Go to any property and construction technology panel and someone is inevitably going to say that the construction industry has been slower than other sectors to adopt tech-forward practices, but this ignores how responsive construction has been to solving problems for as long as people have been building.
The misperception is due to a major difference between construction and design and other sectors: the products construction companies deliver are built to be used heavily by many people for decades and even centuries and they need to be absolutely sure that a technology will add value, because mistakes are magnified in an industry where the clients and the public are using the products for the very long term, and corrections are difficult and costly to make.
The reality isn’t that construction and design professionals are resistant to change; it’s that they need to be sure that what they are changing really improves on the tried and true. This means that conTech startups and ventures need to clear a high bar and demonstrate tested, added value, and the process can be arduous, but also highly valuable for owners and the public. COVID-19, However, has put an urgency on a number of issues and the industry needs to think more systematically about what technologies it pursues in order to accelerate efficiencies in a tighter market.
Acceleration During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented shock to the global built environment in everything from project funding and public safety to supply chains and personnel management. However, as the economy started its recovery, construction was one of the first industries to get back to essential work, and construction companies have needed to adapt quickly to newer ways of working. What building professionals are finding though is that the pandemic didn’t exactly bring new challenges as much as it accelerated changes that were already underway, bringing the needs for sustainability, efficiency, cost management and safety sharply into focus —issues that conTech innovators have been working to solve for some time.
COVID-19创造了需要社会距离site and in the office, but the industry was already embracing more industrialized and digital processes to reduce manual and in-person tasks, increasing cost efficiency and safety. Advances in BIM, virtual reality and drones allow engineering, design and inspection decisions to be made in digital environments that reduce costly mistakes and reduce the health and safety dangers inherent in having more people on-site and in high-risk situations. Digital twins are increasingly being adopted to monitor aspects of building performance that significantly reduce the need for manual monitoring and risk management, while various project management software solutions are making teams and processes more agile, effective and data-driven while reducing the friction of remote work and widely dispersed personnel.
与大流行有关的放缓的经济压力使建筑和设计策略的成本效率和至关重要的方面。贷方施加更严格的承保要求，预算更严格意味着需要更少的变更订单。18luck官网项目需要在物理基准之前建立前所未有的计划，协调和成本管理水平，并且数字和远程技术有助于实现这一目标，并具有更深层次的洞察力。
最好的启动技术是基于问题的；它们的开发是为了满足特定的行业需求。在建筑行业中，大多数初创公司都是由知识渊博的行业专业人士创建的，他们对自己的发展充满热情。您还会发现局外人确定了与建筑有关的问题并投资于解决该问题，但重要的是要确保他们有合适的人使其能够为这些专业人员的工作方式工作。
如何制定创新的策略
So the question then becomes how do design firms and construction companies evaluate new design and construction technologies and strategize how to invest their resources in a tighter market? For this, the 70-20-10 model is a reasonable way to think about how your firm looks at innovation. A company could devote 70% of its innovation efforts to sustaining and expanding the applicability of the new technologies and processes that it already uses and knows work. It could allocate 20% to exploring adjacent markets that may have applicability to the construction and design industries. Finally, it could devote 10% of that effort to fostering disruptions either in-house or by supporting startups with promise and applicability to your business.
如果您的公司在VR和BIM上取得了成功，请继续使用它们并在您的项目中尽可能地扩展其效率。18luck官网这样做的风险有限，因为作为一个行业，我们知道它适用于绝大多数建筑公司。投资培训并雇用更多精通它的人员，以成为标准实践。额外的好处是，通过更广泛地采用技术，您可以更好地吸引和保留年轻人才，这越来越多地寻找具有前瞻性的公司。
Another example is at Syska, where we rolled out an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that integrates all of the company’s operational functions, such as HR, payroll, finance, project management, sales, business development and customer relationship management. By investing effort, time and resources to applying the technology as widely as possible and optimizing the capabilities of each function’s software, we created as many efficiencies as possible with what we knew worked. Similarly, Anchin’s own Digital Risk System looks at past performance compared to today to identify the projects that have the best margins and analyze what patterns and anomalies stand out that drove those results, from personnel to budget. These systems for both firms are proven to work and are driven by best practices in benchmarking, operations and cost analysis. All of this also requires a robust internal culture that prioritizes regular assessment to determine if the processes and technology in place can deliver the data needed. If not, it may become useful to look outside the firm or even the industry.
为了探索邻近的市场，建立一个工作组，一个实践，甚至是您的母公司组织中的一家新公司，以找到并支持具有开创性的想法的初创公司。您的创新小组可以加入网络，这些网络专门为建筑社区服务的种子阶段公司投资，从而降低了您的投资风险。这些网络还允许访问研究报告和分析智能建筑，无人机，可再生能源等最新进展。
When looking to drive disruption and innovation through your own organization, it’s still useful to work with incubators, but you should leverage your organization’s own expertise. Unlike the startups, you probably have more experience in working closely with industry leaders like owners or architects, so you can bring key insights for them and help to develop their go-to-market strategies that make their products attractive to potential end-users.
但是，重要的是要记住，您制定的任何创新都解决了整个行业的挑战，而不仅仅是内部问题。保持广泛的看法，以考虑适用性。还要考虑使用现有的技术来为建筑行业完善它们。例如，增强现实（AR）仍处于起步阶段，但越来越有可能在行业未来发挥关键作用。使用在现有空间上呈现数字叠加的护目镜的能力可以识别风险以及新的设计和工程可能性。现在，利用这项技术是越来越多的投资。
重要的是要记住，必要性正在推动快速变化，尽管您和您的公司应该采用新技术，但对您的方式保持聪明和有条不紊也是至关重要的。设计和建筑专业人员最终负责基于可信赖的方法做出明智的决策，而推动变革也不是什么。
菲利普·罗斯（Phillip Ross）is an accounting and audit partner at Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP and serves as the leader of the firm’s Architecture and Engineering and Construction Industry groups. As co-president of Syska Hennessy Group, Cyrus Izzo leads one of the world's leading engineering firms, with more than 500 professionals across 16 offices.
