Q: Why did SIS decide to release a new subcontract module?

A: I think there are a few reasons why. The biggest one is that the previous subcontract solution was intrinsically tied to the standard Microsoft Dynamics 365 purchase order functionality, which includes all of its benefits and drawbacks. Having a solution instead that does not rely on a purchase order was a big part of why that decision was made. Without using standard purchase order functionality, we can also have a retention and pay-when-paid management solution. We can include new things, like an easier way to reverse transactions against a subcontract. The changes we have made were designed to make the D365 system easier for Construction industry professionals.

We decided to improve the functionality for items we already had a previous solution for, such as compliance tracking. There is now a new inquiry screen where you can view compliance items across subcontracts. In addition, we have a new retention management process. We can now look at retention at the subcontract level or even the line level, which has previously been unable to do.

Generally, the idea is that we wanted to enhance the user experience. We wanted to make it easier, whether you’re reducing dual entry by having subcontracts created directly from budgets, either standard original budgets or change order budgets, or if it’s the ease of use of reversing out a previously entered subcontractor invoice. Some of those were difficult and required dual entry or multiple steps in different modules. Now with the SIS Subcontract module, it’s an easier solution that will make the user experience that much better and something that people will consider a big win.

Q: What are the primary new features of this module?

A: I would focus on two primary new features. The first is the progress reports. The progress reports are a brand-new idea within our SIS Subcontract solution. We have an intermediary step between creating a subcontract where we have committed cost on your project and the invoicing that comes in from your subcontractor. We know there are times when work has been performed in the field that hasn’t been invoiced yet due to a delay, and it could take several months before invoices come through. Meanwhile, you are not realizing the actual costs that have hit the project up to that point. The progress report gets around that, where we can now determine whether a certain percentage of work has been performed or a certain quantity of units has been installed. We can create a record in the system that will accrue costs against your subcontract from that determination. It’ll remove that committed cost and more accurately show true cost against the project, which means truer accuracy for revenue. It allows the field to have a say in what’s going on for the subcontracts they manage.

It also allows you to validate when your invoices come in from your subcontractors, to say that from the field, we’ve determined the subcontractor work to be about 50% completed. And if you get an invoice that says, “We’re invoicing you for 60% of the work,” there’s some discrepancy. And it’s something that can be challenged to say, “I disagree with that sort of percentage,” and that conversation can happen based on the backup information you’ve provided from the field and your team on the ground. This allows for more validation, better accuracy of costs, and the ability not to wait for subcontractors to send their invoices.

The other kind of primary new feature is the subcontract summary report, which, despite the name, is actually an inquiry screen. Previously, we have had a good reporting solution for our subcontracts in things like Project 360. Our Project 360 inquiry has a tab with all subcontract details so you can see your subcontracts for one project. You can see each line on those subcontracts, how far they’ve been invoiced, the balance, and what payments have gone through; there is so much detail.

However, that was always one project at a time. So now, we can view subcontracts across projects using this new subcontract summary inquiry screen. We can also drill down to see a particular project manager’s subcontracts for their projects or look at a particular vendor. You can drill down that way if you have multiple subcontracts by the same vendor across projects. If you’re looking for particular information about a specific subcontractor specialty, let’s say you’re looking for your demolition subcontractors, and you want to see the progress for the subcontractors written to those kinds of vendors, we can quickly drill down in that way. It gives you a very broad and robust reporting option to see subcontract information across the board as you need to see it.

Q: Are there any new reporting options? Or is that covered by the subcontract summary report?

A: The subcontract summary report is the main new reporting option, but there are also two compliance inquiries. One is where we can see compliance items across subcontracts, which can then be filtered down to show what items have expired and which are related to particular subcontractors or specialties. There’s even an inquiry which filters for things related to your particular projects automatically. So, if you are the “responsible person” for that particular compliance item, there’s an easy function where we can go right into an inquiry, find the compliance items that are related to the things you are responsible for, and get that detail immediately.

Q: What implementation considerations should somebody evaluate when looking at this new subcontract module within PCM?

A: If we are talking about a new client who is just coming on board with SIS, and we’re providing this new subcontract module as part of a total solution, it’s going to be very similar to all the other areas of the system, where the modules all need to be configured correctly. The processes within that particular module will need to be defined. The testing process will have to be defined for the steps your users will take to perform those processes.

It’s no different than creating a project or paying an invoice; this new subcontract solution goes along with that. It’s a seamless process within the implementation where you’ll be introduced to the SIS add-on in Project Cost Management, including this new subcontract module. It’s just a part of the total solution we will provide. All the details that come along with how we do an implementation will also include this new subcontract solution.

Q: Does the new subcontract module deliver value from day one, or does it take time to realize the benefits?

A: We are confident this solution will provide immediate value, enhancing daily operations and overall business efficiency from day one. While there will be some change and a learning curve initially, once you get the hang of the system and become familiar with how it works, accessing project details will be much simpler. Generating reports will also become smoother and more manageable. The people using this system will start experiencing these benefits right away.

The system is designed to be highly integrated, meaning everything works together seamlessly. For example, a project manager will have a clear view of their projects, easily tracking costs, budget allocations, and subcontractor details. When a budget includes subcontract costs, the information flows directly into the subcontract record, and invoices are automatically connected to the system, feeding into the Dynamics 365 AP module. This integration ends the need to search through multiple spreadsheets to manage different aspects of a project. Everything is accessible in one place, making it much easier to stay organized. Those who use the system will notice the benefits immediately.

Q: Any closing final thoughts?

A: The new subcontract functionality is an excellent example of where SIS is heading. We looked at the previous solution and thought, “We can do better,” so we listened to feedback from our current clients and considered what future clients might need in a new system. Our team, including developers, functional consultants, and industry analysts, worked closely together to create a solution that meets both current and future needs. This collaborative approach is something our customers can expect more of moving forward—not just for subcontract functionality but across the entire construction industry. It’s a glimpse into the future of how SIS will continue to innovate and improve.

THESIS Statement: “Adoption of the new SIS Subcontract Module is effortless, and its benefits are immediately clear, delivering value from Day One.”

Q: Tell us about your career before you became an ERP consultant.

A: For 20 years, I managed an accounting department, including payroll, project costing, and financial planning and analysis groups. I worked with each company level regarding systems —project, regional, corporate, executive, and external parties. At one point, I was asked to build a team using lean thinking to redefine companywide back-office business processes by maximizing technology.

Q: Before we get into the heart of the comparison from being a client to becoming a consultant, what can you tell us about lean thinking for the construction industry and the project itself?

A: We wanted to apply lean thinking, focusing on value while reducing waste in our back-office processes. We collaborated with our stakeholders to identify many painful processes across our companies and zeroed in on those yielding the most significant benefit. We had support for the initiatives that spanned from our Board of Directors to our field teams and everything in between.

A couple of the more significant improvement projects we tackled were eliminating paper timecards and moving a recent acquisition to the same instance of the solution. We were maintaining two instances of the solution, which was inefficient because we had the additional cost of the servers, maintenance, updates, support, etc. This is where we started adopting lean thinking by consolidating steps and saving time and money. We reconfigured our processes to ensure the people were ready for the work and the work was prepared for them to eliminate the wait time between steps.

We changed how we worked. We condensed into one instance of the solution and went through procedures throughout the company to ensure our stakeholders, the people doing the work compared to the people far removed, were part of the decisions building the process. This changed the whole company mindset and got others involved to start becoming a process team instead of, for example, just a payables team or a person who processed payables.

In that manner, we used change management to apply lean thinking, which was successful because the change messaging came from the executive teams. If we wanted to become more efficient as an employee-owned company, anything we saved would benefit everyone. This lean processing was not about cutting people. It was about cutting out red tape while maintaining controls and having people do the right work at the right time.

Q: Tell us about the diverse types of ERP consultants and how you interacted with them as a Financial Planning & Analysis Manager.

A: I worked with lean process and software consultants on system initiatives. I collaborated with both independent consultants and company consultants. We implemented a major construction solution as our platform of choice early in my career. Our engagements included the initial implementation, major upgrades, creating new instances for business isolation, and launching new modules. Additionally, our equipment company implemented a different construction solution.

While working with the software consultants, I must say, I kept their feet to the fire. I was always trying to look in and gain more access behind the curtain of the system, challenging their logic at times with the thinking that we were the customer, and it should be our way. I pushed them to get more into the business process, not just the software process. I possibly felt a bit of entitlement to their time because we were paying them. They should be able to snap their fingers and make things happen. Now, as a consultant, I see behind the curtain and recognize that I was blind to how the process worked and how they protected me and the company.

Q: As an industry ERP consultant for construction solutions now, what does your previous experience teach you about both sides of the fence?

A: I see now the consultants weren’t trying to stonewall me. They had solid reasons for not allowing me in the back end of the system and why they wouldn’t go deeply into processes.

It seemed we were getting guidance on how to push the buttons. Still, we wanted to see behind the curtain how it all came together—the mechanics, the connection points, and the decisions being made in the configurations so that we had a connected vision of the process.

Bridging the gap between system functionality and real-life processes is one of the most challenging discussions for both sides, as both sides must see and understand each other’s perspectives.

Q: So, what have you learned on the other side of the fence about setups and user requests?

A: Now I understand that you can’t give users everything they want because changes involve a scope of work and costs. I see the criticality in locking in the scope, so the bar doesn’t keep moving. When the scope moves, it impacts the timeline. There are true professionals on the system side working toward the most efficient and effective configuration for the client in testing, processing, and promotion, and we should trust them while they address our requirements. They have enabled guardrails to keep the clients from hurting themselves.

As a user, you engage with just one person when, in fact, that single contact has a whole host of support at their fingertips. Functional, technical, business, PMs, industry, and security folks are resources in and of themselves. They seek out what’s best for their client and the continuing efforts of the developers themselves.

I would have given more grace if I knew then what I know now. Users behind the scenes are working hard and indeed working to do what they can to assist, but their hands are tied for valid reasons. I’m glad to have that perspective with me today.

THESIS Statement: “Transitioning from the back office to an ERP consulting career to share knowledge and problem solve is the best of both worlds.”

Q: Steve, how did you become a research expert in construction for Dodge Data & Analytics?

A: I have 20 years of experience in architecture and engineering, beginning as a principal with a firm in the Northeast that became the main part of Stantec in the US. I earned my MBA at Wharton, where I studied how to analyze companies, beginning with the architectural industry, where I was working during that time. From there, Primavera tapped me to join them as they moved their scheduling and project management technologies into the emerging Internet space.

Through that experience, I quickly became part of the global construction industry because nobody, anywhere, was doing any major project without Primavera. Later, 21 years ago, McGraw Hill Construction tapped me to start a research group for this, the biggest industry on Earth.

Q: For Dodge Data & Analytics – what does your day-to-day look like?

A: At Dodge Data & Analytics, we conduct research studies of the global construction industry for companies that want to understand where construction is or where specific industry participants are regarding various trends, whether they be sustainability, project delivery, risk management, safety management, or the use of every kind of technology under the sun. We look at what people are doing and where it’s making a difference. What we do all day is this research funded by people who want that research.

We publish these as free cobranded studies because we want the world to know these resources aren’t our ideas—these are their peers. Occasionally, we’ll do strictly confidential things for a company’s marketing intelligence, but most of what we do is intended to be shared with the world.

Q: Through these studies, what are the major trends you’re seeing around adopting new technologies in the construction industry, and how are these expected to evolve?

A: This is 10% technology and 90% sociology. There are too many point solutions on the market, and they have created silos of excellence. Meaning, “I’m doing my job better than I ever did.” But when you ask, “Can you exchange data?” The answer is “no.” There are still large internal process flow breakdowns, and the bigger the company, the worse the breakdown.

There is a move toward pre-integrated solutions we all know as platforms. But the platform itself has become a vastly overused phrase. Many are just point solutions with API. Solutions organized as platforms are painfully gaining traction by displacing beloved embedded point solutions, which dial down the functionality in one silo to be efficient across the organization. In this way, it’s not running in one silo but provides the ability to collect consistent data across multiple silos to do something like predictive analytics, which it cannot do today.

To correct course on this, senior management must realize they haven’t completely checked the digital box. They automated it, but they don’t want to make any new changes. Realizing they need to stay on the digital journey helps the whole industry and the entire project team perform better rather than staying down in the siloed world.

Q: How do you assess the economic impact of emerging construction technologies on traditional business models within the industry?

A: We do a study every year for the Lean Construction Institute. When we routinely ask people about performance, two-thirds of projects are over the planned schedule, and almost half are over budget. This is almost accepted because “that’s the construction industry,” which is a fragmented industry.

You hear things like, “It’s going to take another month, and it’s going to cost you another $10,000.” No industry does that except construction. Imagine if construction ran like every other big industry does with reliability and no uncertainty. You know when it will be done on the 18th of May. It’s done on the 18th of May and will cost $18 million. It’s finished on time for $18 million.

We need this kind of reliability, and because we need buildings and infrastructure, we need these standards. It must be good, but it must be done reliably. Part of the problem is the entrenched certainty of the business model. In this design-bid-build business model, there’s still this pervasive thinking that, well, I have to bid it out there and get the lowest bid.

You’ve got organizations like the Design-Build Institute of America that have been advocating for decades to do things differently. You’ve got the DLC and others trying to promote these integrated forms of delivery that have transparent collaborative approaches.

What will have an economic impact is when we as an industry can reliably deliver on budget and time while doing it safely and with less waste generated than we have been. Because, as I said before, it’s the biggest industry on the planet.

So, imagine spending those trillions of dollars more efficiently. You could probably reduce 20% of the overall spending and reduce the time it takes to do things enormously. That would have a big economic impact.

Q: Much of that’s preconstruction, right? Where does software technology come in to help?

A: Preconstruction is the least appreciated and the most prominent place where risk can be reduced. Indisputably. Many contractors overlook preconstruction as an overhead cost and do as little as possible.

Unfortunately, there’s no data out there. That’s going to be a theme. People don’t spend enough time trying to figure out what went wrong. They’re on to the next job. It’s nobody’s job to analyze and do quality control over the process in many companies.

Most companies aren’t capturing data in a standardized way they can use when getting ready to bid on the next job. If they did, they could examine 16 different jobs and be smarter about how to plan. How do I do work breakdown structures for it? How do I work packaging for it? How much of this stuff is prefab versus how much will I do on-site? Companies should be able to consider these things if they have good historical data.

Q: Can you discuss the role of forecasting and predictive analytics in construction technology? How are tools helping owners and managers make better decisions?

A: That’s the goal. Unfortunately, it’s still more of an aspiration than a reality. The tools are getting there with AI, where an AI engine is ready to help you be smarter about your next job.

To predict where you’re likely to encounter issues, you need a large data set in a machine-readable format, and nobody’s been keeping those. How can you do that painlessly without asking people to start doing extra work?

There are interesting tools out there, like Versatile. They have a camera and sensor that hangs on the tower crane and watches everything that happens on that job site all day long for hundreds of job sites. They can tell you things like, if XYZ doesn’t happen by 9:00 o’clock that morning, you will have unplanned overtime 90% guaranteed. Because they’re collecting that data set right now, eventually, every company will have enough standardized digital data about their own projects.

AI can optimize processes for you based on big data sets. But how do you get those data sets?

Q: How do digital workflows contribute to financial transparency in construction projects? What specific technologies are making the biggest difference?

A: I would say that’s still more aspirational. Everybody sees it as possible, but the business model needs to evolve. The model absolutely does not foster transparency.

But I think, ultimately, the combination of lean practices and some of these new forms of integrated delivery that are beginning to emerge and become more available all the time will create an environment in which you can have an enormous amount of financial transparency. However, you can’t just go into a design-bid-build environment, and simply ask for financial transparency because it’s antithetical to everything about that model.

Q: What new technologies are emerging to help construction project owners better manage risks?

A: There isn’t so much a tool as there is more of a mindset because risk management used to be our, ‘here’s the insurance we’re going to get.’ And then they’re just going to push hard at the job site because they don’t realize preconstruction is where you can do the most impactful risk management. These owner-based platforms are now Project Management Information Systems.

Using these systems, they’re now getting consistent, accurate, timely, and complete data where they weren’t before, and that is a huge way to control and manage risk and be more predictive about future projects in terms of a reasonable timeline and cost.

These two things are coming together: better data capture and a bigger focus on what you can do before breaking ground. That’s probably the combination that will have the biggest impact on risk management.

Q: From an economic standpoint, what are the cost-benefit considerations construction companies should consider when integrating new technologies?

A: Where I start here is most people focus on cost reduction, not cost avoidance. Most of the benefit of these tools is avoiding the little administrative tasks that cost a lot of money. This means it’s not just because you can take two administrative FTEs off the payroll but rather, you won’t have 30% of your budget for unplanned rework.

The problem is that until we research them, most people don’t realize they’re spending 30% on unplanned rework because they’re just not taking the time to capture the ugly stuff that happens at their jobs. The job is finished, and you’re out. But how do you get across understanding the impact of cost avoidance if you don’t know what all those ugly costs are?

And so, it’s a matter of determining what good looks like for your company. First, you must understand where you’re failing and where it is you’re bleeding. Then, you must decide how much better you can realistically make that by applying some technology and how to achieve it within a reasonable time. Because buying a piece of software is only the first step. You must implement it. You probably must change some workflows. You probably must change some other things and how you do stuff to get its value right. But each company needs to understand what good looks like for them, right?

Q: How is integrating AI and automation transforming economic practices in construction?

A:  I see an increased amount of offsite construction, prefabrication, and modularization here. Because we have fewer skilled resources who can show up and work on a job site, we’ll see a continual move away from construction into assembly. Job sites will start to look like assembly plants. They’re getting large assemblies and components from other places, and that lends itself very well to automation.

Q: As digital workflows become more common, what are the economic implications of data security and privacy concerns in construction?

A: We did an interesting study for a company called Ignite last year, and many GCs have been hit with ransomware attacks. A startling number considering a contractor can’t survive a week without access to their documents. When we asked how many are putting requirements on your software vendors that they are compliant with, the study came back that they are asking for more protection and resilient software from their vendors. Keeping in mind unfortunately, user behaviors are still the biggest weakness.

So, it’s a huge risk. But not many people are taking advantage of the things they can do, at least preventatively and those cyber insurance policies are out there and available.

Q: What are your projections about the construction industry over the next decade with technology?

A: I don’t like leading with technology because technology is just a tool, an enabler, and this is a people business. At the end of the day all we can do is enable processes more effectively and efficiently with technology. But I think if you could look back 10 years from now and you wanted one word that described that 10-year period, it’s industrialization.

Every other capital-intensive manufacturing industry has gone through this. They went from designing products on paper to designing digital models.

The industrialization that has swept through every other capital-intensive industry is poised now because we finally have enough people doing digital design to push that into a much more industrialized form called Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA).

You can go online right now and make your own BMW and have it show up in a month. That’s where we’re heading, and I think owners will do much more design of their own buildings because AI will help them determine that. Basic components of buildings that get made in factories and simply ordered. It’ll be like taking the idea of building products and just wrapping that all up into chunks of buildings. Or buy a core.

We’re doing some work with a big construction company now. They have an entire process they want us to study and help promote. They go to a site, put up two great, big, strong structural spines, and they build a floor at ground level. Then they just lift it up and click it into place, and they build.

Barton Mallow did it in Detroit, and they want to socialize it everywhere. This industrialization will be the biggest thing in the next 10 years. It’s going to change everybody’s business model.

Some people are going to be winners, and some people will be losers, but major projects in the industry will not look the same 10 years from now. For a guy doing 2 houses a month in the suburbs’ life will be about the same, but the big stuff will be highly industrialized.

That’s just one example of industrialization. We’re doing a study right now for the Department of Energy about the trade-off between on-site construction and modular construction, where the labor dollars are being spent, and all the attendant aspects of that, right, how much safer it is, how much less waste there is, all those kinds of things.
The Department of Energy has the leverage to say this is why we’re investing here. Yes, we’re taking jobs off your job site. But it’s for a good reason. The jobs are happening here, and the entire system works better.

Another tech consideration is a study on owners specifying the PMS that their GCs use. Half of the 100M companies in the study said they’re putting digital requirements into their contracts with the GC and then cascading down to their trades. And when we asked how often you require them to use your PMS system if you own one, the answer was about 1/4 of them. This has increased rapidly over the past 15 years and will impact projects going forward.

Q: What economic benefits do sustainable and green technologies bring to construction projects? How do they alter risk profiles?

A: We do a big study in 63 countries every three years. World Green building trends: We can prove yearly that green buildings are more valuable for developers to resell.

Almost everybody agrees that it’s the right thing to do, and we’ve watched this evolve over the years from just being all about energy savings to now being about the health of the occupants and resilience to climate change.

The risk profile is really for the planet now, not so much for the project. But yes, I think the degree to which owners and their own organizations all have environmentally sustainable goals in place now is rippling out into their building programs. They’re beginning to ask harder questions and demand more sustainable performance from their built assets than they ever did before.

If you don’t have a good story about your company and your ability to support sustainable goals and design construction, you won’t get the work.

THESIS Statement: “Help move the industry to be less costly, safer, more reliable, highly industrialized, and wasteless.”

Q: Where can readers find your free studies?

A: They are on www.construction.com available for download and use. Why do the companies that hire us want us to share? So everybody can get better at these things.

Q: Hi Mark, tell us about yourself and how you became a Director of Sales at SIS UK in the construction solution industry.

A: I’ve worked in sales for 25 years. I started in FMCG and commercial sales for several years before moving into sales manager roles selling construction products in 2007 including lighting, HVAC, and fixings products. In doing this, I met contractors on five building sites daily for site surveys, which gave me an understanding of construction processes. More importantly, this work educated me about the pain’s contractors face. In 2015, I moved into construction ERP software to help solve those on-site and back-office inefficiencies. Here, I was uniquely able to translate what I’ve learnt and solve problems with modern software.

I joined SIS to expand Dynamics 365 and SIS Construct 365, to the UK and Europe. It is based on time spent at my previous employer, 4PS, utilising my expertise and understanding of construction processes, along with my Microsoft experience and knowledge. I also joined SIS because there is a unique opportunity for construction ERP solutions like SIS Construct 365 in Tier 1 businesses with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform. Options are limited today for companies of that size in the UK, with no other Microsoft options. Here I can leverage my combined expertise in this market, understanding, and promoting increased visibility, thus higher profits, and efficiency for the industry I have so long enjoyed and had so much success serving.

Q: When you say visibility in construction, what is your meaning, and why is it important?

A: Visibility can have various meanings in construction, such as a Project Manager having visibility on a site or a CFO having the information and data to make critical strategic decisions at the right time. Here are examples of visibility in construction:

• Information is shared across and between multiple departments such as H&S, Preconstruction, Contracts, and Finance.
• Site visibility in the literal sense of being able to see which employees such as subcontractors are on site, and what are the site conditions.
• Project programme and progress visibility.
• Resource visibility and availability.
• Material visibility could mean not ordering more items or plant and equipment if you have data on what is available at other sites, warehouses, and yards.

Overall, construction struggles the most with financial visibility at both a project level and at head office level.

Q: What does visibility mean to senior leaders?

A: From my meetings with construction business leaders over the years, most say they want to improve visibility and control but struggle to achieve them. With better visibility, they then have more control. That could be control over the project programme, project budgets, and ultimately, project and company profitability.

Q: Why is it important to improve visibility?

A:  It has never been so important as this moment in this UK construction market, where many contractors are having financial difficulties. In a presentation I saw recently at a summit for construction leaders – it said that 18% of all businesses in the UK that had become insolvent in 2023 were from the construction sector. Almost one-fifth from construction. That is not sustainable, and that is why visibility is so important. That is not just small businesses either. Three high-profile cases of companies with more than £400m in turnover were affected. This is when banks and credit insurers are nervous about the industry, which means contractors must improve finances and give confidence back around the sector.

Q: Why is complete visibility so challenging to achieve?

A: Fast-paced projects make it difficult to track costs and spending, especially when unplanned. Rising material and labour costs affect this, including dispersed stakeholders on various sites and offices.

This is because construction has historically been poor at adopting digital methods; therefore, little data is collected. Most information was collected in paper records or spreadsheets, which is then difficult to compare or benefit from, especially as it’s predicted that 90% of spreadsheets have errors.

From a software perspective, disparate systems need to integrate so data does not become lost and siloed between departments.

Q: What benefits can businesses realise from better visibility?

A: Here is a comprehensive list of benefits businesses can realise:

• Better Collaboration – information such as spend, or accrued costs can be shared between departments to avoid errors or miscommunication.
• Better Predictability – having complete visibility of costs means the financial outcome of a project is more predictable earlier in the programme.
• Efficient Workflows – improved flow of data and approvals will lead to better efficiency and less errors, which could be costly.
• Ability to Pivot and Make Changes Quickly – with better visibility of costs, if there is an overspend in one area that is spotted sooner, a commercial manager can take decisive action to realign and maintain budgeted spend and margin.
• Real-time Information – More often than not, if data exists in construction, it becomes delayed, meaning decisions are based on information that may not be valid or correct.
• Improved Communication – Both internally and with clients and the supply chain – If information is visible and shared quickly between stakeholders, relationships can be improved, which usually reduces delays that occur during disputes.
• Remove Silos Between Departments – Very often, information is contained within a department, and work needs to be duplicated. For example, a user can spend hours estimating the stage, which repeats when a contract is won. Continuous data flow saves re-calculations.
• Avoid Costly Delays – Work on site can halt when disputes occur between the main contractor and subcontractors. Variation orders can often cause this due to confusion over agreeing to additional If variation orders are tracked and communicated effectively, disputes can be reduced.
• Single Source of Truth– Contractor departments often work from various documents or systems, so it isn’t easy to see which information is correct. Integrating this information into simple but effective BI visualisations means decisions are made based on the proper data.
• Avoid Project Overrun and Over Budget – The last reported figure in Arcadia’s global construction dispute report was almost £30m in average dispute value, and the average project overrun was nearly 12 months. That is low compared to other parts of the world.
• Reduce Waste to Improve Environmental Credentials – Avoid overordering of materials, which, in addition to extra costs, usually go to waste rather than being used on other sites.
• See trends and improve predictability – by trade, by subcontractor history, to judge the performance of subcontractors, or to see payment history to decide whether it is worth pursuing a project with a particular client. Further than that, see a complete history of projects you have bid and tendered for so you can see trends and the percentage chance of winning a project based on suitability of work, vertical market success, location, etc.

Q: What advantages would this give to contractors over their competitors?

A: Improved efficiency allows a contractor to be more competitive whilst still achieving higher margins.

Better predictability means they can give confidence to potential clients, as historical data from earlier projects can prove their capabilities and strengths when bidding on new work.

Greater visibility allows colleagues to make the right decisions quickly, which reduces stress and could help them attract and, more importantly, keep staff. The labour shortage is high in the UK construction market, so the ability to keep good people in the business provides stability and a distinct advantage over competitors to retain clients for future projects.

Q: What are the consequences of not improving visibility?

A: There are many potential consequences with varying degrees of severity: financial losses, H&S accidents, and client dissatisfaction, but the reality could be even worse. Mark Farmer published a groundbreaking UK construction review in 2015. The book is titled Modernise or Die. That is the sad truth of the matter.

Several companies are experiencing financial difficulty, and many companies of all sizes have folded in recent years. Larger companies are harnessing the power of data to varying levels. Still, the companies further down the supply chain are suffering the most and aren’t investing in technology as much as they could or should.

If we compare construction to other industries, many cases of traditionally strong businesses have disappeared because they allowed tech-driven new players to overtake them. This has affected many high-street retailers in the UK, which have fallen to online shopping giants. Those traditional retailers already had the customer base – they just needed to modernise to appeal to the modern buyer to keep that customer base, but didn’t, and died.

Then, look at companies like Nokia and, later, Blackberry. They had the mobile phone hardware market sewn up, but from nowhere, the likes of Apple and Samsung produced smartphones, and almost overnight, the others lost the market.

That will continue to happen in construction for those who do not modernise.

Q: How can Tier 1 construction businesses improve visibility?

A: If we refer to the examples of construction visibility above, these solutions below can help.

• Physical visibility can be improved using remote, live site camera providers like Evercam.
• Detailed information on resource competencies can improve resource visibility. Ensure the correctly qualified and competent individuals, teams, or subcontractors are mobilised on the right project. This is based on their experience and qualifications and can be specific to a particular type of project. This will lead to improved on-site efficiency, better work quality, and improved client satisfaction. Holding that accurate data centrally helps enormously.
• Material and equipment visibility can be improved by having accurate purchase history and inventory records visible to all. Often, procurement is done centrally through buyers who do not have visibility of what has already been ordered or delivered to the site. With real-time data recorded on-site that remote buyers can see, it ensures no duplication of orders and costs.
• Improvements in financial visibility require better and deeper data. More historical data gives multiple reference points and leads to improved decisions based on something other than guesswork or isolated information.
• Data collection happens via various software tools. Do they all talk? An integrated software solution on a modern platform can bring all that together. Our Microsoft Dynamics 365 with SIS Construct 365 solution allows Tier 1 contractors to do just that and fully end-to-end in the Cloud to improve security and integrations with other third-party software tools. At SIS, we want our clients to have the best overall solution and keep using the tools in the field they are happy with, but by bringing the data from that into the core finance system and keeping everyone at the regional or head office up to date with real-time data.

Q: What does visibility look like in the future of construction?

A: In fact, the future is now if you work with the right partners using AI—automated risk assessments, accurate project progress reports, AI-powered tenders based on historical data, and successful bids are available. In these examples, AI improves H&S by spotting potential risks early, provides instant progress reports for clients, and can win you more work with far fewer person-hours manually compiling bids and tenders.

Automation will mean using digital tools that provide data at all process stages. For example, robotic brick layers have been trialled.

Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) allows for visibility into progress at various project stages. For example, when a unit/object is completed at the manufactured stage, it is easier to quantify and see the progress of the installation on site.

THESIS Statement: “The future is now, and you get there by trusting partners who are the right fit for your organisation and provide the visibility solutions you need in modern ERP solutions.”