You didn't ask for this, but here you are

Read this before training. What changes in your day, what doesn’t, and where to get help.

SMARTBUILD CONSTRUCTION SOLUTIONS

A LETTER FROM OUR FOUNDER A USER’S GUIDE

YOU’VE DONE THIS BEFORE

Before I became the owner of a construction technology company, I spent 30 years learning everything I could in the construction industry.

After my first week on the job, my dad asked me who the least important person on the jobsite was. I named off everyone but me.

In his own polite way, he set me straight. “You’re the least important person here,” he said, “because you don’t physically build anything. Without the trades and the workers who show up every day, there’s no building. Don’t ever forget how important the guys in the field are.”

Think about the first cordless drill someone handed you. It probably felt wrong. You worked off a cord your whole career, and the cord did the job fine.

But nobody kept the cord. You got used to the new one because it was better.

So let me be straight with you: just like that cordless drill, SMARTBUILD will make your life easier. It’ll take some getting used to.

All we’re asking is that you give it the same couple of weeks or months you gave the drill.

Zulq Malik

OWNER & FOUNDER, SMARTBUILD

THE REASON FOR CHANGE

They were thinking about you but didn’t bring you into the room.

Why your company bought this

SMARTBUILD puts all the project information in one place that is easy for everyone to get to!

Your company is changing. Paperwork has become more important and keeping track of it has never been more important.

Right now, the same information gets written down more than once, is stored in places that are hard to find, and a lot of times lost or forgotten. People are playing the telephone game to get information and getting to the facts/truth is harder.

What this decision is about

Bringing in new software is a decision about process, not a decision about people. Your leadership looked at how work moves through the company and decided the process had to change.

How does SMARTBUILD help me?

SMARTBUILD is like having your own dedicated assistant to organize your information, remind you of things you need to take care of, and share information with all of your team.

YOUR TAKEAWAY Bringing in new software is a decision about how the company works, not a decision about you.

I understand why the company is making this change.

ADDRESSING CONCERNS

Is this about cutting jobs?

No, and you don’t have to take our word for it. Look at what your company is doing. They are paying for this platform, paying for you to be trained on it, and giving up your working hours while that training happens.

Cutting people is cheap and quiet. This is neither.

Why keep a record of everything?

For the same reason a timesheet does. A record is what settles it later.

Everything that goes in carries a name and a date. It records what got done and when, not where you are or how long you sat on a screen. What that gives you is a trail.

When hours go missing, when extra work gets done on somebody’s say-so and nobody remembers agreeing to it, or when a delay lands on the wrong crew, the answer is in the system instead of in somebody’s memory.

Do I need to be good with computers?

No. Most of it is tapping buttons and taking photos, and the platform walks you through it as you go. Everything for one job sits in one place, in the order you’d do it.

Training works the same way. You do your own work, in your own account, with a trainer beside you the whole time. Ask as many times as you need to.

Nobody in your company is good at this yet. The office is learning it the same week you are.

What if I make a mistake?

You will, and so will everyone else. Most of what you enter can be corrected.

However you’ve been working until now, the same work has probably ended up living in a few different places: a timesheet, an email, somebody’s spreadsheet. You fix it in one, and the other copies quietly stay wrong.

Here, you enter it once. There’s one place to fix it, and the fix carries everywhere that work went.

The platform also stops a lot of mistakes before they start. It won’t take a date in the wrong box or let a report go out half empty.

YOUR TAKEAWAY You are not being replaced, you are not being blamed, and you are not expected to be fast at this right away.

My questions & concerns have been answered.

WHAT CHANGES FOR YOU

Most of your day does not change. Find your role below and read that table.

If you work in the office

What Stops

What Starts

Re-typing figures off paper

Approving entries as they come in from the field

Chasing crews for missing timesheets

Pulling job status off one screen instead of asking around

Filing signed documents by hand

Running reports without building them first

If you are a project manager or supervisor

Driving paperwork between site and office

Reviewing daily reports on a phone as they land

Rebuilding the same summary for three different people

Assigning work in the system so the crew sees it

Phoning around to find out what got done

Flagging issues where the whole team can see them

If you work in the field

Paper forms at the end of the day

Daily report on a phone before you leave site

Handing your timesheet to somebody else to enter

Logging your own hours, once

Being asked for the same information twice

Photos going straight into the report

YOUR TAKEAWAY Most of your day does not change. The table for your role shows the part that does.

I know what changes for my role.

THE LEARNING PROCESS

These are hands-on learning sessions. You will be in your own account, doing your own job.

YOUR TRAINING SESSIONS

You will have more than one session. We build the training plan tailored to your company. Training is built around five groups:

Senior Management

Project Management

Field Management

Project Administrator

Accounting/Finance

Each group learns different parts of the system and moves at a different pace, so you are not sitting through training for somebody else’s job.

HOW WE TRAIN

Problem Based Learning means you learn by doing the job, not by watching somebody else do it.

We give you a real task: “Submit an RFI”, “Log today’s hours”, “Send a daily report”. You carry it out in your own account.

Our training guide is there the whole time. Getting stuck is part of the method, not a sign that you are behind. The task is what makes it stick.

PREPARE TO LEARN

Create your environment for learning

Find a quiet place where nobody will interrupt you for 90 minutes. You need a strong internet connection.

Install Zoom on the device you will use

Install the Zoom desktop application, not the browser version. Download it at zoom.us/download . If you are training on a tablet, install the Zoom app there as well.

Learn to share your screen

We will ask you to share your screen so we can see what you are seeing. Learn how to do it before your session. Instructions are here: How to download and share your screen on Zoom .

Where to sit

Join from your own desk, on your own device, using your own Zoom link.

Camera on, and why

Keep your camera on during the session. We cannot tell that you are stuck or need help if we cannot see you.

Bring your questions

Bring your questions to the session, including the ones you think are stupid and the ones you think we will not want to hear.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER

Once training is over, it is on you to keep using it. Don’t try to master the platform in one day. Pick a section and move at your own pace.

WHAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Use the platform every day.

Daily use is what turns it from something new into something normal.

Ask for help when you are stuck.

Sitting on a problem costs more time than asking about it.

YOUR TAKEAWAY Set your device up in advance, join from your own desk, and keep your camera on.

I am set up for my training sessions.

THE CHALLENGES ALONG THE WAY

Every software adoption has its challenges. None of this means you are failing at it.

HICCUPS

Say something when you get knocked off track. Silence will never solve your struggles. We are here to help you.

INDIGESTION

SMARTBUILD will not do things the way you do them today. If a step feels wrong, ask us why before you work around it.

HEARTBURN

You will miss the old way of working. That is normal, and it does not mean the new way is worse.

TEMPER TANTRUMS

There will be a day this frustrates you enough to walk away from it. Tell your internal lead instead of going quiet.

GROWING PAINS

Learning takes time. You are not behind if you are still slow at it next month.

YOUR TAKEAWAY Expect every one of these. Keep using it, keep speaking up, and it gets easier.

GETTING HELP

YOUR INTERNAL LEAD

Your company has already named someone to lead this internally. They are your first call for anything. If you are not sure who that is, ask your manager.

HOW TO OPEN A SUPPORT REQUEST

There are three ways to reach SMARTBUILD support.

Email

support@smrtbld.com

Call

+1 888 403-0421 #2

Submit a Ticket

smrtbld.com/connect

REPORTING A PROBLEM IS EXPECTED

Telling us something is broken is not complaining. It’s part of our job.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Click this box when you have read this, and confirm you’re ready for your training sessions.

This is a requirement, not a formality. Your training does not begin until it is ticked, because the sessions only work if you have read this first.

See you at training.