How can construction teams future-proof their business?

It is considered one of “least-digitised industries in the world”. And yet, according to McKinsey, there’s scope to add as much as $1.6Tn to the value of the global construction industry – or about two per cent of the global economy – solely by increasing business productivity.

We speak to Simon Aldous, Head of Channels EMEA at Dropbox, about the development of technology in the construction industry.

The good news is that we are increasingly seeing more construction users around the world beginning to experiment with digital solutions. This means that today more teams than ever use cloud-based solutions to support end-to-end projects and real-world collaboration.

They open, edit, and share thousands of files, while using the solutions at their office, on their mobile devices, or on site.

This goes beyond convenience. Cloud-based solutions can revolutionise any modern business, and can often be the make or break element. This is especially true for older and more established industries such as construction, where many business leaders instinctively revert to tried and tested solutions and approach new business tech with caution.

Below, I’m looking at three reasons why business leaders shouldn’t shy away from new tech and why in fact, integrating cloud-based solution can future-proof your business:

• Increase your Return on Investment (ROI): Moving to a cloud-based solution can significantly increase a company’s return on investment – sometimes even up to 245% ROI – such as when EJ Prescott transitioned from papers to Dropbox. Construction teams have relied for too long on paper photocopies, pen and pencil mark-ups, scanning and emailing documents to submit bids, and it is now time for them to begin exploring new, more efficient solutions.
• Give your teams time back: Many teams don’t often realise their untapped potential until after they have made a change. Sometimes, moving to cloud-based solutions can free up over 500 hours of project management time, allowing teams to focus on providing better service to their clients. Last year alone, construction users and teams, in collaboration with architecture and engineering companies, created and saved more than a quarter of a billion files in Dropbox. That translates to roughly 25 million files per month or 800,000 files per day. Saving and editing this in the cloud rather than using the email or other solutions to share various versions of these documents saves teams tens of hours per year!
• Streamline your collaboration processes: Collaboration is at the heart of every efficient team. For users in the field, performance loading large files has improved dramatically after incorporating cloud-based solutions. Meanwhile their collaboration with subcontractors, partners and clients has been streamlined and the frustration of dealing with unreliable Internet connection has disappeared.

Today, AEC industries are undergoing a period of digital transformation marked by new technology. As part of this, content and speed are two emerging elements that form the common thread amongst AEC industries. Content is becoming richer, more complex and sophisticated, while the pace of business is faster than ever before.

To stay on top of competition, the need to access and share large files, work collaboratively internally and externally, is becoming the normal way to do business.

The construction industry’s adoption of new technologies has historically lagged behind other industries, but we can make a U turn on this.

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