How to Leverage Permit Software to Drive Business Strategy Forward

For most construction projects, securing permits is the critical step you take before breaking ground. Complying with local regulations and safety standards is important and necessary, but the traditional permit process can be time-consuming, prone to errors, and costly. If permitting is done incorrectly, your team risks non-compliance which can lead to project delays, increased expenses, and missed opportunities. 

Many construction organizations are turning to building permit software to help solve these problems. By automating and streamlining the building permit process, teams can create more efficient processes and develop opportunities for potential business growth. In this article, we’ll uncover how adopting building permit software can improve operational efficiency and encourage new business opportunities for long-term growth.

‍

How building permit software improves operational efficiency

Operational efficiency is a strategy used to ensure that your business processes run as smoothly as possible and minimize ineffective or redundant processes. Building permit software helps to improve the operational efficiency of the permitting process, and can help in the following ways:

Streamlines permitting workflows and processes

Implementing building permit software into your permitting workflows and processes helps to streamline your work in a few ways: compiling all permitting requirements in one place, providing a central hub of communication, and submitting permits through a centralized portal. 

‍

One of the limiting factors of the traditional permitting process is the struggle of communicating with multiple stakeholders during the permitting process. Building permit software helps to centralize communications on a specific permit. This is beneficial for organizations that submit multiple permits for different projects at once because it helps keep communication organized and succinct to that one permit. 

Reduces compliance-related risks

One of the major benefits of using building permit software is the transparency of what exactly is needed to fulfill a specific permit. Building permit software helps to demystify confusing government websites and organizes permit requirements in a clear and concise manner. 

‍

Having the necessary permit requirements listed out in an organized way, helps ensure that your team compiles all of the necessary information before submitting the application. This helps to minimize application-related delays and prevents compliance-related risks. With the requirements clearly listed out in building permit software, your team can craft your application towards those requirements and reduce the risk of submitting non-compliant information.

Optimizes team resources

Managing permit submissions takes work. If your team is managing multiple submissions, this can become an administrative nightmare without the help of building permit software. Adding building permit software into your workflow helps provide some administrative lift to whoever is managing the permitting workflow. By reducing that workload, your team now has more room to work on more labor-intensive projects while the building permit software does more of the heavy lifting. 

In one instance, a mid-sized construction firm, was struggling with the time-consuming administrative tasks involved in managing multiple permit applications across various municipalities. Before using PermitFlow, the firm’s project managers spent an average of 10-15 hours per project on paperwork, follow-ups, and tracking permit statuses manually.

After implementing PermitFlow, the firm saw a 40% reduction in administrative hours, freeing up their project managers to focus on higher-value tasks like client engagement and project planning. With real-time tracking, centralized document management, and automated reminders, PermitFlow helped streamline the entire permitting process, saving the firm an average of 6-8 hours per project. This not only improved efficiency but also accelerated project timelines and reduced costly delays.

‍

How building permit software helps enhance project speed and delivery

Many organizations choose to implement operational efficiency strategies because they can help to enhance project speed and delivery. While every permit submission process is subjective, creating streamlined processes before submission can help prevent delays in the future. Here are a couple of other ways building permit software helps optimize submission speed and delivery of your permits:

Faster permit submission process

One common feature of building permit software is the ability to automate certain communications and processes within the submission process. This reduces much of the manual labor involved with checking on status updates and communication and minimizes the time in between touchpoints. 

‍

In addition to faster communication and automated steps, your team will also see reduced permit approval times because of more accurate submissions. When your applications don’t need changes, updates, or further edits, this means your permit submission can be a one-and-done process. 

Improved accuracy and data management

The permitting process requires a lot of paperwork and digital records. Consider how often files get lost in the traditional back-and-forth of email communication. Building permit software helps to minimize the clutter and confusion of data management and helps to improve submission accuracy by compiling all of the necessary information in one space. 

‍

With building permit software like PermitFlow, creating one central source of truth for your permit submission process helps keep everyone on your team organized and aware of where the permit is in the submission process, what actions are needed, and what data has been provided to the appropriate government departments.

‍

How building permit software helps unlock new business opportunities

In addition to helping create more efficient processes, building permit software can help establish growth for your business and provide you with new business opportunities. With building permit software, you’ll be able to expand your market reach, attract larger clients and projects, and make more data-driven decisions for your business. 

Expanding Marketing Reach

With faster, more efficient permitting processes, your business can take on more projects and expand your portfolio. If your team only focuses on one specific municipality, building permit software can help you expand into different municipalities by streamlining new processes for a different municipality. 

Attracting larger clients and projects

In addition to expanding into newer markets, your team could have more bandwidth for clients outside of your regular scope of work. This might mean larger projects or additional opportunities for newer, longer-term clients.

‍

Establishing new relationships with longer-term clients outside of your standard municipality is a great first step to expanding your business. Building a strong relationship with new clients is important for establishing growth–as you continue to expand, be sure to provide stellar customer service and maintain good relationships to secure references and word of mouth in a new market.

Data-driven decision making

Using building permit software consistently can help your team create more data-driven decisions. Once your team starts to use your building permit software regularly, you’ll be able to see patterns in your submission processes and make more educated decisions based on this data. For example, if you regularly submit permits for electrical work in the residential space, you can average similar projects together to get more accurate estimates from past experience, instead of simply guessing the timeline. 

‍

Using building permit software can also enable your team to generate more predictive insights. By compiling data over several years, your team can identify seasonal trends and patterns in the permitting process, allowing for more informed business decisions. For example, understanding how seasonality impacts your operations—with solid data to support it—can help you make critical choices, such as whether your business can take on an additional client during peak periods.

‍

Achieve business growth through innovation with building permit software

While building permit software is a focused tool for one aspect of business, the benefits of adopting this tool can expand well beyond just permitting. Consider the following:

Scalability and adaptability

Implementing building permit software can help you create a foundation that helps increase your business scalability. Consider how building permit software helps to alleviate some of the administrative work from your team members—how can you use that newly freed-up time to grow your business? Your team starts to have more free time, leaving space for new ideas and innovative strategies to grow.

Building permit software also helps make your business more adaptable in the face of unexpected changes. If local laws change, building permit software can help you stay on top of those changes quickly. The best type of building permit software is the kind that integrates with other business tools. Consider what tools and software your team is already using and choose building permit software that works with your current tech stack.

Driving innovation in service offerings

With new, technology-based permitting, your time could expand your service offerings to clients. For example, if you have a client with an extremely tight deadline, you can ensure a faster permitting timeline for an additional fee.

By adopting building permit software, you can also attract new, innovative clients. For example, you can expand your reach out to clients who require more sustainability requirements or green building services. Building permit service software helps to ensure that the applications you’re submitting for these initiatives are compliant with both local and national standards.

‍

Enhance operational efficiency with PermitFlow

Building permit software like PermitFlow offers construction businesses a powerful tool to enhance operational efficiency and unlock new growth opportunities. By streamlining workflows, automating compliance checks, and reducing administrative burdens, companies can complete projects faster, minimize errors, and cut costs. These improvements translate into better resource management, quicker project delivery, and enhanced client satisfaction.

Interested in seeing how building software like PermitFlow can enhance operational efficiency for your business? Talk to one of our permitting experts today to learn more.