Webinar: From Complexity to Clarity
Webinar
On Demand
Q&A with project leaders on information management
Information management is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges affecting the construction industry and project delivery today; Amodal CEO Stuart Bell spoke to some of the professionals whose job it is to tackle it.
He sat down with Balfour Beatty VINCI’s Andrea Scrutton, CDE systems manager, and George Christophorou, head of information management, plus Thomas Flannery, head of digital information management at McLaren Construction Group, and Thomas Whiting, co-founder and director of Amodal.
One of the most interesting points that arose from the discussion was the variation of information requirements from client to client, and the overall need to better understand the use case, essentially the value, for the information they are collecting and how it will be used. Clients often think they need every piece of information when, in actual fact, they need only capture the most relevant information to support upstream decision making. Where should clients start when it comes to understanding the value of their data?
Andrea (AS): We have clients that know what they want and are pretty set in stone, and others that maybe don’t consider certain things.
Sometimes we come across a ‘we’ll get to that later’ mentality but, even with the best intentions, later doesn’t always arrive.
Ideally, we’d get to a point where we’ve got mature clients who know what they want, but I think quite a large range are just not there. It’s not that they don’t want to be, I just think there’s definitely some support that could be given in the industry to help everybody get to that level of maturity.
Thomas Flannery (TF): A lot of the bigger clients we work with will have internal themes with a good understanding of the level of maturity they want at handover, and they understand their use case for when we hand over the assets. That means those conversations tend to be a lot smoother because there’s probably a lesser degree of inflexibility.
Meanwhile, clients that aspire to get to that level are perhaps relying on external consultants because they don’t have the internal capability. They should be open to understanding that our role as consultants is to help byproviding better value for money and giving them what they actually need at the end.
It’s said that productivity gains often hinge on how well information flows across a project. Where do you see the biggest gaps between the information that teams need and what they get on live projects?
George Christophorou (GC): As an industry, we collect so much data. Sometimes we’re not clear on what that data is, nor why we need it.
We need clarity right at the beginning; not only on our requirements but also on when we want to report as well. Therefore, we’ll be smarter in what and how we collect, and make sure that the systems work more efficiently by doing so. We only use a fraction of the data we gather to make useful decisions.
TF: I’d say the gap is cultural. The willingness of people working on projects to change their way of working, whether that be internally within our own organisation or the supply chain.
The challenge lies in persuading people to move away from processes they were used to 20 years ago to a more digitally enabled way of working and consuming the relevant data.
When you’re trying to sell something to an end user, you’ve got to explain the ‘why’, with the emotive benefit for them and how it’s going to positively impact them in their role day-to-day.
That is a real focus when anytime we’re deploying any technology at McLaren. We identify the users, the use cases and try to explain why it needs to be done this way.
On the flip side, we’ve got our own internal justification for wanting them to use the technology; we’re looking for structured data that we can then report against and make informed decision making.
What challenges were you experiencing and what is a database approach now delivering for you?
GC: Everyone loves Excel but it just isn’t the right tool for major projects. We quickly found out that, while Excel is fine for a few hundred task information delivery plans (TIDPs), document registers and so on, it isn’t the right approach for hundreds of thousands.
We are now using Amodal’s endev-o database to capture everything, including our TIDPs, our master information delivery plans (MIDPs), and our information delivery packaging, which means we’re not having to worry about inputting formulas or whether they’ll be compromised.
This has been a real gamechanger for us as it has made our life and our ability to collect that data so much easier. Spreadsheets are great but if someone accidentally alters anything within them, the data becomes unusable.
AS: There’s also an element of data security that comes in here. Excel only has a certain level of security but when you’re using a secure system, you can ensure that data is being seen only by the people who should be able to see it.
The implementation of the CDE varies right across the industry. Why do you think true adoption and true use of the CDE is still so patchy?
Thomas Whiting (TW): When it comes to CDEs, everything is open to interpretation. There is an element of it being a tick-box and there often isn’t adequate time to set the right systems up properly at the beginning of a project, which jeopardises it further down the line. Moving between systems is painful, though, and deciding when to “pull that trigger” is hard.
Most of the information is provided by the supply chain. What do you think their perception of a CDE is and how do you support their onboarding and make sure they’re using it properly?
TF: Subcontractors probably just see it as a data repository or a holding point where they’re expected to upload information to, but it’s also a contractual requirement and maybe that’s all they really need to see it as. So long as they’re using the correct channels, uploading information to the correct place, and publishing it in the right folder with the right naming protocols, that should be acceptable.
To help with this, we need to get in early to on board them onto all of our systems.
As technology continues to develop in this area, what digital skills are most urgently needed in construction today?
AS: We need people who know how to interpret data. It’s all well and good having a great big data link with all this data in it, but if you don’t know what to do with it, how it all mixes together, nor what it means, then it’s useless to you. We need people who really do understand data and can give us value back out of that data. That’s a big skill gap that I think I think we need to fill at the moment.
I tend to recruit for soft skills and then in my mind, if someone has the intelligence and the want to learn, then we can teach the technical side.
TW: I think we’re getting worse as an industry, not better. There isn’t necessarily a specific skillset that we’re missing, I think we are basically upskilling people for roles that ideally wouldn’t exist because all the different stakeholders would know what to do and how to do it.
I think that’s why it makes sense that soft skills are the most important because it’s about coaching people and taking them on the journey. That said, you do need to have appreciation for and understanding of inherently complex issues and it’s only getting more and more complex with databases and related technology.
How are you closing the skills gap or uplifting and building people’s capabilities in your organisation?
TF: I think construction is actually an attractive career choice for a lot of people and there is in fact clear interest in the industry. This was proven when we were inundated with 400 applications for our digital construction apprenticeship, which we created to give us the opportunity to form our own talent pipeline and mould them to our way of working.
But generally speaking, I just don’t think there are enough opportunities out there. Organisations should look to create them and want to invest in their own pipeline.
In summary, when it comes to information management, there isn’t a magic wand nor silver bullet. But it’s about making sure you can clearly communicate the ‘why’ to every individual as well as the organisation. Otherwise, if people can’t connect the dots and the see the benefits to them personally, they will find a reason not to change.
From clarifying purpose at the outset to changing behaviours on live projects, the message from everyone was consistent: information only delivers value when it is intentional, proportionate and understood. Maturity, culture and capability, not tools alone, are what ultimately turn complexity into clarity.
The collaboration discussed during the session has since been recognised with an industry award, highlighting the strength of the approach taken to information management and delivery. The recognition reflects the combined efforts of Andrea, George and the wider project team, alongside Amodal, in demonstrating how clear information strategy can support better outcomes on complex programmes.
You can listen back to the full discussion on our YouTube channel.
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