective, easy-to-implement way even if your team members are remote. Plus, pull planning software lets you move faster and gives your trades real-time access into what’s going on. This blog will highlight six steps you can follow in order to keep your construction project on time and on task from start to finish, no matter where your team meets.

It’s kind of tragic that so many companies continue to waste time, money, and energy trying to manage compliance via spreadsheets and email. It’s definitely the norm, and it’s also why compliance audits are inevitably painful. But they really don’t have to be.

If you want to get out of the vicious cycle, the first step is to move your compliance management out of email and into a more functional, streamlined system. The good news is that compliance management software does exist, and it will make your job (and everyone else’s) much, much easier. No matter which system you choose, there are a few key capabilities to look for when deciding on a compliance software solution..

How well did your last compliance audit go? Chances are, it didn’t go as smoothly as you’d like. Without an exceptional system in place, they almost never do.

When it comes time for an audit or certification, what’s your process? Is it a seemingly endless flurry of email and spreadsheets? Or is it a managed, secured and vetted process that saves time, energy and money? Our guess is, it’s the former. And that’s what makes any audit such a painful prospect.

Regardless of your organization and what type of audit you’re facing (whether it’s HIPAA, HITRUST, SOC1, SOC2, PCI, or any number of others), it’s an enormous and cumbersome task. In an ideal world, you’d have a system in place for continuous compliance, which would make audits infinitely less painful. But if you don’t, then the inevitable scramble is frustrating, time-consuming and costly.

All too often, GRC compliance becomes a complete nightmare of spreadsheets and emails. The process for many organizations is clunky at best and totally disorganized at worst. But it doesn’t have to be! Continuous tracking with automated workflows can eliminate the hassle of audit preparation and save your organization significant amounts of time and money.

To be well-prepared for an audit requires attention to workflow. So much has to be done to every specific piece of evidence, it’s no wonder that things frequently fall through. Each piece has to be requested, assigned, tracked, provided, vetted and reviewed, assembled and provided to the requestor… and trying to manage all of this via email inevitably complicates the process beyond measure.

Continuous tracking with VeilSun’s compliance system, on the other hand, will make your compliance less painful and vastly more efficient. Here are 6 benefits of an automated workflow tool for continuous compliance tracking.

We’ve talked before about the role of pull planning in construction. In order to get a better firsthand look at the importance of pull planning in construction, we sat down with an executive from one of the largest construction companies. They recently implemented QLean, VeilSun's pull planning application into the organization, to help convert from sticky notes to digital pull planning. We discussed pull planning at a high level, their experiences with specific tools they’ve used in the past, their experience with QLean, and some of their opinions on working with VeilSun.

For those of you who live in Denver, this blog will hit close to home. Literally. Since July 2018, it’s been nearly impossible to travel in or out of Denver International Airport (DIA) without encountering the MASSIVE construction project taking place throughout the main terminal. Originally scoped at around $1.8 billion (yes, with a “b”), the project has since spiraled out of control. This blog will provide a quick overview of the project, examine some common issues inherent in large construction projects, and finally offer some solutions on how to prevent large-scale disasters like this.

We just came back from another amazing week at Empower. Because we know some of you couldn’t attend, we thought we’d share one of the presentations we gave there. As you no doubt gathered from the title of this blog, it centered around artificial intelligence (AI) and incorporating bots with Quick Base. The results have been astounding and the reception at Empower was amazing. Enjoy!

We’ve talked numerous times before about how flexible Quickbase is and how perfect it is for enterprises. But we wanted to take a step back and give you a 30,000 foot look at just what Quickbase is at its core. Consider this your A to Z primer on all things Quickbase. Let’s jump in.

What is Quickbase?
Simply stated, Quickbase is a low / no-code application platform that makes it easier to build and deliver multi-user web apps. As we pointed out in the above links, Quickbase is secure and scalable for small business or the enterprise. It’s the perfect solution for businesses wanting to operate more effectively and efficiently.

How does Quickbase work?
Quickbase can be used to solve many different organizational issues for small and large businesses. (To say Quickbase is flexible is the understatement of the year—we call it the ‘Swiss Army Knife of Development’ for a reason.) As a case in point, here are a few of the ways Quickbase can plug and play in your day-to-day operations:

CRM
• Sales Management
• Opportunity Tracking
• Activity Management
• Proposal Generation
• Customer Portals
• Support Ticketing
• Quoting

Project Management
• IT Project Management & Support
• Construction management
• Marketing Management
• Materials Tracking
• Order Management
• Procurement
• Professional Service Automation
• Resource Management
• Task Management
• Timesheets
• Utilization Tracking
• Work Order Management
• Warranty Tracking

Financial Management
• A/P and A/R Management
• Budgeting
• Cash Flow Management
• Commissions
• Expense Tracking
• Invoice generation
• Job Costing
• SOX Compliance
• Vendor Management

Workflow and Process Management
• Approval Processes
• Assembly line management
• Case Management
• Compliance Management
• Contract management
• Content Management
• Document Management
• ERP
• HIPAA compliance
• Human Resources
• Inventory
• Legal
• Loan Origination
• Medical Coding
• Pharma trial management
• Product Management
• Property Management
• Strategic Objective Tracking
• Supply Chain
• Training Management

Reporting and Business Intelligence
• Executive Reporting
• Forecasting
• Real-time Job Profitability
• Goal tracking
• Process Performance

What can Quickbase do?
To get a bit more specific on the long list of capabilities above, we’d like to point out that Quickbase is an Application Platform as a Service (APaaS). That means that because it’s a web technology, Quickbase allows developers and non-programmers alike to build, secure, and deploy enterprise-grade Web apps quickly and inexpensively. Quickbase is used for any type of application for any type organization. (Just in case you’d forgotten in the last few paragraphs, we’d like to remind you again just how flexible Quickbase is. It can’t be overstated enough.)


Why Quickbase?
This question is actually pretty easy to answer. You need to choose Quickbase because there’s nothing else like it. It replaces all of your spreadsheets and interfaces with all of your existing software like QuickBooks. And it does it all with no or low code. It’s so easy and so powerful to use.
o What does low-code mean?
Low-code is a new way of creating scalable Web apps that require little or no coding. Low-code apps are easy to build and cost a fraction of traditional custom Web apps cost to build.

Quickbase Costs
Cost is one of the top concerns when considering any purchase for your enterprise. We’ve covered this topic in greater detail before, but we wanted to put the highlights here in one place for easy reference. According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact Low-Code Platform Study of Quickbase, there were four distinct cost benefits associated with implementing Quickbase.

• Reduced time and cost to develop applications. Organizations saw a 60% to 85% reduction in development times, with an average of 8 weeks saved.
• Faster time-to-business value. The four composite companies represented in the study saw an additional business value of $4,418,835 over the three years of analysis.
• Avoided headcount in IT. Deploying Quickbase saved companies an average of two IT employees.
• Faster time to update and maintain applications. Achieved dramatic time and cost savings by using Quickbase to update and maintain their applications.

VeilSun has always been unapologetic evangelists for Quickbase. Hopefully with all of the amazing proof points found above, you can see why. As always, if you have any questions about how we can help implement Quickbase for your business, get in contact with us. We’re happy to talk.