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Agile Frameworks Headed to ACEC Fall Conference in Orlando
Oct 11, 2017
The Agile Frameworks team is excited to be at the ACEC Fall Conference in Orlando! We’ll be in the thick of the action—as an exhibitor, a silver sponsor, and with our own Mike Anders leading a CIO Council track presentation on Monday, October 16, 2-3:15 pm, “Walking the Talk – Leveraging IT to Differentiate Your Brand.”
We’re excited to be in sight of Disney World, and take some of the inspiration for our presentation session from the strength of the brand Disney has created. Known throughout the world, the Disney brand stands for imagination and the power of vision.
Building your firms’ brand by leveraging IT is not a new idea. Just think about all the technologies we deal with in the construction industry! The plethora of devices, equipment, design and analysis tools, and systems we engage to succeed on any given project—and as a firm—is staggering. We all have experts inside and outside our firms we can call on to take these tools to the limit—and beyond!
However, it’s also true that as a fragmented industry, we’ve struggled to create the unifying, harmonizing “glue” that takes these individual efforts, and weaves them into the elegant structures we create. Nor can we predictably project (or in many cases, inspect) our overall and respective status as we progress.
In some ways, we are our own worst enemies in seeking more transparency to monitor and forecast construction progress. Arcane contractual structures, unresolved risks, and a legacy of liability case law do not encourage more than the absolute minimum sharing and disclosure. Likewise, our fragmented industry repeatedly attempts to align around a single effort. Only to shatter again before the next “random gathering” around what we call projects.
One answer may lie in the same convergence of forces that are impacting all industries, organizations and indeed societies. Digital disruption is re-shaping industries and relationships all around us, and is beginning to be felt in the construction industry as well. From massive new data collection services to real-time, mobilized platforms, new information technologies are putting cracks in the dam. “The way we’ve always done it” is rapidly becoming a dangerous legacy that will prevent firms from advancing to meet newly emerging expectations.
For reasons both practical and perception-shaping, one of the challenges CIOs face is to ensure their firms are seen as forward-thinking and capable in adapting rapidly to new demands. These demands come from clients, employees, prospective employees, partners, and owners. Many of these stakeholders believe (as do most observers), that the increasing pace of change and adoption in new information technologies will place a premium on firms that can demonstrate their technical capability.
Learn more about how MetaField can help you to differentiate your firm.