Blog
Construction Industry on Collision Course, But Rise of New Approach Brings Hope
Aug 17, 2017
The construction industry appears to be heading toward one of the most dramatic collisions to date between those organizations who lag in the adoption of new technologies and the ones bringing disruptive technology advancements to life. There isn’t another vertical where you can read, almost daily, about applications coming online built with augmented/virtual reality or drones enabled as a part of the “workforce” or the deployment of advanced site positioning systems that includes tracking equipment AND people—clearly the cutting edge of technology today. Contrast this to those organizations who continue to be mired in a fragmented, outdated technology ecosystem that still depends on manual processing at its core. Wow! As all of this accelerates, how long will it take before we are reading the epitaph of the laggards?
There are several other contributing forces to this inevitable collision as well. Buyer tolerance for projects that run over budget or miss deadlines is growing thin. If an organization cannot provide for a real-time, mobile-enabled experience that brings transparency of execution to the forefront of daily operations, the competitor who does will have a powerful differentiator.
Likewise, as technologies advance, the coordination and execution of projects becomes more complex. Service providers must be in a position to be “always on” and readily able to connect and communicate inside and outside their four walls. In order to readily adapt to changing plans, changing regulations, changing requirements, etc., agility and flexibility are quickly becoming the most important attributes in the execution of daily work.
In considering all of this, it’s more important than ever to build a business ecosystem that includes strategic partnerships with those who can help bring necessary technology to life while you continue to focus on the services you provide. The importance of this shift was highlighted in “Business Ecosystems Come of Age,” a 2015 report from Deloitte University Press where they noted:
“In this report, we focus on a critically important transition…the continued rise of ‘business ecosystems.’ Driven particularly by digitization, connectivity, and new modes of collaboration, important core structures of the industrial economy are quickly and dramatically reshaping, as many long-standing boundaries blur and dissolve. The ‘art of the possible’ is expanding—enabling new approaches to new, often platform-based, business models. In this report we explore in detail what lies behind these changes, where they might take us, the new options—and threats—they present to many incumbents, and the strategic and operational shifts they enable and demand.”
So, if you haven’t stopped to consider how your organization might keep up in an industry that will experience maximum disruption in the foreseeable future, it’s time to take a look at your ecosystem and find the right technology partners that can help you get on the transformation journey as quickly as you possibly can. Your future probably depends on it.