Hoylu Advances Connected Construction Planning and Collaboration with New Platform Release
Hoylu, a visual planning and project management platform developed for the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, has introduced a new platform release and outlined its strategic direction for the coming years. The company aims to improve construction planning by connecting project teams, schedules, and field information through a shared, real-time visual planning environment.
More than 130,000 users rely on Hoylu to plan and coordinate complex projects, including teams at major general contractors across Europe and North America. According to the company, its users include organizations representing 25% of the ENR Top 100 general contractors.
Hoylu’s broader vision is to address persistent challenges in construction project delivery, particularly the difficulty of keeping project information aligned across teams and ensuring that trade contractors participate effectively in planning activities.
The latest release builds on the company’s experience in visual collaboration and introduces capabilities intended to connect master schedules with field-level planning. By helping project teams work from a shared view of project activities, Hoylu aims to improve communication, support faster decision-making, and identify potential delays before they affect overall project delivery.
Connecting Construction Teams Through Visual Planning
Founded in 2016, Hoylu initially focused on visual collaboration before identifying construction as a key market for its technology. The construction industry has traditionally relied on physical whiteboards, sticky notes, spreadsheets, and meetings to coordinate work across project teams.
Although digital scheduling tools are widely used, information can remain fragmented across different systems and communication channels. This makes it difficult for project managers, superintendents, schedulers, and trade contractors to maintain a consistent understanding of current activities and upcoming work.
Hoylu addresses this challenge by providing a shared, real-time visual plan that allows teams to coordinate activities and communicate project updates more effectively.
The company’s platform is designed to support general contractors and project teams throughout the planning process, helping them connect information from the field with broader project schedules and management requirements.
According to Hoylu, one of California’s largest general contractors has reported schedule improvements of 20% to 40% after using the platform. In Sweden, one project team reduced its meeting time by 15 hours per week.
These reported results illustrate the potential benefits of improving planning visibility and coordination, although individual outcomes depend on project conditions and implementation.
Addressing Gaps Between Master Schedules and Field Plans
Construction projects involve numerous contractors, specialized trades, work sequences, and operational handoffs. Keeping these activities aligned requires regular communication between site teams, schedulers, project managers, and company leadership.
However, project information is often distributed across multiple tools. Master schedules may be maintained in dedicated scheduling software, while short-term lookahead plans are recreated manually in spreadsheets. Field updates may then be communicated through emails or separate reporting systems.
This fragmented approach can create inconsistencies, increase administrative work, and delay the identification of project risks. When updates from the construction site do not reach the central schedule promptly, teams may make decisions using outdated information.
Hoylu’s latest release is designed to reduce these disconnects by bringing the field, office, and leadership together around a shared visual planning environment.
The platform aims to provide a more consistent view of project activities, allowing teams to coordinate short-term work with broader scheduling objectives. By connecting daily execution with project-level planning, the company seeks to reduce manual processes and improve visibility into actual site conditions.
New Scheduling Integration Capabilities
A key feature of the new release is XER schedule import, together with improved master schedule alignment. These capabilities are intended to connect field-level lookahead planning with the master project schedule.
The integration can help superintendents and schedulers maintain better communication about upcoming work, current progress, and potential scheduling conflicts. Instead of treating field plans and master schedules as separate documents, teams can work toward a more coordinated planning process.
Improved alignment also gives project leadership access to reporting based on information from current site activities. This can support more informed decisions about resource allocation, sequencing, and the management of emerging risks.
The platform is designed to accommodate projects as they grow and become more complex. Organizations can also standardize their planning processes at different stages, allowing them to introduce consistent methods without requiring every project to begin from the same starting point.
For general contractors managing multiple projects, standardized planning practices can help improve consistency across teams while preserving the flexibility needed to address individual project requirements.
Leadership Focused on Connected Construction Workflows
Hoylu’s strategic direction is supported by a leadership team focused on connecting construction planning, product development, and technology.
Chief Executive Officer Truls Ole Baklid joined the company in 2019 as executive vice president and became CEO in 2022. His experience includes scaling software businesses, business development, software-as-a-service (SaaS) growth, and customer success.
Baklid said the next stage of Hoylu’s development required more than adding new features. He emphasized the need to connect the different activities through which construction teams plan and manage projects.
Construction professionals regularly move between site operations, planning meetings, schedules, and project reporting. Hoylu aims to connect these activities through a shared layer of live project information, helping teams develop a clearer understanding of project conditions and make decisions more quickly.
Chief Product Officer Jakob Leitner leads the company’s product organization alongside Chief Technology Officer Thomas Seifried. Together, they oversee product development and engineering, supported by teams across Europe and North America.
Their work supports the development of platform capabilities intended to improve usability, strengthen scheduling integration, and connect project information more effectively.
Supporting More Efficient Construction Project Delivery
Hoylu’s latest release reflects a broader effort to modernize construction planning by reducing information silos and improving collaboration among project participants.
Connected planning can help construction teams coordinate work more effectively, identify scheduling risks earlier, and reduce the time spent manually transferring information between systems. Better communication between field personnel and office-based teams can also support more timely responses when project conditions change.
The platform’s focus on trade participation is particularly relevant to construction projects, where the performance of individual contractors and the sequence of their work can influence overall delivery.
By creating a shared planning environment, Hoylu aims to help teams coordinate responsibilities and align short-term activities with project-wide objectives.
As construction projects continue to require closer coordination across disciplines and locations, the company intends to expand its role in visual planning and project management. Its long-term strategy centers on connecting people, plans, and project information in a single working environment.
Through its latest release and continued product development, Hoylu aims to help construction organizations improve schedule visibility, strengthen collaboration, and support more predictable project execution across the AEC industry.
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