3 Reasons for Construction Companies to Take The Digital Leap

It’s no secret that the digital infrastructure of our world has grown exponentially. Increases in data centers and fiber optic connections have opened up massive space for digital technologies systemized to support the construction industry. The benefits for owners, their partners and projects are numerous.

Accessibility and optimization of data means increased clarity, improved efficiency, deeper communications both downstream and up, buy-in from a plethora of stakeholders and a continuous return on investment as more projects come online.

Yet, even amid this boom in digital opportunities, there remains a surprising level of hesitancy to embrace a digital transition and utilize their inherent perks on projects. That’s why it's important for owners and developers to understand that the opportunities available to them aren’t as foreign as they may initially feel.

Here are three major reasons why construction companies should take the leap into optimizing opportunities with the growing wealth of digital tools.

1. Digital insights optimize your building’s lifecycle.

More often than not, a new project is not a one-off. Rather, it’s part of a fleet of buildings that need to be maintained, improved and sometimes even taken offline. This is all part of managing efficiency. But those decisions can only be made from obtained and optimized information. It’s not realistic to make them from historical knowledge trapped in people’s heads, on papers or in file folders and storage rooms. 

This is exactly the moment to turn to the digital systems available. They can manage all of that information, do it quickly and keep it close and easily scannable. The result will be a deeper understanding of the whole life cycle of owner investments. 

2. Your “why” can create partners, not employees. 

Considering the size and scope of most projects, it’s not uncommon to have a multitude of teams working under the umbrella of an owner.

Each of these teams is a critical part of a whole. Without grasping the operational nuance that owners themselves possess, that whole forms slowly and with greater difficulty. Too often each team is working on a set of shortened directions passed ‘over the fence’ step-by-step downstream. 

This dilutes information and creates misalignments and redundancies. It can also lead to workers deciding to just trust their gut instinct rather than rely on actual knowledge and clear information. A well vested and well maintained digital platform is a tool that allows all of a project’s information to be  accessible to all teams whenever needed. 

With the transparent information these tools provide, no one is left guessing why a decision has been made. Instead they know and can understand it. Knowing why in this way creates unity resulting in work from a shared and vested approach built on clarity and increased trust. 

3. Buying in now means not paying for it later. 

Just because today’s digital solutions and the infrastructure necessary to support them has changed how we interact with our data doesn’t mean there hasn’t always been critical data to utilize.

Understanding how the digital infrastructure — both physically and technologically — need to work together in buildings that were delivered before these technologies even existed is the next necessary step in its optimization. 

While there is a large upfront cost to initiating such a transition, it’s important to remember that an early increase in efficiency will reduce costs later in the project. Consider the inefficiency of how a traditional design delivery method creates partitioned and hard to use information that has intelligence redacted to avoid passing on risk; or submittals locked into a PMIS and not integrated in a transparent and accessible model. 

Digitized systems supported through upgrades in infrastructure can remove these and other time-consuming — and often costly — holdups. There’s always a risk in taking a forward step, but unlike other risks, this one is interconnected with reward. 

Innovation is just another form of change, and in the construction industry's fear of change can best, torpedo a project’s potential or even derail it permanently. When owners and developers feel uninhibited by the technology available to them, they are more likely to embrace it, and over time, cultivate a culture of innovation on each project in their portfolio.

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