________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This is where project and information management software comes into play. Providing a single view of the entire project record— email, documents, models, RFIs, submittals, action items and decisions— gives teams the clarity they need to move confidently, even when staffing is thin or roles are shifting. Instead of knowledge being in silos, in individual inboxes or in the heads of a few senior people, information is captured once and reused across the organization. That shift is particularly powerful in an era of high turnover and tight labor markets, where preserving institutional knowledge can be as important as winning new work.
With a persistent labor shortfall, firms must find ways to increase output without proportionally increasing staff. Industry analyses show that productivity can drop sharply when labor is constrained, leading to extended timelines and increased cost risk when processes are not optimized. Project and information management can offset this by making every hour more productive. Robust project information practices help AECO firms in several tangible ways.
First, they reduce the need for rework by ensuring that field and office teams are always working from the latest drawings, specifications and approvals, not from outdated versions hidden in personal email threads or local folders. When everyone is aligned on current information, the risk of having to tear out or redo work because someone followed an old detail or missed a clarification drops significantly.
Second, they dramatically cut the time employees spend searching for information; by organizing project email and documents into a single view, searchable record tied to specific projects and issues. Instead of project engineers and coordinators spending hours each week digging through inboxes to reconstruct who said what and when, they can go directly to a single windowpane that points to sources of truth and move forward.
Third, they provide standardized workflows for RFIs, submittals and action items, so newer or less experienced team members can contribute effectively, even as staffing models and roles evolve. Clear,
26