While leaders in the construction industry are aware of the need to pursue digital transformation, many admit to not having the skills or tools to evaluate the available technology and choose a solution and solution provider that best suits them, writes Andrew Skudder, CEO of RIB CCS.

The starting point for any organisation seeking to enhance efficiency and effectiveness through digital transformation is to determine the business’s current pain points and future needs. This means establishing how the business is expected to evolve over time, as well as identifying key trends in the industry that will inform this change.

Importantly, once construction companies are engaging solution providers and have received proposals from various technology vendors, they need to answer the following five questions before making a decision.

Does the supplier have a credible history and reputation?

When entering into a long-term relationship with a supplier, it is important to know who owns the business, whether the owner has substance and stature, and what the state of the company’s balance sheet is.

Another important differentiator to consider is the vendor’s management team: Is the team stable? Do team members have construction industry knowledge and expertise? A further aspect to explore is the supplier’s vision, mission and values: are they compelling and consistent over time?

In addition, what is the vendor’s level of investment in research and development (R&D)? Does the business have a clear development plan or roadmap? Are products continually being enhanced, are new features and innovations being introduced, and to what extent does the vendor lead the pack in the R&D space it operates in?

To find a partner of choice, construction companies must do their own homework in evaluating vendors’ reputations and not rely solely on the information they are provided with. They should have open conversations with peers in the industry who are already using the products to determine pitfalls and learnings.

What technologies underpin the software?

From a more technical perspective, construction companies need to determine what underlying technologies come with the software. Is it a modern software suite that uses industry-standard technology such as Microsoft operating systems, SQL databases, modern languages and tools to write the software in? If so, the vendor is likely able to attract talent to develop the software, and this means that the software will be future-proof and have longevity.

Secondly, the scalability of the software must be determined. In other words, can it grow as the business grows? Is it easy to incorporate additional users or new functionality?

Thirdly, is the software customisable? This is a somewhat tricky consideration – with two sides to it – on the one hand software can be highly rigid with no customisability or on the other hand, it can be highly customisable. The former may not meet the needs of the business, while the highly customisable option may be exorbitant and less effective because of the time that needs to be spent on customising and implementing it. This is why a good option may be to invest in software that has industry best practice built into it but still has a degree of customisability to suit a particular business’ work practices.

What support does the vendor offer?

Evaluating the type of support that vendors offer is another critical step in determining the best solution for the business. What do they offer in terms of training and ongoing support of the software? What is their implementation philosophy? Does the vendor outsource implementation to implementation partners or do it themselves? Does the vendor empower super-users so that the solution can be embedded in the organisation?

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing clients embracing a solution and teaching it to their own people. It may be counterproductive for construction companies if they rely too heavily on training and implementation partners that have a revenue stream expectation.

Next, it is important to consider what type of training the vendor offers. How good is its training track record? Does it have structured programmes or are they ad hoc? Are they flexible in today’s world of online training versus classroom training?

Finally, what type of support does the vendor offer? Is it a 24/7 support service or not? A culture of service delivery and client-centricity should be non-negotiable.

What will it cost?

There are various cost elements that need to be determined, such as the upfront licence costs of the software, the implementation fee and, importantly, the ongoing software maintenance costs.

Of course, there are also hardware and infrastructure-related (on-premise servers versus cloud-based solutions) costs to factor in, as well as whether the organisation has the requisite internal resources to support its own IT infrastructure or if it needs to invest in additional resources.

And finally, principles around contractual terms, such as inflationary increases and termination provisions, need to be carefully examined.

How will the software impact the business?

The final step in choosing a technology vendor is to determine the purchase justification using a cost benefit analysis, that is, to evaluate the impact of the software solution on the business.

This means determining the ROI for the business by evaluating various qualitative and quantitative aspects. It is important to get to the quantitative benefits, because the financial director will need to be convinced that the solution makes financial sense. But it is equally important to determine the qualitative benefits as well.

So, what are the key factors that need to be considered? Of course, there is the impact on revenue: is this a revenue-enhancing solution? What is the impact on the operation’s cost base? Can the solution help the business to be more efficient and productive? Will it help it to manage its costs better? In addition, will it help with risk mitigation?

Something that is becoming more important for companies today, is to consider the role that software can play in enhancing a business’ social, environmental and corporate governance performance too.

There is no doubt that digitalization – and the ability to manage projects end-to-end using 5D BIM – is a major trend in the construction industry. By applying themselves to answering the preceding questions, construction companies should be better equipped to choose vendors that will provide them with best-fit solutions to suit their transformation needs.