How Regulation challenges in construction are solved with COI tracking software
Regulation is a part of every industry, and construction is one of the most regulated ones. There are building codes, insurance requirements, safety regulations, audits and more.
Moreover, construction teams often operate in silos. There are many parties involved who cooperate and coordinate tasks to complete the work. These are contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, office staff, and project owners.
This makes it difficult to ensure full compliance across partners and teams. Speacially when each team use their own metrics to measure compliance.
As a result, ensuring compliance in the construction industry is an extremely daunting task. In this article, we will explore some of the challenges associated with COI tracking in construction and provide some tips for overcoming them.
What is COI Tracking in Construction?
Before we dive into the challenges of COI tracking, it’s essential to understand what COI tracking is and why it’s so important in the construction industry. COI tracking involves the collection and verification of certificates of insurance from all parties involved in a construction project. COIs provide proof of insurance coverage, including liability, workers’ compensation, and property damage. They also include information about the insurance carrier, policy number, and coverage limits. Collecting and verifying COIs helps to make sure that all parties involved in a project are adequately insured and protected against liability.
How COI Tracking impacts Construction projects
As a strongly regulated industry, construction compliance is flooded with paperwork. Ineffective management of documentation is a primary challenge that construction compliance faces, as it consumes valuable time. This issue is compounded by a range of other challenges, resulting in a complex and difficult compliance environment.
COI tracking is an essential part of construction management, as it helps place safeguards that all parties involved in a project are adequately insured and protected against liability.
Some of the most pressing issues include:
Certificates of Insurance Overload
Construction projects are enormous and so is the amount of paperwork needed. Everything from permits, individual documents and contract to insurance documents. This amounts to wasted time when inevitable mistakes happen and may even generate communication issues and slow response to changing orders, because everything must be reviewed and re-reviewed. On top of this, if the information on a COI is incomplete or inaccurate, it can lead to delays or even legal issues down the line.
Outdated Technology
One major challenge for the construction industry is the adoption of modern technology. Many construction companies still rely on outdated software to perform checks and controls. While this can be a faster solution than manual processes, it is often far less effective than completely digital environments. The struggle to embrace digital technologies continues to be a major obstacle to achieving efficiency and compliance in the industry.
Safety Regulations
Keeping everyone on track is important because safety regulations are ever-changing. That’s what makes completely digital environments so necessary. Safety regulations are especially important in construction, where they can mean the difference between safe and injured workers.
Overcoming regulatory challenges in construction with COI tracking software
Fortunately, there is a way to navigate the challenges that the construction industry faces in compliance. Which leads up to the big tip for improving COI tracking in construction—use compliance management software.
Compliance management software:
- Reduces paper to 0. By centralizing data, compliance management software stores every document that is related to compliance. W-9’s, Certificates of Insurance, contracts, and so on.
- Creates a fully digital environment that even includes automation. This means that from the point compliance management software is used there’s no longer needed to print documents, communicate manually or remind anyone of anything. Compliance tracking software is built to end these issues.
- Eliminates the need to micromanage, so communications are easier. When safety regulations change, a message can be sent through the entire project with the new requirements and regulations to whoever is relevant.
Centralizes COI tracking ensuring that all parties involved in a project have access to the same information and documentation. This can help reduce the risk of errors and inaccuracies and ensure that everyone is adequately insured and protected against liability.
The easiest solution for Compliance Management in construction
With the right tools in place, COI Tracking in construction is a seamless and straightforward process that helps ensure the success and safety of construction projects.
We can help with that! SmartCompliance is a compliance management solution that automates workflows, sends automatic reminders and reads documents, through its OCR suite. Furthermore, SmartCompliance centralizes documents and brings a unique source of information to an entire project.
To learn more about SmartCompliance, schedule a demo.