Asta Connect, a new collaborative task management tool for project teams

LONDON: Eleco plc, a specialist international provider of software and related services to the built environment, is proud to launch Asta Connect: a new collaborative task management tool within its award-winning Powerproject solution.

Asta Connect solves the challenges of short-term, on-site planning, collaboration and daily activities progress by connecting project teams with the overall master construction schedule, capturing commitments and delivering key insights on the projects to empower decision making.

Asta Connect enables trade contractors, project managers, contract managers, trade and Site Managers (last planners) to centrally coordinate daily and weekly work plans. It also assists them in understanding their roles and responsibilities, collaborating on agreed tasks, viewing their progress, and seeing the impact of their actions on other disciplines through a simple, visual interface.

Asta Connect is designed to simplify the adoption of Lean Construction first pioneered in the 1990s, to improve construction design and planning reliability and coordination between trades. With construction projects adopting lean practices being 3X as likely to be ahead of schedule and 2X more likely to be under budget (Lean Construction Institute) there’s good reason to get started.

David Simpson, Global Product Manager, Elecosoft, said: “Our customers are increasingly adopting Last Planner and Lean principles in their projects. The benefits of fostering collaboration and driving accountability, is reducing waste and avoiding unnecessary expenditure on rework. We are therefore pleased to support this trend by launching Asta Connect to provide a critical online gateway for multi-stakeholder collaboration while supporting the industry’s shift towards lean principles.

Asta Connect users can import project plans from master scheduling software like Powerproject or create a new master schedule within the Asta Connect programme to connect everyone involved with the overall objectives of the project. Digital whiteboards enable project stakeholders to visualise short-term works, improving workflow, generating buy-in from all project disciplines and being a digital platform provides key data insights to empower decision making and support continuous learning and improvement.”

Jonathan Hunter, CEO, Eleco, commented: “Customer centricity is core to our strategy and over three decades we have been working with the most experienced and talented construction planners in our industry to shape and develop our planning solution, Powerproject. Most of those experts use the name Asta when referring to Powerproject, which was the original company name prior to its acquisition by Eleco in 2006. 2023 is a year that we celebrate 9 years of being voted the best Project Management and Planning Software in the UK and to demonstrate our attentiveness to customers as well as our portfolio approach, we have chosen to reintroduce the Asta brand with the release of Asta Connect.”