Digital Workflows Help Design, Construction Companies Manage Projects, Companies Better  

The ability to share digital data effectively is a critical factor that impacts the success of digital transformation in the design and construction industry. This includes both the ability to share data within different departments in the same company or across multiple companies involved in the same project. New research from Dodge Construction Network, together with Trimble, published in the Connected Construction SmartMarket Brief series, reveals that owners, architects, engineers, general contractors and specialty trades are utilizing digital workflows to share project information.

The findings show, though, that internal connections are far more common than external ones, with nearly half of all respondents (48%) sharing 50% or more of their project data internally using digital workflows and nearly one quarter (24%) doing so with other stakeholders on their projects.

The study also explores in detail the various processes for which digital workflows are employed and the benefits of using them. In order to fully capture all these details, five new briefs have been created, in addition to the one examining the owner’s perspective published earlier this year. Four of them focus on the design and construction Industry practitioners who participated in the study: architects, engineers, general contractors and specialty trade contractors. The fifth provides an overall look at all the respondents to the study, and it examines in detail the difference in response between those who are already highly engaged in these processes and those who have more limited engagement.

Some notable findings from each of these individual reports describing different personas and types of organizations include:

• Architects lead the industry in their use of multicompany digital workflows, with one third deploying them.
• Engineers are deepening their engagement with workflows for specific design practices with 83% of users planning additional investments digital workflows.
• General contractors that focus on vertical construction are utilizing more digital workflows for their construction operation processes and reaping greater benefits than those who largely engage in civil construction.
• Specialty trade contractors are utilizing digital workflows most frequently for administrative tasks, but their biggest planned investments are for utilizing workflows that will help them with construction operations and crew management.

More information here:

• Connected Construction: Perspectives Across the Project Team SmartMarket Brief 
• Connected Construction: The Architects’ Perspective SmartMarket Brief 
• Connected Construction: The Engineers’ Perspective SmartMarket Brief 
• Connected Construction: The Specialty Trade Contractors’ Perspective SmartMarket Brief 
• Connected Construction: The General Contractors’ Perspective SmartMarket Brief