Why Tech Upgrades Don’t Need to be Complicated

Posted by Construction Industry News Magazine on 26th June 2023 -

Construction has made considerable progress in its journey towards a digital future, yet some pockets of resistance remain. For some contractors, part of the problem lies in finding the relevant tools and systems. Sometimes it can feel like finding a needle in a haystack, so it’s no surprise that much needed tech enhancements and upgrades get overlooked. So, what should apprehensive contractors, tentatively looking to ‘level up’ their tech, keep in mind? Here, Rob Norton, UK Director, PlanRadar, looks to provide some of the answers.

Plug and play

At the end of the day, contractors are looking for solutions that can add value without reinventing the wheel, breaking the bank or adding more work to already busy schedules. So accessibility, ease-of-use and a competitive price point are obvious draws.

Yet here, a word of caution for the ambitious tech developer. A deep understanding of day-to-day functionality can make all the difference. It can be easy to over-egg the pudding, and, with any digital platform, there’s a risk of over-engineering that can make the solution nebulous, unnecessarily driving up prices and deterring internal stakeholders as well as clients.

To combat this situation, ConTech products are increasingly incorporating ergonomic design elements like intuitive user interfaces and logical workflows that can make all the difference when navigating platforms, helping to save time in the field. The most practical solutions can be integrated into existing hardware or simply downloaded onto a tablet or smartphone.

This ease-of-use can cut back time and resources needed for training and onboarding to get workers up to speed more quickly, so they can generate value from investments without delay. As a rule of thumb, technology providers should also offer ongoing support via comprehensive training sessions, tutorials, documentation, and responsive customer support to help understand and use the technology.

Breaking down siloes

Interoperability is another hurdle facing tech adopters in construction. Having different programmes working in siloes is counterintuitive and can lead to misinformation and loss of intelligence when transferring data while duplicating workloads. Finding tech that integrates with other hardware and programmes means it’s easier to share and track data, expediting the reporting process and ensuring there are no gaps in records. This gives companies a clearer picture of areas that need attention or are working well.

Putting this into context, a recent report by construction consulting and investment banking firm FMI found almost a third of engineering and construction companies use applications that don’t integrate[1]. Speed and efficiency are everything, and using apps that sync with others speeds up every area of the business, whether it’s quality control checks or data analysis.

Contractors who have a positive experience trialling new technology may want to scale up their digital offering and customise it to suit other areas of the business or projects. Avoid software that is just a ‘one trick pony’ and opt for digital platforms that can offer a broader range of solutions to suit your business needs. While it may initially be a larger investment, this can ultimately bring better value for money where different uses fall under one price subscription.  

Making your life easier

A focus on quality control and ways to streamline daily reporting and admin are driving many developments across digital solutions today. In parallel, increasingly stringent building regulations are creating undue pressure for construction professionals lacking the digital know-how to align with incoming legislation. These motivators go hand in hand as ease-of-use translates into ease-of-compliance to enable contractors to meet the demands of the Building Safety Act and the new Part L regulation upshift.

Emerging legislation is creating a need for flawless record keeping and digital accessibility to demonstrate compliance, so contractors should opt for user-centric tools to take the headache out of battling new regulations. This could include intuitive functions such as easy uploads for  EWS1, survey and risk assessments in the context of fire safety or, looking wider, interoperable software that provides cloud management data sharing to link fragmented supply chains across projects and sites.

While principally simple, the scale of this undertaking is vast. Each new home will require approximately 13 Inspection Type photos across six required criteria. If we did a simple calculation from April 2021-March 2022, there were 38,436 new homes starting on sites in England alone. Taking these numbers as a simple average, the industry as a whole will need to capture and report on just shy of 500,000 photographs as per the new Part L changes.

Finding new tech can be a daunting prospect, but it can be easier than many first think. There’s no magic solution that works for everyone, and the lack of industry-wide standards and guidelines only adds to the confusion. The trick is finding a supplier that understands your needs. Overall the software should be easy to use, integrate with existing systems and be a simple solution to some of the industry’s most pressing issues.

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