Maximising ROI Through Strategic Data Utilisation

Construction professionals are under pressure to deliver projects on time and on budget but are also operating in an environment characterised by increasing uncertainty and risk. In an industry where margins can be unforgiving, it’s no longer practical or viable to make decisions based on intuition or experience. Other industries, like technology and consulting, have used data to their advantage for decades. Construction is now starting to follow these sectors. Construction firms are increasingly harnessing the true value of data and gaining a better understanding about how it can drive profitability. 

However, there is still room for improvement. Many companies aren’t convinced that investing in technology tools to collect and analyse data will have a significant impact on their bottom line. This mindset needs to change. There are countless benefits of investing in data initiatives, but this decision needs to be approached strategically. 

How do you calculate the ROI of data investments?

The return on investment (ROI) of a data initiative can be hard to determine. It is as much about reducing costs as it is about increasing profits, so both aspects need to be considered together. One of the most significant ways in which a strong data initiative benefits construction companies is through a reduction of ‘commercial leakage’. Commercial leakage refers to the loss of profit on a project due to a number of possible factors:

• Poor contract management
• Unrecovered costs 
• Scope creep
• Inaccurate estimates
• Delays

Accurate data helps you to reduce the likelihood of each of these risks occurring. And reducing these risks has a direct, positive impact on your profits. Being able to measure that impact is part of how you calculate the ROI of the data. To help you approach this calculation, there are lots of questions to ask about the implementation, including:

• Has it reduced our expenses, for example in rework?
• Has it increased accuracy?
• Has it shortened cycle times for variation orders?
• Has it reduced effort for people doing the work?
• Has it reduced the amount of claims procedures?

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but is a good starting point. If you answer yes to any of those questions, the next question is: by how much, or by what percentage? Looking holistically at all the ways in which a data initiative has — or hasn’t — reduced costs or increased profits will help you to identify its ROI and determine whether it has been successful. 

Data Ownership: Increasing Data Success with Defined Roles and Responsibilities

Strategic data initiatives have great potential to increase a construction company’s ability to make data-driven decisions that in turn lead to profitable outcomes. To achieve this, it’s vital that the company has defined who is responsible for looking after the data and making sure that it is accurate and clear for the people who will be using it. ‘Data controller’ and ‘data processor’ are two examples of roles that have a big impact on the success and efficiency of a company’s ability to manage, analyse, communicate and apply its data. 

Without a clear role like a data controller, many companies find themselves in situations where they are recording data, but find it impossible to make good use of it. This could be because it is in different systems that don’t talk to each other, for example, or because data formats have not been standardised.

Both situations lead to having a vast amount of data that cannot easily be compared or analysed. A data controller has the skills, technical know-how and experience that prevents these challenges from happening. 

The Human Side of Data Initiatives

Many construction professionals are advanced in their careers and have become dedicated to using their experience and intuition to make decisions on a project, as this is the way they’ve worked for decades. It can be easy to see it as a personal attack if a project manager disagrees with your approach and suggests a different way of doing things based on data. But now that we have so many useful tools at our disposal that help us make data-driven decisions that put the client’s interests first, we need to put evidence ahead of intuition. 

Change management is an integral part of this shift towards strategic data initiatives. It’s natural to be sceptical about changing ways of working when those ways of working have been the standard for most of your career. Project managers must learn and implement effective change management skills to train and encourage workers to use technology, otherwise teams will struggle to adopt the technology. 

The Expanding Role of Project Managers in Strategic Data Utilisation

The project management office has a big role to play in the ability to strategically use your data. Developing tech fluency is a necessary part of project management now that construction teams are using more digital tools and working more on data in their work. Project managers need to understand the systems they’re working with and how they work. This understanding means that, if your system hallucinates — a term that refers to AI giving incorrect answers — or gives the wrong information, you’re able to challenge it.

As well as tech fluency, the ability to communicate the meaning and importance of data is another key skill. Data storytelling, in which you use data to translate what it means for the goals or status of a project, is a proficiency that the most effective, data-driven project managers are honing. Having lots of data is great, but if you can’t communicate what the data means to your team or the client, then connecting the dots for other people becomes a challenge. 

When you have a solid data foundation in place, there are other tools that can make a big difference to how precise and effective a team’s work is. One example of such tools is an automated contract management system. This enables you to use your data to track key performance indicators (KPIs), service level agreements (SLAs) and variations. Doing so means that when you’re audited within your contract, you’re much less likely to find issues. It also helps with reporting and predictive risk scoring, both of which are highly strategic ways to use data. 

Maximising ROI in construction is no longer about intuition alone, it requires treating data as a core strategic asset. By defining ownership roles, embedding the right technologies, and fostering a culture where evidence drives decisions, companies can reduce commercial leakage, strengthen contracts, and improve resilience. In doing so, data becomes more than a reporting tool; it becomes the foundation for long-term profitability and sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive industry.

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