The many challenges in today’s construction industry are evident – from supply chain challenges and increasing inflation to workforce shortages and a possible economic slowdown. Hence, digital transformation becomes a vital catalyst to counterbalance these rising issues and provide the sector with many more opportunities to increase productivity, efficiency, and design.
The main goal of digital transformation is to increase productivity, streamline business operations, and reduce costs while managing construction projects and ensuring safer job sites. And one of the biggest digital transformations yet is the adaptation of construction software. Its implementation has proven to reduce risks and improves efficiency in construction.
In this blog, discover digital transformation, its many benefits, and, most importantly, its core pillars. Also, we share a guide on achieving a successful digital transformation for your business.
What is Digital Transformation in Construction?
Digital transformation involves anything from IT modernization (cloud computing, etc.) and digital optimization to creating new digital business models. However, expansion needs advanced digital transformation in construction, including the latest solutions and innovations that improve the industry’s efficiency and effectiveness.
According to McKinsey, digital innovation and transformation significantly improve productivity by around 15% and minimize costs by around 6%. While the construction industry has made strong strides in digital transformation, a few factors are contributing to its slower adoption – industry fragmentation, lack of standardization, the complexity of projects, etc.
Yet, advancing digital transformation is more important than ever. For many business leaders today in the sector, this approach has become a priority. So, by optimizing your operations and embracing technologies like construction worker schedules, you reap many benefits, which we will discuss in the next section.
The Core Benefits of Digital Transformation in Construction
The construction industry can significantly benefit from digital transformation in the following ways:
- Increased productivity: A study shows that the global productivity rate of the construction industry averaged one percent a year over the past two decades. And it is significantly lower compared to other sectors. With digital transformation, productivity is expected to improve through optimizing planning, deciding, designing and managing the workforce environment and other construction business operations.
- Increased safety and mitigation: Different risks are involved in a project, and digital transformation can help reduce the tasks that trigger risks. For instance, with high-end construction solutions, field workers can see all possible risks and their impact on the project, which is very helpful in mitigating them. Some of the best software solutions today are designed with risk management capabilities alongside other critical features.
- Client collaboration: Professionals in the sector are expected to work closely with the crew and their clients. Clients have a role to play too, and their inputs are equally important the same way as your workforce. Digital transformation promotes the newest technologies to help you and your clients visualize their goals and get real-time project updates.
Critical Pillars to Successful Digital Transformation
1. People
It’s the people working together in your organization that create successful outcomes. Your organization can only succeed with a strong workforce. So, always ensure your construction crew is equipped with the best modern tools to thrive. Below are two areas you should pay attention to more:
- Help people adapt to new thinking and working methods: If changes occur within your organization, resistance may occur. Therefore, keeping all your stakeholders in the loop early on is crucial, especially during the construction technology selection process. Having their feedback is beneficial in helping you decide on the right solution to deploy. Making them involved will make your stakeholders feel more invested in the process. And whatever changes will happen, they will most likely accept it.
- Help people collaborate effectively with a reliable cloud subcontractor scheduling software: Today, cloud and mobile app solutions have increasingly become the most important investment. If your construction company still uses disconnected, fragmented tools, you and your team will be disadvantaged. And this is especially true when your competitors and peers use the latest software solutions.
Implementing cloud-based construction software like Pro Crew Schedule enables your crew to be more data-driven, collaborative, and connected, resulting in increased efficiency and performance.
2. Connected data
Today’s data-based landscape is moving drastically, but the way people in the industry and firms operate are still linear. As a result, many business leaders often find themselves in the mode of complacency. But today’s technologies enable construction companies to be more strategic and proactive by unlocking the real value of data.
When it comes to data, here are three things to look for when choosing a technology solution:
- Cloud and central-based: Data that is collected in storage may not provide a complete picture. So, it is important to have a cloud-based construction scheduling software as a core solution to get important, critical insights.
- Real-time access: Due to the lack of real-time data integration, many construction projects run reactively. Real-time access to project information allows teams to navigate correctly before it is too late and make sure that the teams are making decisions based on accurate information.
3. Connected processes
The process component of digital transformation mainly focuses on optimizing business processes and workflows. The goal is to reduce errors, increase efficiency, improve outcomes, and more. Reviewing your existing processes to determine any inefficiencies and some areas where technology can be a solution is a must.
Once you finally adapt a software solution for your workflows and processes, that’s when you consider redesigning your current workflow. Ensure to pick the best software that offers top-tier features and take advantage of its capabilities.
Steps for A More Effective Digital Transformation
1. Define goals and objectives
Defining your goals and objectives is the very first step in digital transformation. It simply implies, “What are you looking to change?”. This process usually involves determining some areas of your business that need obvious improvements and the right technologies to make these improvements attainable.
Some of the most common goals are the ones we mentioned already, like reducing costs, improving efficiency, enhancing safety, and collaboration.
2. Determine the right construction solution
Once you already defined your goals and objectives, the next step is to determine the right technology solution. Many emerging technology solutions are available now in the market. Some of them are specifically designed for construction professionals.
Building Information Modeling (BIM), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things are some of the best software solutions that have been making the work life of many contractors easier and extra efficient.
3. Establish an innovative culture within your organization
Digital transformation is not just about implementing different technologies. In some ways, it also involves changing the culture of your organization. Building a culture of innovation that adapts technology and encourage change is very important. You can start by training your construction workforce and orienting them about using the newest and latest technologies and how they can benefit them and your organization.
4. Collaborate with your partners and stakeholders
Collaboration is at the heart of digital transformation. It should be an obvious priority of your construction company to engage and foster a tighter organization. 75% of senior executives stated that their business functions are competing than collaborating on digitization.
Collaborating with all the people involved consistently, be it your crew, partners, suppliers, or stakeholders, is important. Collaborating with your people can give you an edge and even help you get a clearer perspective on the other areas of your business. Make it your goal to have everyone on the same page.
Using collaborative construction software can put everyone on the same page. It aligns your team with the decisions, goals, and visions you set for your business and projects.
Pro Crew Schedule is the leading collaborative construction crew dispatch software, and this tech is built specifically for the industry. It has top-tier features that enable collaborative workforce planning. Other key features include Integration, inventory and project management, and more.
Check out more of its features in a free live demo.
5. Implement the technology solutions
The last but not the final step in achieving successful and effective digital transformation is implementing your chosen software. This usually involves integrating solutions into your existing business processes and ensuring all your crew is well-trained in using these new techs and ever-ready for any changes along the way.
With this step you carry out, you experience a seamless, more unified connection between multiple applications, making meeting your business goals and needs easier. Also, accessing real-time data can only happen in one snap. Accessing real-time data at the right time is incredibly helpful when making decisions with minimized risks.
Achieve The Ultimate Digital Transformation with Pro Crew Schedule
Technology has reimagined and reinvented every industry in the world, especially construction. We expect you have learned what digital transformation is and understand its key pillar, the role it plays, and other facts. Now, allow us to say this here: If you want your company to survive and thrive in the next years, this is the perfect time to focus and invest in digital transformation.
And you can simply start by deploying the best construction worker schedule solution designed by a subcontractor for subcontractors: Pro Crew Schedule.
Pro Crew Schedule provides end-to-end technology that offers full-scale digital transformation to your business operations. It has multiple time-saving scheduling tools and automation and can be integrated into over 3000 applications. It is easy to use, accessible anytime and everywhere, promotes better time and crew management, and maximizes overall efficiency– literally, the best all-in-one construction scheduling solution in the market!
A 30-day trial is up for free.
Schedule a free online demo with one of our demo engineers at your convenience.
