Engineering and construction software company RIB CCS celebrated its fortieth anniversary and outgoing CEO Andrew Skudder says the company remains strongly focused on supporting the core needs of the construction industry, which it was founded to serve.

The company intimately understands the construction industry and this enables it to design and develop tools specifically to improve construction processes and provide real-time, end-to-end visibility and control over processes from design through to the completion of a building or other infrastructure.

Skudder himself has 20 years of experience in the construction industry and incoming RIB CCS VP Peter Damhuis has 30 years. Damhuis had previously used RIB CCS software as an estimator and in a commercial role for engineering and contracting group Murray & Roberts.

"We will continue to employ industry professionals and partner with our clients for the long term and support them in their digital transformation journey. We remain committed to digitising the industry, staying abreast of the latest technological developments and embedding best practice into the industry," Damhuis says.

RIB CCS evolved through close relations with users and clients, and the development and evolution of its digital tools similarly continues to benefit from this close relationship with industry practitioners.

"The construction user is at the centre of what we do in terms of designing our products. This focus on the user is something we hold dear in our product development, as the tools must help them to do their jobs better, more accurately and easily, and improve their efficiency," says Skudder, who has been appointed as RIB Group chief revenue officer.

Further, the continuous evolution of RIB CCS' technology means it has remained flexible and able to serve construction industry users throughout technology changes.

The company has also aimed to digitise itself and, over the past five to seven years, has digitised many of its processes to be able to serve and support construction industry users, such as its flagship estimating, planning and project control solution Candy being available as a cloud solution.

"It is important that every business adopt relevant technologies, including the construction industry, but, for us, evolving our products and adopting new technologies enable us to scale and serve our clients in the more than 80 countries in which we operate," says Skudder.

RIB CCS's focus on hiring industry professionals and technology specialists meant that it has remained robust and continues to attract talent in a highly competitive market. The use of industry experts and its focus on building its solutions with direct input from its users means that the company captures and thereby propagates industry best practices, says Damhuis.

"We continue to develop our software using feedback from the industry, including our clients internationally, and part of our development process includes listening to specific issues clients have and what processes they have in their organisation or their country.

“We learn from this process and add to our software, as well as to determine how we can change our software to fit their needs and context and enhance their operational processes," he says.

Damhuis says his first task at RIB CCS is to ensure the company evolves in its role as part of the broader multinational RIB Group, and to ensure the company's clients and employees understand that the company will continue engaging with them, supporting its users and developing its products in response to new needs and demands of the industry.

The aim is to ensure stability of the business during the current time of change, as well as to drive growth in the company's products, such as in the exciting and large China construction industry and market.

"Longer term, the company is in an exciting phase as it becomes part of bigger initiatives within the multinational group. We will be party to and make contributions to these initiatives and provide our knowledge of the industry and our experiences to help shape the future of RIB by bringing our ethos and the essence of what makes us successful in the development of new software for the construction industry," says Damhuis.