What is Construction Collaboration Technology? Let’s start by defining what we mean by construction collaboration technology. Construction collaboration technology refers to software applications used to enable effective sharing of project-related information between geographically dispersed members of a construction project team, often through use of a web-based software as a service (cloud) platform.
Having provided solutions for the past 15 years in this sector, the last nine of which here in the Middle East, the CONJECT team has seen dramatic growth of investment in construction technology. ERP systems, document management, estimating and project planning tools are routinely deployed. Newer technologies including those that support Building Information Modelling (BIM) and mobile solutions are gathering pace, whilst interest in emerging technologies such as 3D printing and virtual reality are also increasing.
Our Middle East team has recently reviewed the UAE and Qatar marketplace in terms of the number of projects being supported by collaboration technology and found a 70/30 split: 70% of projects are not using collaboration technology, whilst 30% are being supported.
One prominent UAE contractor reported that in their own experience of delivering twenty local projects over the past five years, they used a collaboration system on one single occasion. The inference was that if the client didn’t request a collaboration system, then they would execute on construction delivery without out the use of one.
In looking more closely at the 30% segment, some companies use generic internal platforms designed entirely for corporate usage; and at the opposite end of the spectrum were those using industry specific, externally managed and hosted collaboration platforms.
When a project team comes together (consisting of client, designer, project manager, consultant and contractor), these roles/ companies will have their own systems already established in their respective offices.
However, project success depends on an independent and common environment to enable the sharing of key project information between different users from different organisations, during the lifecycle of the project.
So why are some clients slow to embrace collaboration tools?
I’m not in Construction
Whichever sector clients operate in – for example retail, hospitality, healthcare, education – the construction industry is often viewed as new to these stakeholders. These clients will use the construction industry as an enabler to deliver their services, and as such could be deemed as infrequent procurers of construction services.
The consequence of this is they have limited understanding of the industry, its complex supply chains and processes, and are occasionally apprehensive to engage, as the need to commission a new project in the future could be some way off.
The reality of commissioning a construction projects is that before you get the end product, you need to engage fully with the supply chain which can be complex and multi-tiered.
We’ve always done it this way, so why change?
Buildings have been built for thousands of years without web based collaboration so why do we need it now? Because projects have become more sophisticated, and as a result construction delivery is more detailed, supply chains more complex and the industry as a whole has become more fragmented.
All of the above factors contribute to the need to have an easy to use, consistent, common platform to keep project teams informed and enable easier decision making during the course of the project.
I’m not yet convinced about the cloud
The market is beginning to move to acceptance as more cloud applications are being developed and used. Confidence is on the increase as CIOs understand how cloud data is delivered to users, and there is more clarity now about the issue of data ownership than in the early days of cloud systems.
Without a cloud infrastructure, collaboration software would need to be established on servers at each physical location, or in the case of remote workers, individual software copies installed on each computer or device. The effect of a non-cloud infrastructure usually means the IT infrastructure becomes fragmented and decentralised, leading to less control, increasing the risk for both data loss and more inconsistencies in project performance reporting.
It’s the first time we’ve worked together
In most cases the ‘collective’ project team are meeting for the first time when brought together to work for a client. If a JV of two or more contractors happen to work for the same client a second time, it’s likely there will be some different personalities representing these companies, and potentially a different engineer and programme manager.
A collaboration system encourages greater communication, harnessing of information and processes – which gives a very structured approach to the delivery of a project, whether the team members are working together for the first time, or have had prior involvement.
Original documents with seals/signatures are still required
This is especially evident in the Middle East, coupled with a belief that paper records are more official and therefore legally more acceptable.
Whilst hardcopies are needed for documents such as instructions and contracts, there are those which don’t need to be in hardcopy, such as transmittals. The location and having a scanned copies of such hard copy documents should be registered on system for future searching and retrieval.
Having a structured record of all the information which has been submitted and distributed by the various consultants and suppliers on a project in an auditable environment provides the user community with a ‘single version of the truth’. As a result, the ability to report on what has and has not been delivered and reviewed and what is outstanding will be of significant benefit.
Software is too expensive
This statement could be down to perception. The level of investment could be as little as 0.5% of the overall project value, so in real terms this might be considered a small investment, capable of delivering considerable cost and time savings on the project particularly if there is a dispute on the project.
In addition, cloud based collaboration solutions provide huge flexibility to the user, easily enabling them to ramp up / scale down usage in line with the user community, in other words matching the software requirement to the stage and profile of the project.
Actual costs saved, may well be invisible to the user. For example the question could be asked as to how many projects we know of that finish on time, on budget, with no claims or disputes.
In June of this year ARCADIS reported that construction dispute values in the Middle East are up 88% in 2014 over the previous year.
A by-product of ‘robust’ collaboration systems is the ability to run meaningful real-time reports to assess the actual impact of delays in decision making on project outputs. The ability of the solution to auditable, objective reports and produce data on bottlenecks related to decision making is key to helping resolve and mitigate potential disputes.
The project size is too small to justify the investment
Many specialist subcontractors do work on smaller short term projects. The complexity of the project should be the main consideration here.
As part of the CONJECT survey, we spoke to a fit-out team who had recently completed a hi-spec hotel refurbishment in Dubai; in what was considered by to be a medium-sized, seven-month project, saw this contractor having to manage over 600 variations on Excel spreadsheets.
Going back to the earlier point of using a collaboration solution to suit the profile of the project – i.e. a seven month timeframe; flexibility of duration and billing around the use of software, should also be coupled with the ability to scale down the functionality to address the primary pain points.
In this particular case, by establishing a collaboration solution for short term use, the contractor would have been able to ‘lose the spreadsheets’, and would have benefited hugely in terms of time-saved in production, with a knock on effect of potentially speeding up the payment cycle.
Turning to Building Information Modelling (BIM)
As BIM by its nature requires collaboration between designers, constructors and more importantly operators, it’s inevitable that the marketplace is seeing a natural convergence of BIM and collaboration tools to provide more robust ‘structured data’ on built assets.
The CONJECT Dubai office receives many enquiries from customers looking to implement BIM without a clear definition or scope of requirements. Collaboration systems which provide a Common Data Environment (CDE) delivers a framework that supports BIM for the project team, in exactly the same way that these systems have historically supporting other forms of project information.
Over and above the improvement gains in managing processes, the true value in BIM, and where it becomes hugely significant is in the handover and Operation and Maintain (O&M) stages, particularly when we consider that the construction phase represents only 20% of costs whilst the operational phase represents 80% of the total cost of a built asset.
Who Ultimately Benefits?
There are gains for the project teams as a whole. The focus of collaboration tools should be to provide value to each of the participating companies and helping to develop and sustain better working relationships between the various project stakeholders.
From a Client’s perspective, collaboration platforms are designed to capture information relating to the asset they are procuring in a structured form, gathering accurate records on the facility to improve the planning process for operations and maintenance. As such, at any point in time they are able to understand current project status (i.e. where are we now) and gain a truly accurate prediction on project outcome – completion dates, design quality and possibly forecast final cost. Where necessary – for example if costs are predicted to exceed budget, they can use this understanding to make decisions to positively change the forecasted outcome.
Design managers can effectively co-ordinate the flow of design information, whether during the design phase or later where they need to react to change during construction delivery. Greater collaboration during design with the construction teams will enable effective construction. The greater the quality and accuracy of design, the less risk contingency needed to be held across the construction team members.
With regards to project managers (PM), collaboration platforms should facilitate the ability to monitor all factors that will influence the successful outcome of a project. By selecting the appropriate platform, PMs can look out for the earliest sign of problems so they can direct resource to resolve them before they occur, thereby managing key areas of risk in detail, to ensure they mitigate its occurrence.
From a cost consultant’s perspective, rather than being dependent upon Excel spreadsheets that have no auditing and operate on a historical reporting basis, commercial teams can now see what’s happening real-time if the collaboration platform has the ability to monitor and report on financial matters. Rather than being passed information on a piecemeal basis they have better control and visibility across all transactions that will have a financial impact.
Construction teams can utilise a functionally rich, tried and tested collaboration platform to produce, manage and coordinate design and construction information in a timely manner. The advent of BIM is almost making this a prerequisite for projects now. The submission and tracking of RFIs, technical submittals, approvals, requests for change and instructions can be seamlessly managed to ensure proactive management of information – rather than using a simplistic repository of data supported by manual processes.
We cannot continue to work piecemeal, quality suffers, and the industry remains immature, especially when compared to other industries such as manufacturing. Embracing collaboration is proven in providing a much better user experience for all parties, and ultimately a far better level of customer satisfaction.
Collaborate, share and learn, and continue to learn – which can’t be a bad thing for the industry as a whole.