APIJ Construction: Critical Role of Technology in “Response” Phase of COVID-19
The effects of COVID-19 on the construction industry across Asia Pacific including Japan (APIJ) are varied, and the recovery for construction companies across the region can be classified into three phases: “response”, “adaptation”, and “acceleration”. In this blog, we’ll dive into the “response” phase including a look at the technology the industry is adopting for this part of their recovery.
Each phase of recovery is accompanied by specific technology investments construction companies must make to aid their recovery — from initiating projects to reducing costs to survive, to adapting technologies to address gaps and new pandemic-induced requirements, and using new innovations to capture market share.
A recent IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Autodesk, Road to Recovery: Overcoming COVID-19’s Impact on the Construction Industry with Digital Technologies, looks at each of these phases including the top technology investments at each stage of recovery. The InfoBrief found that 18% of construction companies surveyed across the region are in the crisis response phase and looking at technology projects that reduce operating costs, while 16% are looking at technology projects that react to the crisis brought on by COVID-19 (for example, technology to support business continuity like video conferencing tools).
The goal of construction companies in the “response” phase
The goal of construction companies in the “response” phase is to ensure the workforce remains connected, engaged, and most of all, safe. A shift in mindset among construction companies in this phase is a must; management must recognise employee outcomes play a more significant role in crisis response over adherence to processes.
Construction companies in the “response” phase were caught unprepared by COVID-19 and are still managing its business impact. The companies in this phase were only making short-term, tactical technology investments and did not have a digital roadmap prior to the pandemic, therefore they had to pivot more quickly than their peers in order to survive. These organisations found they were lacking the resilience needed to support their workforce and are striving to equip workers with the necessary technologies to ensure business continuity.
While the percentage of employees working in the field has decreased from 43% in pre-pandemic days to just 26%, these organisations need to make investments that will ensure the health and safety of employees when businesses increase onsite operations. The shift from a physical to digital workplace is a must in order to reduce human intervention and establish autonomous operations, and at the same time, ensure productivity and engagement from employees.
3 top technology investments in the “response” phase
The IDC InfoBrief found that of those companies surveyed, the top three technology investments in the “response” phase were:
- Video conferencing applications (35%)
- Dedicated health and security applications for employee communication and contact tracing (32%)
- Employee engagement (31%)
To support the workforce, construction companies must establish technology parity, where all workers have secure access to the resources required to do their jobs, no matter their preferred device or if they are local, remote, or in the field. The top three technology investments reflect this focus, in addition to ensuring the workforce is connected, engaged and safe. While these initial steps are tactical, they are the foundations a company needs to ensure business continuity before moving into the “adaptation” phase where business goals and accompanying technology investments can shift into long term, strategic goals to protect companies against further disruptions.
Technology is supporting construction companies with resilience through each phase of COVID-19 recovery
In a new era of convergence where industries, processes and teams are embracing innovative ways of working and dealing with new challenges, streamlined workflows are possible through software such as the solutions within Autodesk Construction Cloud, an integrated cloud-based portfolio of products used to manage construction projects. Autodesk Construction Cloud connects workflows, teams and data at every stage of construction to reduce risk, maximise efficiency and increase profits.
The unified technology offered by Autodesk Construction Cloud is becoming increasingly important for companies to support COVID-19 recovery, and we are working with our customers to support them through their journey to recovery, growth and beyond.
To download the IDC InfoBrief, click here. To find out more about how Autodesk Construction Cloud can support your business, contact us or get your free trial.
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How to Connect Your Project Data with Business Intelligence
Construction teams are capturing more data than ever before. With the amount of activity happening daily on a jobsite, it’s easy to see how data can build up and become overwhelming to understand. According to FMI, 95% of the data generated by construction and engineering firms goes unused, which means we only have room to improve.
Teams don’t necessarily need more data; they need more insights that will help them leverage data more effectively in decision making. So, where do we start?
The first step is ensuring you have access to all of your project data and the right analytics tools to visualize further. The Autodesk Construction Cloud platform and BIM 360 has a great set of prediction and analytics capabilities built directly into the product. However, we know that many construction teams still rely on additional business intelligence tools, like Power BI or Tableau, in tandem with our technology to evaluate their company’s performance.
With Data Connector, teams can now quickly extract project data from the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform or BIM 360 for customized use in business intelligence tools, all through a single click. This saves teams time and money by giving them a built-in tool to extract data without needing expensive APIs or custom code. It also gives them the ability to improve data visualizations to make more informed business decisions.
Curious to see how Data Connector is being used by construction teams today? Let’s explore how Barton Malow has been utilizing Data Connector in their business operations.
Strengthening Technology Adoption
Ted Jennings, a Senior VDC Manager at Barton Malow, started using the data exported from the BIM 360 Data Connector to understand at an account level how various projects teams were onboarding as well as to look at the specific action’s users were taking within BIM 360. By understanding these trends, Jennings and his team were able to cultivate best practices and improve overall adoption of BIM 360 across all of their project teams.
“One big win we came away with after looking into our usage data was that we noticed a lot of people were wrongly assigning subcontractors roles,” said Jennings. “We realized that the existing role tagged as ‘Field Team’ was getting overlooked so by changing it to ‘Subcontractor’ teams began to more appropriately assign this role. This is one example of how a simple categorization mistake can lead to people not being given the right permission levels or access to the documents they really need.”
Understanding Project and Company Wide Performance
Evaluating project level performance has always been a critical part of any construction project, especially when it comes to looking at daily reports or analytics. However, cross project analysis is also an essential part of ensuring companies are getting a holistic view of how they are performing at an executive level. If you consider the amount of data generated from just a single project, you understand that looking at the data across tens of other projects is exponentially challenging to evaluate and compare.
Additionally, many teams are also using multiple software solutions, like ERP systems, financial applications, and other project management tools. So having the ability to aggregate all of their data into a single view is essential. This is a key reason many construction firms are turning to business intelligence tools that are made specifically to help visualize and compare larger amounts of data to help them understand what areas of their business need attention.
“It is critical for us to see a deeper level of cross project analytics and the Data Connector allows us to better understand project trends and commonalities so we can make decisions around how to mitigate those issues.” – Ted Jennings, Senior VDC Manager, Barton Malow
This was a key outcome Jennings wanted to achieve, as it was important for Barton Malow to use their business intelligence tools to evaluate their company performance across all of their projects. “It is critical for us to see a deeper level of cross project analytics and the Data Connector allows us to better understand project trends and commonalities so we can make decisions around how to mitigate those issues,” said Jennings.
Improving Project Quality
Although the Barton Malow team started leveraging Data Connector to help improve their onboarding and adoption, they are now focusing on diving even deeper into analyzing cross workflow trends to improve their project delivery. By evaluating things like RFIs, Submittals, and Issues across projects, Jennings and his team can now have a clear understanding of what actions need prioritizing and improve overall project success.
The other great thing about using the Data Connector is that any unique dashboard created within Power BI or Domo can also be viewed back within the Insight or Project Home modules in Autodesk Construction Cloud platform and BIM 360. This means that teams can leverage the powerful and customizable analytics features in business intelligence tools, but still have a centralized place to view all of their data.
Get Started with Data Connector Today
As more construction firms start adopting tools like the BIM 360 Data Connector to help leverage their data, teams will begin to see improvements in the way they do business. Whether that is better adoption of technology, streamlining project controls, or improving overall project quality, using data allows teams to learn and grow their business into the future.
Need help getting started with Data Connector?
Download our free Power BI template.
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Top Takeaways from Fireside Chat with Microsoft Director, Salla Eckhardt
We just wrapped up the Autodesk Construction Cloud Forum where leaders shared insights about digital transformation in the construction industry. The dynamic two-hour global digital event was jam-packed with everything from in-depth master classes to live networking with leading construction influencers.
One of the most powerful sessions included a fireside chat with Salla Eckhardt, Microsoft’s Director of Transformation Services on their new Center of Innovation team in the Global Real Estate department. Salla got her start developing and researching the solutions and technologies that we know today as digital plans. As a researcher, she developed many of the BIM processes and tools that are now off-the-shelf solutions and daily routines for the construction industry.
Before joining Microsoft, Salla directed the emerging technology and innovation strategy for a major construction management company based in Seattle. Let’s take a look at the top takeaways about innovation, platform technology, and other emerging technologies in construction from our recent fireside chat with Salla.
If you missed the session, the content will be available for a couple weeks on the event site. Watch here. You can also read more takeaways from the event here.
1: Constantly Innovate Digital Construction Programs
Salla shared some highlights with us about how Microsoft is constantly innovating its digital construction program. As a member of the internal real estate and security departments, she helps operational teams deliver future campuses and workspaces. Salla explains, “I’m a director of transformation services in our center of innovation, where I’m driving forward a new framework called the Digital Building Life Cycle. I have built the entire Digital Building Life Cycle into my own career and tested a lot of those concepts that I’m now developing further with our partners and vendors.”
To achieve digital transformation in the construction space, Salla has focused on building up Microsoft’s flagship program for the Digital Building Lifecycle and its three subprograms. The first subprogram is a BIM program. It focuses on creating BIM guidelines and processes that then support the architects, engineers, general contractors, and preconstruction teams to digitally build the physical building before it’s actually built or assembled. The next program is the digital construction program. This program enables the use of platform technologies to collect and accumulate the relevant data for a real estate owner, operations, and facility management.
Finally, Salla is responsible for our Digital Twins program. In this effort, she looks for ways to bring all of the technologies together in a format of Digital Twins. This single source of truth is critical for inviting stakeholders to collaborate on and deliver their scope of work in the full technical life cycle of the building and continue enriching the Digital Building Lifecycle.
As for innovation across their real estate department, Salla’s team works across a spectrum. Innovation teams work on what’s known as “horizon one.” These teams view innovation as incremental improvement in daily operations and over the next two years. The horizon two teams are focused on innovations for the next two to five years while the horizon three team works on innovations in the long term, concepts that may not even be currently feasible.
“With this approach, we are looking at things in the short term without losing sight of the North Star that we are working towards and digitally transforming our overall business,” explains Salla.
2: Fuel Collaboration and Communication with Platform Technology
To achieve digital transformation, Microsoft is adopting a common data environment to ensure that projects are delivered according to BIM standards. This initiative ensures that the teams are collecting relevant data that Microsoft then owns. As the team continues into tenant improvements, projects, retrofits, and renovations down to the decades of the technical life cycle, they can be confident they have the most up-to-date data.
Microsoft’s construction partners are using connected platforms to extend their offerings across the project life cycle. These platforms are critical to digital collaboration, communications across multiple stakeholders, and maintaining the data as a common language that fuels both collaboration and communication.
As for day-to-day construction site operations, platform technology enables users to not only capture data but also to refine it into information that is more consumable for humans as decision-makers. It also cuts down data fragmentation and version-controlling as everyone is always working with the latest integrated data.
Platform thinking and adoption also support delivering the Digital Building Lifecycle. As Salla notes, “With the platform, we don’t have to be stuck with just collecting data. We can really refine the data into information that then is more consumable for humans as decision-makers. You can host all of the project documentation in a single source of truth, and people can filter out the relevant data they need. There’s less of the fragmentation of the data and less need for version control.”
3: The Industry is Changing — Take Advantage of Emerging Technologies
As the industry continues to evolve, Salla highlights the importance of leading with compassion and empathy. Adopting digital tools can enable teams to communicate more effectively than ever before. She notes how having the capability of experiencing the project in digital format by leveraging extended reality or in virtual meeting platforms has proven how powerful it is to have strong communication tools and the connection between different stakeholders.
Salla also sees great advancement in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning, which are quite beneficial for BIM and VDC management. These technologies can automate routine tasks and processes to avoid clashes and obstacles to collaboration. They also free up time for BIM and VDC managers to focus on people and communications management.
In wrapping up our fireside chat, Salla shared some tips for new entrants to platform strategy. “I would take the approach of looking into what type of roles you have in your organization and what kind of processes people are managing. Take a deep look at opportunities for improving the roles. That way you take the approach of people, business, and technology. Technology is the third leg of the stool, supporting the people and their re-engineered processes. When you have clarity on what your organization looks like in the future, you can start developing your own digital core and tie it into the Digital Building Life Cycle that then creates that long-term vision for your digital transformation.”
This approach delivers clarity on the future of the organization. That way, you can start developing a digital core, which creates that long-term vision for digital transformation.
Catch More Content from the Autodesk Connected Construction Forum
Ready for more insights from the Autodesk Connected Construction Forum? Don’t miss out — you can watch the event content including the fireside chat and master classes for the next few weeks on the event site.
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