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Knowing how to get to where you want to be takes not only knowledge of where you’re heading, but where you’re coming from. And a good map.
That’s true of each project your business works on, as well as the company itself. To be able to visually see the flow of a project, managers will typically plot out an S-curve illustrating progress through vital data points like costs and manhours. But usually, they’ll do this once, get a general sense of the project’s projected revenue, and then be done with it.
Typically, a specific, limited data set will be used in the project’s S-curve. But imagine if you could pull in data from across different teams and departments and include it, creating a more refined view of what is to come. Historical data sets based on jobs similar in scope, category, or nature can be used to give a more granular and situational — and realistic — view. (By the way, in Briq, we call S-curves simply Curves, and, moving forward, so will I.)
Now, imagine if you could do it more than once a project, or, for the company, more than once a year. Suddenly the mathematical curves you’re producing to plan, and forecast become precise and effective.
In truth, with the right tools and approach to forecasting, curves can help remove danger or risk from your business by giving you a clearer understanding on which to plan and make decisions.
Multiple curves for multiple paths to success
Typically, an S-curve for a project or scenario is plotted and only that outcome is looked at, but with a financial automation platform like Briq you can easily create curves for multiple scenarios — reducing potential risks. Now you can create easily represented and understood what-if scenarios to test every strategy you want to investigate before taking it.
On top of that, should things shift mid-project, you can account for changes by quickly developing a new up-to-date Curve based on the current situation and illustrating expected outcomes.
The reason that this approach of developing multiple curves, looking at a variety of different scenarios, or recalculating curves throughout the project lifecycle isn’t done is that developing S-curves using Excel is tedious, time-consuming and there’s often not a lot of in-house expertise in it to draw on.
That doesn’t make it any less important. Creating multiple curves across project lifecycles can help you:
- Make better future predictions – Whether for yourself, your clients, banks, or other stakeholders, the more granular and accurate your prediction the better.
- Keep on business on track – By taking accurate historical data around cost and manhours, and current information from the field, you can better forecast for manhours or equipment needed. In turn, so can your subcontractors, and clients.
- Proactive decision making – The data illustrated in the curves you develop lead to more nimble action when and if an event or disruption occurs. Also, decisions become supported by solid data, not just gut feelings.
How Briq helps
Briq has embedded curves into our workbooks and platform to automatically recalculate the curves you develop. For example, if a construction start pushes on a project, your whole forecast downstream becomes inaccurate, but with the click of a couple of buttons your entire forecast is recalculated to accommodate any changes.
Briq combines data from across your business, eliminating silos for more accurate scenario modeling and forecasting.
By automating the calculation and recalculation of curves, Briq saves all that tedious manual time that prevents construction businesses from developing them in the first place. The frequency of plotting and creating curves is increased, usually to monthly or weekly, or even daily if it makes sense.
Personalization is another crucial element. The customizability of Briq to use your business’s historical data and the KPIs important to you in creating your curves (and platform in general) is a major advantage.
With access to all your data, and the ability to create curves with the click of a button, you have time and the ability to do more scenario planning to continually confirm the right path to take to achieve greater financial health and success, or which perilously lead to a risky fall.
Want to see how Briq can help you easily develop more effective, highly accurate curves, visit briq.com/demo
