Kahua Reviews

Pros

The user interface is easy to understand and navigate, even has dark mode!

Kahua provides the ability to align with industry standards and support company specific processes with configuration and not customization. As a platform, integration and migration with other systems is easily supported.

The configurable hierarchical structure provides the ability for Kahua to align with how each company is organized and how programs and projects are managed.

The built in kbuilder tool allows companies to support extending the product in house.

Cons

As Kahua provides an easier way to extend the product it is easy to try to implement too much. It is important to focus on what is important to the organization and project teams.

Pros

The power of Kahua lies in it's ability to conform to the way not only your company works, but how your PROJECT works. Every company is different and every project is different. Everyone will agree that collaborative systems have the potential to make the overall team most efficient, but only if EVERYONE participates. Since every member of the team typically brings their own systems to the table, the first hurdle to overcome on a new project is whose system will we use? As a GC, we have the ability to influence the system our subcontractors use, but much less influence over what the client and design team will use. The flexibility of Kahua has enabled us to take feedback from our clients and design partners and build those features into the Kahua system so that it's not just a system built around the GC's perspective, but addresses the needs of every team member and when implemented correctly, makes the entire team more efficient.

Cons

The licensing model. Per-user licensing models are counter-productive. They deter companies from getting everyone on the system and often the users who get vetoed (due to cost) are the ones that either need the info the most are would potentially be some of the best contributors to the collaborative process.

Licensing needs to be a simple unlimited user per project model.

Alternatives Considered

Procore, Oracle Aconex and Trimble e-Builder

Reasons for Choosing Kahua

We were not seeing the necessary investments being made into the continued development of the Constructware product.

Reasons for Switching to Kahua

Three main reasons:1) Platform architecture provided the ability to not only customize applications to our needs, but to build out entirely new applications on the platform much more efficiently than developing from scratch in say a .net environment as we'd done previously. 2) Kahua's architecture is what they a call "hub to hub" as opposed to most systems "hub and spoke" which addresses the issue of data ownership by giving every member of the project team ownership over their own data. Basically, in every other system out there, one party owns the system and all others are invited into it. That means the one party also owns the data and determines what data (if any) everyone else will walk away from the project with. (If you're not the hosting party and that doesn't scare you, it should.) In Kahua, every individual company sets up their own Kahua database and the databases link up to share documents and workflow throughout the project. At the end of the project, any data shared gets copied to the various parties so everyone walks away with a copy of what they had during the project. This is a huge benefit of the system and frankly one that Kahua has done a poor job of communicating to the public.3) The team. The [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] of Kahua [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] are the same two guys that founded and built Constructware. We'd used Constructware since 1998, had a great relationship with [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and knew they were capable of delivering a quality product.

Pros

Nothing. Everything about this software is frustrating.

Cons

Constant problems with loading the platform each day and loading information. Constantly having to stop what we are doing to write an email and attach screen shots. The person that's supposed to help doesn't understand what we try to tell him. There may be a language barrier.

Pros

The transparency and openness in regards to development of the software. The responsiveness of the entire team. The ability to customize and configure the software to our specific work style.

Cons

The flexibility can also create complication and deviation from established 'standards.' The software is sluggish, load times and delay are a common complaint from staff - although this seems to have improved with latest update. It would also be nice if the software came with a better suite of built-in reports that could be used "day-1" lack of even basic list-style reports has limited adoption. Lastly, there have been a few bugs which. Especially when these affect the work breakdown structure, these undermine confidence in the system and have further hampered adoption efforts.

Alternatives Considered

Procore

Reasons for Switching to Kahua

Cost, flexibility, cultural fit, licensing approach and fee structure

Pros

The platform allows the capacity to adapt workflows and processes specific to each company and to integrate with other stakeholders.

Cons

To create specific apps it is required special training and a large man-hour investment. Ideally efforts should be focused into simplifying the design, test and deployment of new solutions.

Alternatives Considered

Procore

Reasons for Choosing Kahua

Procore isn't very flexible and it's an expensive solution for firms like ours.

Switched From

Procore

Reasons for Switching to Kahua

Flexibility Partnership Scalability

Pros

Ease of use, ability to configure what is needed for each role, reporting, integration and overall ease to configure the solution to meet the particular needs of the customers.

Cons

Grants Management - entire process end to end. Records Management.

Alternatives Considered

Primavera Unifier

Reasons for Switching to Kahua

Ease of use, platform is meeting tomorrow's needs - not yesterday look/feel/operation and total cost of ownership is better than the other solutions.

Pros

Kahua provides a configurable and customizable platform at various levels including the enterprise level, a division level as well as the project. It is very intuitive requiring little detailed training for end-users. Additionally, it supports an effective collaboration model where project stakeholders at all levels can participate in a digital fashion. The features and functionality provided have allowed us to start eliminating "point solutions" and focus our delivery teams on one key application.

Cons

Growing pains as the platform matures, but the Kahua team handles them maturely and promptly to ensure that we, the customer, get a solid solution where we can drive consistency and efficiency across the enterprise while still addressing project specific requirements.

Pros

The easy navigation and the ability to build in so much configuration. I also like that others (owners, AE's, GC's) can share data within the network functionality.

Cons

I wish there were more options to integrate with BIM.

Pros

Provides out of the box capabilities for quick deployment. However, the software is easily customized to your business and can be extended without the need of the vendor's development cycle. The k-builder platform is easy to learn for any tech savvy individual.

Cons

There is room for more out of the box delivery of features around certain areas in the software such as contract management and unit price pay types.

Pros

We liked this software due to its flexibility. You are able to configure so many options to make it your own right out of the box. The company has people with construction background and you can tell with the layout and design of each app.

Cons

As with any software that is this complex there is a learning curve, but Kahua has been very response when we run into an issue.

Alternatives Considered

Procore

Reasons for Choosing Kahua

Looking for something more up to date.

Reasons for Switching to Kahua

Cost point

Pros

We have just gone through a quick-start implementation... it's our first time using Kahua on a project, and users continue to be highly enthusiastic about the capabilities, and ease of use. We have configured and implemented the software to fit project needs in about 30 days. This has take several months with other products.

Cons

Like similar products, out of the box reporting is fair, but incomplete for our purposes. However, we like that we can create reports and dashboard on our own.

Pros

This software being an app makes this the ideal collaboration tool for 21st century construction project management!

Cons

In app applications require buying additional licences, which whilst not uncommon still feels a bit mean...