Does anyone use "Microsoft Projects" to manage & schedule their survey business??ÿ If so, can you provide pros & cons??ÿ Is their another software that would be better.?ÿ I am looking for a more efficient way to schedule/track field and office duty assignments to individuals other than excel spreadsheets.?ÿ
I??ve never used Microsoft Projects. I??ve tried KudurruStone which is built specifically for surveying. It??s just too slow for me. There are a ton of options out there and I??ve tried at least 1/2 dozen and i haven??t found one that I like or could stomach the price. So maybe it??s just me.
Another hurdle I have is our work consist of lot surveys, topos, pipeline and well staking to subdivision and design layout, and our staff tends to wear multiple hats
I looked for a long time trying to find something I could work with. There are a lot of project management apps, but the problem I always found is that they were best-suited to manage a small number of projects with a lot of tasks, whereas our company has a large number of projects with not very many tasks (field work, boundary resolution, CAD, etc.). Finally I found the app "ClickUp" which has worked out very well.
Pros:
- Free or cheap (I eventually upgraded us to pay $3 per user per month, but could've gotten on fine with free)
- Good Calendar (Field-Crew Scheduling is now done all on click-up.)
- Easy to Use (None of the complexities or learning time that came along with excel or Microsoft access)
- App based (only internet connection needed and can be put on field crew phones)
- Allows unlimited document uploads (We put field photos, proposals, deeds etc. all in the click-up project)
Cons:
- Corny name, a little cheesy overall
- Some set-up required (think about how you will organize things)
- App based (sometimes its nice to have a program)
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I've become a fan... hopefully it helps other people too!
@txsurveyor What did you find about kudurruStone that was so slow??ÿ we are looking to implement it but would like to have some feedback from others who are using it before putting too much time into setting it up.?ÿ?ÿ
we also do permit consulting and zoning variances etc.?ÿ?ÿ
@___ what other programs are you using along with clickup??ÿ which I use for my personal life and have considered for the survey business.
Monday.com is a good one!?ÿ
Check out Slack.
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I know this post is a little old, but figured I'd chime in.
We have some project management software called Cyanic Job Book. It was made specifically for land surveyors.
It has a scheduling and
tasking module that will help you efficiently schedule and track field
and office duty assignments.
It's helped other survey firms manage
things.
It has a calendar and will allow you to drag and drop tasks on
your staffs schedule.
If you are interested check out the website, we are happy to help.