This year’s Groundbreak celebrated the incredible things that happen when you pair technology with an emphasis on collaboration. Many of the speakers focused on the importance of cultivating a company culture to drive business transformation.
At VeilSun, we see collaboration as one of the core driving factors in successful lean planning and construction project execution. That’s why we’ve developed so many construction technology solutions that improve both efficiency and collaboration – connecting the office and the field throughout the lifespan of a project.
We had a great time meeting with so many construction industry professionals who are doing excellent work in the field. While there were many exciting conversations and ideas across the dozens of break out sessions and panels, we left with three key takeaways to share..
The Importance of Software Integrations in the Construction Industry
One of our biggest takeaways from this year’s Groundbreak was the number of technology integrations most of the construction professionals we spoke with are using. Nearly 50% of Procore users are integrating with five or more systems!
In some ways this is great, users are increasingly able to get exactly the functionality they need. The Procore Marketplace makes it easier to find exactly the piece of technology that you might be looking for, which is a huge advantage for getting systems integrated.
However, if the integration isn’t seamless, the additional tool or system might not end up getting used. More than a third of construction technology solutions fail (either in adoption or execution) because of poor fit with current processes and procedures.
In his session, Steve Gardner, VP of Operations at Willmar Electric, pointed out that in order to manage change (and technology adoption) well, it’s important to get everyone on board with the new tool or process. He advised not to allow exceptions to adoption: “sometimes we let the exceptions do their own little thing, which causes you to look back at those legacy systems you’re trying to get away from.”
We understand how important it is to get your software integrations to work the way you do rather than trying to retro-fit your workflow to the technology itself. That’s why we created a wide range of Procore Integrations to ensure that you can see everything in one place, collaborate better, and get your software integrations working exactly how you want them.
The Rise of Integrated Project Delivery
In his keynote, Procore Founder, President, and CEO Tooey Courtemanche noted how rapidly changes are occurring in the construction industry. This is true both of the technological advances as well as the methods being deployed. Courtemanche is excited by these changes, seeing them as “an incredible opportunity to improve the way that we all work, not just with the technology that we use, but how we all work together.”
One of the ways that construction industry professionals are working together more can be seen in the rise of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) across the construction industry. IDP is an approach to the construction process “that integrates people, systems, business structures and practices into a process that collaboratively harnesses the talents and insights of all participants to optimize project results, increase value to the owner, reduce waste, and maximize efficiency through all phases of design, fabrication, and construction.”
In other words, IDP brings all of the stakeholders together to work more collaboratively and efficiently. By connecting both the general contractors and the design team in the same contract, all parties involved share both the risks and rewards of the entire project.
It makes sense that IDP would be on the rise given that 82% of owners feel they need more collaboration with their contractors. IDP as a method promotes clear communication, enhances efficiency, and incentivizes quality.
This is another area where having the right technology to streamline communication and collaboration is key. Being able to capture all conversations and documentation in the same, centralized and user-friendly technological space is vital for running these kinds of projects smoothly.
Leveraging AI for Capturing and Using Data
Finally, and perhaps unsurprisingly this year, there were a lot of conversations about the use of AI in construction. For one thing, Procore introduced their new AI driven technology – Procore Copilot, which will be rolling out in beta over the next year.
Some of the exciting ways that we’re seeing AI leveraged to improve your processes include:
- Chatbots that can walk people through a process on site
- Image capture technologies for incident reporting
- 4D scheduling
- Ongoing data and trend analysis
- Training
- Root cause analysis
- Safety improvements
In addition to all the innovative ways that speakers and companies brought AI to the conference, we also see a huge opportunity for leveraging AI to better capture and then actually use project data. Given that 95% of all data captured in the construction and engineering industries goes unused – we see this as a key opportunity for improvement.
Even when data is being used, there are often challenges with methods of collection. Almost half of contractors surveyed agreed that non-standardized data input leads to inconsistent, inaccurate, incomplete, and unusable data. That’s where AI can really shine – in streamlining data collection to ensure accuracy and broad-scale collection.
Power Up Your Procore
Whether or not you were able to attend this year’s conference, if you want to get more out of your Procore, we’d love to chat. We've got custom integrations to make Procore work the way you do.
Schedule a no-pressure consultation with one of our construction technology experts. We'll brainstorm, bounce ideas around and find a tailor-made solution to fit your workflow. You'll leave with ideas on how to realize your technology “dream.”
