A new poll commissioned by Procore Technologies has found that data is extremely important to the increasingly digital Australian construction industry.
Construction companies are realising the significant benefits of data-driven business decisions and say that access control to their project information is a priority.
The poll, conducted by ACA Research, surveyed 160 construction companies of different sizes and types around Australia. Sophisticated data capture and analysis is becoming fundamental to the success of these businesses, with 56 percent saying they would switch software providers in order to ensure better control of, and access to, their data.
Other findings from the survey include:
- 34 percent of all companies and 72 percent of large companies surveyed say data capture and analysis improves productivity
- 33 percent of all businesses and 62 percent of large ones identify better risk management as a key benefit unlocked by data
- 26 percent of companies believe they could save 10 to 20 percent on operational costs if they fully utilised available data
- 73 percent of respondents say they should have access to their data however and whenever they want it
- 67 percent say losing their data would have significant financial repercussions for their business, and
- 29 percent of all respondents and 48 percent of large businesses have to pay a fee to export their data and 19 percent believe their software provider owns their data.
Data ownership was a key issue, with 7 in 10 large companies saying they would change software providers for this reason.
"Given the critical importance of data to our operations, we do not engage with software providers that charge for access to data that we rightfully own," says Matthew Rayment, chief operations officer at PBS Building.
"Data is everything," says Tim Hassett, business manager at Spence Construction. "Our philosophy is: if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Data allows us to identify and mitigate risks, deal with recurring issues across the business and ultimately save time and money.
"Having access to data at our fingertips to make decisions is fundamental to our operations and we strongly believe that any data we put into a software platform is our intellectual property."
Photo by Filiberto Santillán on Unsplash