Can you use Woub alongside your current construction software without a connection?

Why does Woub work without a software integration?

A site manager's daily question does not first need to be retrieved from another system. They can share a photo within the right project, call a colleague or ask who assesses a deviation. Woub supports that communication and its follow-up. A technical connection to administration is not the same as a necessary condition for this.

In the Woub project chat, you discuss the work with colleagues and external participants. You can turn a message requiring action into a task with an owner and deadline. The cost estimate stays in the estimating package, financial processing in ERP, and the formal project programme with the planner. Woub also remains complementary to BIM, DMS and other specialist software.

Communicate a changed agreement without automatic data transfer

As an illustrative example, suppose the site manager discovers a chosen internal door does not fit. They post a photo and the relevant drawing reference in the project chat. The construction project coordinator investigates an alternative with the supplier. The project manager has the choice confirmed and agrees who updates the order, cost estimate and programme.

In Woub, you might follow up the action ‘check lead time for alternative door type’. The order is adjusted under the existing approach. The colleague responsible then reports within the project what has been processed and which delivery date applies. That closes the handover. Ticking off a communication task alone does not prove the order has changed.

Calling: if the situation needs explanation, those involved can call from the project chat. Within supported conversation functionality, Wouby AI records the conversation and automatically turns recognised commitments into tasks. Check content, owner and deadline. An automatically created task is not an automatic budget change.

Meetings: where there are several implications, discuss together who checks the design, order and sequence of work. With recording meetings, the transcript, summary and action items remain available with the meeting. Have the designated employees then process confirmed outcomes in their own systems.

Practical experience: start with a useful approach for site teams

In the Brouwers Groenprojecten customer case, Hans Brouwers describes information scattered across Excel, job notes and WhatsApp. The company started with trials before introducing the approach more widely. Employees use photos and questions in project chat, among other things, to coordinate remotely. The case supports the importance of a simple start for field teams. It does not state which software integrations the company does or does not use.

How do you start a project in three steps?

Start with one ongoing project where communication currently falters. Choose a situation where the office, site team and at least one external party need to solve something together. The sequence below is a practical implementation route; you do not first need to change your entire software landscape.

1. Make the project recognisable

Use a name and reference the team also recognises elsewhere, such as ‘P-2418 — Verbouwing Kerkstraat’. Add the information people need to find the right work and assign a responsible administrator. For similar project names, also check the location or project number.

De Woub guide to project templates describes reusing recurring checklists and project details. Configure one project properly before making it a standard. When using a template, also check which team members are carried over; not every colleague automatically belongs on every project.

2. Agree what happens in Woub and what stays elsewhere

Use project chat for daily questions, explanations and feedback. Create a task when someone needs to investigate or carry something out. At the same time, agree who processes confirmed changes in the order, cost estimate, programme or document source.

For the door example, this means the construction project coordinator checks the order, the construction estimator processes a necessary budget adjustment, and the planner assesses the implications for the work. Record which project and element the change concerns with the follow-up action. Have people report the outcome without copying a complete second administrative file into chat.

For that communication, Woub can replace existing WhatsApp groups and a separate task app, and reduce daily project email. Do not ask the crew to post the same question in both Woub and WhatsApp. Retain formal document and business processes already configured well.

3. Test one complete handover

Have the site manager ask a real question, the colleague responsible respond, and a follow-up action be completed. Then check with those involved:

• Can everyone find the right agreement and related source?

• Is it clear who processes the change in the other system?

• Has that processing actually been checked and reported back?

An empty project folder or a sent invitation alone does not prove the approach works. Discuss where someone needed to search, wait or retype information. That shows whether you mainly need a working agreement, better access or, later, an integration.

How do you invite internal and external colleagues?

Distinguish between employees of your own company and participants from another company. They need not have the same permissions. The team member guide describes invitations through the personal menu in the web application and assigning a role. Have new colleagues use the invitation received so that they join the intended business environment.

Inviting a team member and adding them to the right project are two parts of setup. The project guide describes adding someone to a project and choosing chat participation. Check both before assuming the site manager receives messages.

For a subcontractor or client, Woub describes an invitation to the shared chat. You do not first need to build a data integration with that party's ERP for this. The participant does need to accept the invitation and be able to use the environment.

According to the explanation of external participants, shared messages and media are visible to the external party while internal project information remains protected. Do not therefore put a necessary instruction solely in an internal project note if the subcontractor needs to read it. Check the required access from their own account.

Carry out the first action together

Have the new participant open the project, answer a message and view the relevant attachment or link. Explain who helps with problems. Also check that the right subcontractor contact has been added when the crew changes.

Choose the participant role based on the work and access needed. The knowledge base distinguishes between an external participant and other team roles; do not treat them as interchangeable. Check the current subscriptions and conditions for the chosen setup, rather than inferring costs solely from the word ‘external’.

How do you share links to existing cloud files?

Keep files in the designated source and refer to them from the project when that fits your document process. Woub describes adding sharing links from OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox and SharePoint. A shared reference can prevent office and site teams each treating their own copy as the current file.

Give the link a recognisable description: project, document, element and, where needed, revision or status. Check with the recipient that they can open the intended version. Their access to Woub grants no extra permissions in the cloud environment. Having a file downloaded on a phone is also different from being able to find the newly approved version.

To sharing link is a reference, rather than automatic synchronisation. Woub also documents separate integrations for OneDrive and SharePoint. Investigate those when document handover calls for them; an ordinary project chat need not wait for this.

For more on source versions and choosing between document storage and DMS, see Woub alongside document management.

When does a custom integration become useful?

Custom development becomes worth considering when a specific data handover recurs often, the source and destination are fixed, and manual work demonstrably causes problems. Examples include project details that repeatedly need copying. First write down which piece of data needs to go to which system at which event. ‘Connect everything’ is not yet a useful brief.

Then check whether a suitable standard route already exists. On the Woub marketplace, you can investigate available integrations. Assess the actual data flow: an integration for creating projects does not prove budgets, tasks or programmes are synchronised too.

De Woub knowledge base on the API describes developing integrations yourself or with an IT partner, depending on both systems' capabilities. The developer documentation describes access to projects, chats and files, among other things. That does not prove a ready-made integration with every software package.

Before development, also agree who manages the integration. What happens if a project name changes, the same change arrives twice or a system is temporarily unreachable? Who sees a failed handover and who repairs it? Test a correction as well as the normal route. An unnoticed error in an automatic handover can cause the same uncertainty as a forgotten manual change.

Read more about when an API integration is needed. If the current handover works reliably with little effort, continuing to work alongside each other can be a good choice. If daily communication is already well organised in your existing environment, first establish which extra problem Woub still needs to solve.

Start small. Enjoy the peace of mind. Expand only then. Choose one project, involve office and site teams, and try Woub free for 14 days. First assess whether agreements arrive and are followed up. Use that experience to decide specifically which integration would then genuinely add value.