SOFTWARE
SMARTER INSIGHTS, BETTER OUTCOMES: THE POWER OF CONNECTED DATA IN THE CHASE FOR HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY ACROSS THE ENTIRE CONSTRUCTION LIFECYCLE, INEIGHT INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS VICE PRESIDENT AJ WATERS SAYS NOTHING SPELLS SUCCESS BETTER THAN CONNECTED DATA.
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he construction industry does not have a great track record when it comes to digitisation. Despite its sheer size and scale, construction is among the least digitised sectors in the world, according to McKinsey Global Institute’s digitisation index.1 In Australia, the Office of the Chief Economist categorises construction among sectors with the lowest rate of digitisation, behind sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and mining.2 But when KPMG released its 2021 Global Construction Survey results earlier this year – an annual survey it has been conducting for the past 20 years – it hinted positively towards an accelerated pace of change within the sector, partly as a result of measures taken by companies to help them deliver on projects despite the challenges they faced with COVID-19. More importantly, the KPMG report found that increasing project complexities, plus the pressure to build bigger, faster and more cost-effectively, has outpaced the ability to control risks, costs and schedules without help from digital tools. Signs of optimism were also evident when InEight – a global leader in construction project management software – launched its first Global Capital Project Outlook in July of this year. The report, which gathered inputs from the world’s largest capital project owners and construction professionals across the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, found that 78 per cent of respondents in APAC considered digital transformation as their biggest short-term source of opportunity. While technology continues to make data more accessible, AJ Waters, Vice
InEight software helps capture and connect capital project data from multiple sources so it’s accessible to all stakeholders.
President of Industry Solutions at InEight, says merely gathering data is not enough. “Unless this data is connected to provide a complete picture of the entire construction lifecycle, you may end up making past mistakes,” he says. With complex, multi-year and mega projects weighing heavily on both owners and contractors to manage risks differently, Waters says that connected data and integrated technology solutions can help ensure that projects are delivered on time, on budget and with minimal risk. THE JOURNEY TO DATE As the global head of InEight’s solution engineering team, Waters has been in a unique position to observe the sector’s digital evolution over time. He says the fault for a slow uptake of connected data by the construction industry in the past falls partly on software developers. “Construction software has not, in the past, been as intuitive and interactive as those available across some other
industries. If you look at some of the major players within construction technology, their software still has somewhat of an old feeling. The buttons on the programs look old, it doesn’t work on your phone, it doesn’t work like your browser,” he says. “We, as an industry, were also slow to adopt solutions like Cloud. And then when people were getting on-board with using mobile phones and apps, we were just figuring out how to work without being ‘on-premise’ by taking things to the Cloud. So, the tools for the construction sector were always two to three steps behind those in other sectors,” he adds. Finally, when the technology caught up, the solutions were still disparate, he says. “When technology providers finally caught up, that’s when point solutions popped up. For example, now there is a very good time-tracking app on the market or a great cost control app, but when the user tries to get these point solutions to talk to one another, it becomes a big roadsonline.com.au
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