Connected Data: Delivering Better Project Outcomes
The engineering and construction industry has made a substantial recovery from the 2020 recession, but it has also experienced multiple obstacles that are expected to persist. According to Deloitte, 2022 should be another rewarding (albeit challenging) year, as the industry looks poised to capture further growth opportunities.
In terms of trends, the move towards digital construction solutions will continue to grow and improve. And it looks like the industry is shifting (even more now) toward connected construction capabilities. This shift to connected technologies will help AEC companies support initiatives such as smart cities, urban air mobility, and climate change programs. It will also help improve project inefficiencies, reduce costs, and improve margins. This is all good news for our sector.
But what is connected construction? It all revolves around data.
Typical construction projects today.
A typical construction project produces a multitude of data from multiple software environments.
From geometric design data to technical specifications, construction plans and contractual documentation. This data usually exists in separate databases, so it becomes very difficult to find information easily and to action everyday tasks efficiently.
As a result, despite the great strides the industry has made with digitisation, we are still seeing inefficient project management and millions in owner expense overruns.
The fact is, when construction projects suffer from serious delays and cost overruns, it is very rarely due to one single event. In most cases, it is due to thousands of inefficiencies that have accumulated. These are simple tasks that took much longer than expected to complete — which when combined, cause years of delay and millions in cost overruns.
This is mainly because the industry hasn’t (yet) figured out how to achieve the best possible connectivity between everyone on a construction project.
Most companies in this space are building point-solutions that address specific problems in the ecosystem. This has been a crucial step in helping the sector to digitise. More recently, other companies have focused on connecting people and project teams to limited datasets (design or project management). This has also become an important step in our evolution towards a more digitized project delivery process. These newer platform technologies are enabling the application of artificial intelligence, data science and predictive analytics to the construction process creating new opportunities for collaboration and risk mitigation.
However, we need more than just point solutions operating in their own silos, and we also need to connect more than just people & teams to each other.
To achieve the greatest efficiencies on both time and cost, we need to connect everyone’s data and information together — across all datasets and along all project disciplines. Only by eliminating these data silos will we be able to really close that loop between design, supply chain and construction.
Unlocking the Power of Connected Construction
Everything really starts and ends with data. While labour, equipment and materials are the basic features for any construction process, it is data that determines how projects come together. And its data that really fuels effective construction management workflows.
The problem is that the current status quo of siloed data has led to isolated teams, disjointed processes, and disconnected systems. One set of data may be used to design a project.
Another set is then used to translate those designs into workable construction plans or phases. Then, once construction starts, project managers, procurement and operations teams may collect and disperse their owns sets of data. And the same goes for the commercial teams and project owners who will likely require an entirely different set of data to get snapshots of project progress or their project’s financial health.
The good news is that the industry landscape is rapidly evolving as engineering firms, contractors, and participants across the value chain realize the benefits of, and increasingly deploy, connected construction technologies. These technologies can help bring assets, people, processes, and job sites onto one platform — making everyone and everything work smarter — reduce downtime, optimize asset utilization and efficiency, and gain greater visibility into operations.
Data is really at the core of our technology.
A recent survey by International Data Corporation, commissioned by Procore, highlighted how integrated technology continues to positively impact construction — and that connected construction technologies are identified as one of the top technologies having the greatest impact on budget and scheduling.
At the heart of our technology is a single cloud-based database interconnecting unlimited datasets from every software environment. On top of this database sits our dynamic search engine that allows users to combine, extract and visualize data to get the specific information they need & in the format they request.
This automates workflows & processes enabling developers, contractors, and project owners to search, retrieve & action information and specific tasks quickly & accurately — resulting in improved efficiency, profitability and a superior user experience.
Yes, there are obstacles. We still need to work towards a more complete technology culture change. Away from the legacy processes and the idea that a digital and data transformation is too costly and time consuming. Or that the security of critical business data is compromised in a shared cloud environment.
The truth is that the benefits of a connected cloud-based construction platform far outweigh any reservations. When adding up the costs of multiple software systems, on-premise servers, as well as maintenance and labour overheads this all adds up to much more that a single connected cloud solution and more than likely can be had for a quarter of the costs of the systems and processes contractors are paying for now.
Contractors’ legacy systems are also much more vulnerable to data breaches than connected cloud solutions, with cyber criminals finding it much easier to find back doors into their on-premise systems. Cloud-based systems tend to deploy the most up-to-date security protections and firewalls, significantly reducing the threat of data breaches. Cloud data and workflows are also more consistently backed up than legacy systems.
The truth is, the wave of digitisation grows with the commitment to connected construction and a plan to scale construction operations as part of a larger connected data and information strategy.
Once committed, we are connected. And once connected, we won’t look back.
