AXA XL Launches Contractor Schedule Benchmarking with SmartPM

ATLANTA – Sept. 23, 2021 –  AXA XL’s Construction insurance team has rolled out a new schedule benchmarking service to strengthen their Subcontractor Default Insurance (SDI) clients’ risk management efforts.

According to Gary Kaplan, President of AXA XL’s North America Construction business, “The global pandemic has shined a light on the importance of strong project controls to effectively manage risk.  Now is a time when every contractor is very aware of the importance of keeping the pulse on productivity, supply chain risks, and staying ahead of potential impacts to projects.  With this new service, we are helping our clients take stock of their scheduling practices and pinpoint where they might improve to drive project success – and subcontractor performance risk is at the heart of this.”

Jim Richert, AXA XL’s SDI Profit Center Leader adds:

“The construction industry has a wide range of scheduling practices – and notable inconsistency project to project.  Our RE team has had great results using the benchmarking approach across a number of key processes – such as prequalification, sub selection, and quality management – in order to provide our Partners with insight of how their practices stack up against their peers.  It only made sense that we apply this concept to schedule management controls.  We see time and time again that early recognition of challenges creates opportunity to mitigate impact.  At its foundation, strong schedule management drives opportunity to stay ahead of problems in a manner that helps to reduce risk for EVERYONE involved.”

Schedule Benchmarking Categories

As part of the benchmarking service, AXA XL’s SDI Construction risk engineering team reviews three general categories:

• Schedule Process & Procedures: The overall framework of the contractor’s scheduling processes, procedures, and resources.
• Schedule Development: The contractor’s practices for developing and approving the primary schedules that commit to the overall project duration – the bid/proposal schedule and the baseline contract schedule.
• Schedule Updates/Ongoing Management: The contractor’s practices for performing regular project schedule updates and using these schedule tools to drive both project and enterprise success.

Overall, the process is designed to be collaborative throughout the assessment of approximately forty schedule performance indicators.  The deliverable includes both summary and detailed report, along with anonymized comparison to other similar contractors.  Following debrief and alignment on the report, an actionable plan is tailored to the contractor’s needs.

As part of this assessment, AXA XL also enlists tech partner SmartPM Technologies to support analysis of schedules from three projects and identify objective recommendations for focused project controls.  This also creates an opportunity for the contractor to observe the value of SmartPM’s analytics in real time.

“Sound practices in construction scheduling are imperative to achieving optimal project success,” said Michael Pink, CEO of SmartPM Technologies. “Although this is generally known, the construction industry continually fails to implement it. It’s critical to understand what makes for a truly ‘good’ or ’usable’ schedule, and to have visibility into schedule data produced through advanced analytics. Empowering companies to do these things, alone, will have a positive impact within construction companies and, eventually, improve project controls for the overall industry.”

Follow AXA XL on Twitter and on LinkedIn

About SmartPM Technologies

SmartPM™ Technologies Inc., a leading project analytics company for the construction industry, was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Atlanta.  The company introduced its SmartPM product in mid-2019 and is the only cloud-based, schedule analytics software solution designed specifically for the construction industry. Founded by industry analytics experts, the company introduced the first full-service project analytics system that extracts information from native schedule files and converts it into meaningful insights, which helps minimize risk of cost exposure related to delays and overruns. SmartPM was designed by construction professionals with one mission in mind: to provide stakeholders with the tools necessary to effectively control costs and schedules, and to keep projects off the path toward disputes. For more information, visit smartpmtech.com.

Schedule a demo of SmartPM and read the latest blog posts to learn more about construction scheduling analytics and controls.

About AXA XL

AXA XL provides insurance and risk management products and services for mid-sized companies through to large multinationals, and reinsurance solutions to insurance companies globally. We partner with those who move the world forward. To learn more, visit www.axaxl.com

About AXA XL INSURANCE

AXA XL Insurance offers property, casualty, professional, financial lines and specialty insurance solutions to mid-sized companies through to large multinationals globally. We partner with those who move the world forward. To learn more, visit www.axaxl.com