Submit Your Suggestions for Viewpoint Team

Since they were provided, I will be answering the prompts directly. I hope you find this request to be thoughtful and compelling!

"Why is it useful?"

1. The current options for past due notifications are Never, Once, or Daily.

   1. These options either provide too much or too little notification. Customizable length between notifications allows CMs to meet their specific needs (i.e., not annoying subs too much, but not letting them off the hook either).

"Who would benefit from it?"

1. The lack of customization surely dissuades CMs from using this feature, creating more work on their end in the form of manually distributing submittal logs, calling/emailing subs, etc. -- CMs would benefit from this feature by having overdue reminders automated in a way that meets their needs. This allows Viewpoint to work for them rather than vice versa.

   1. CMs also are able to keep subcontractors accountable in a more consistent manner.

2. Subcontractors benefit from this feature by staying in the know about what is overdue. Subs work on many jobs, and the knowledge/reminder of what is coming due and/or past due is crucial to helping them prioritize their work.

3. A/E teams (or any contract administration type companies) would benefit from fewer notifications than subcontractors. Realistically, subcontractors do not stay as in-the-know on document management as CA professionals. For this reason, the ability to send notifications more frequently to subcontractors than to a design team is essential to maintaining an amicable relationship with your CA (i.e., not sending them daily emails about the submittals they probably know are overdue).

"How should it work?"

1. Frequency

   1. Problem: Overdue notifications can only be sent either one time, every single day, or not at all.

   2. Solution: Make the interval of reminder notifications a dropdown list with options from every 1 to 7 (or more) days.
      

2. Recipients

   1. Problem: As mentioned, some people need to be reminded of overdue submittals or items more than others. There are "problem child" subs that need a daily email to get the point, and there are CA professionals who would benefit from a weekly reminder.

   2. Solution: Allow the selection of individual recipients for these reminders. One option would be to set reminders based on project roles and/or item types. I recognize that this would require a fair amount of reworking the current feature, but the feature would be so much more usable.
      

3. Items

   1. Problem: Overdue notifications apply to all items, but some items require more attention than others.

   2. Solution: Allow the setup of overdue notification settings to vary depending on item type.

      1. As a corollary, I think some submittals should be able to have more frequent reminders set up on that submittal item and/or package specifically, since some submittals are more important and urgent than others.

Conclusion

Some minor adjustments to this feature would benefit every party involved with the construction process by:

1. freeing up time spent by CMs on reminding subs of overdue items

2. giving subs real-time updates of what is needed from them, and

3. preventing unnecessary emails from being sent to CA professionals.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk!