How progress photos on iPad are improving communication in construction

Construction managers have now cottoned on to how iPad can transform their business, automating workflows, documentation and project management, and increasing productivity. It's not just that you now don't have to lug a ream of blueprints up a ladder – one of the biggest benefits of iPad is in helping onsite and offsite teams communicate more efficiently. 

By Shariff Ibrahim October 08, 2018

Perhaps where this is most evident is in the ability to capture photos using iPad's top quality built-in cameras, and instantly send them between contractors, project managers, suppliers and more. 

Efficiently communicate with teams using Fieldwire

Used by general contractors, owners and subcontractors on 100,000+ projects worldwide, Fieldwire is a construction app for iPad that gives your field crews a central repository of blueprints, building plans, annotations and updates, and lets you manage teams onsite, and capture completed work to get projects completed quicker. 

Designed to make collaboration and communication on construction projects more efficient, it combines a drawing and blueprint app, a lean construction scheduling app, and a building inspection and punch list app. What's really great is that is allows you to quickly capture and share progress photos within the app, adding annotations and markup, and Request for Information (RFI) hyperlinking. 

This means you can report issues directly from the construction site on your iPad, and document it with photos, annotations and comments. On an inspection walkthrough, you can record any issues, tag a location and document it with a few photos, then everything is tracked on Fieldwire's building inspection platform and shared immediately with subcontractors. Find out more about Fieldwire here. 

Improving photo capture workflow with iPad

In the old days, project engineers would have to document project conditions using digital cameras, having to walk through a project and take photos of work progress, safety items etc. After the site walk, they'd then have to go back to a field office, download the photos to a laptop, and then try to email them back to the office, upload them to a server over an internet connection, or upload to a USB drive to be taken back to the office. Not a very efficient workflow. 

But with iPad, an employee can simply use their camera to take construction photos of the building project design and submit them to a shared app so collaborators can view them in realtime. Having photos on the progress of construction projects in one central spot makes the approval process easier for those not onsite, and helps other teams in further planning and design tasks. 

Even at a very basic level, a staff member in the field can take a few pictures and attach them to an email to quickly get them in the hands of any teams that need them, whether onsite or offsite. 

So, if you're not already using iPad and progress photos to improve communication in your construction projects, now's the time to start!

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