We need to learn to get appy to make most of IT

Software vendor Peter Daly asks why construction’s IT experience is still so clunky.

Software should make life easier in construction, as elsewhere. Otherwise, why use it? But in construction, users are lumbered with clunky, legacy systems. Sometimes it feels like you are servicing the program, rather than the other way around.  

Outside of construction there is a revolution going on in enterprise software.  Collaboration apps that are easy to use, like Yammer and Asana, are growing rapidly. These are “social enterprise” apps that enable collaboration and workflow without email and are being used in sectors as diverse as healthcare, financial services, retail, media, and IT. 

In general, power is shifting from centralised IT procurement to the staff using the software. Kevin Spain, a leading US venture capital investor, has said: “The shift from CIOs (chief information officers) making all technology decisions to end users having more influence over which technology is used, means that more usable solutions are gaining greater preference in business.”

Construction software is a wide area, so I will confine my comments to the area I know best, which is mobile software in-field – or software that runs anywhere you can get online.

Typically, such apps are used for managing the work of subcontractors and snagging, although there are many other possible applications. These applications are cloud based with a desktop side and a mobile side that can be accessed from anywhere you have an internet connection. They can be acquired for just one project, unlike, say, a central Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system used throughout the firm. Mobile software can deliver huge benefits. Our data, and studies in the US, indicate that it can save up to 1% of project value from time saved and rework reduced.

Mobile software in construction has been around for over a decade but is still underdeveloped and usually confined to Tier 1 firms. Leading vendors in the US tend to sell mobile and cloud-based systems which are still sold like ERP systems, with direct selling, support and training at the customer’s premises. They can be hugely expensive.

We think there is a better way: simple, easy to use, affordable software for everyone, which brings construction into line with the trends in enterprise software seen in other sectors and is available right down the value chain to the smallest subcontractor.

For this to happen a lot of changes are going to be needed.

First, mobile apps need to become user-focused and to give the user the same sort of experience that they have had in consumer apps. This is especially the case for the younger generation in construction. These apps need to be easy to use, intuitive and not require any training. If that can be achieved then it becomes possible to distribute the apps widely through the internet for free trialling. There needs to be a much wider experiencing of the benefits of this technology, which at present is not occurring and has not been possible. 

It also requires attention to user experience design and preventing “feature bloat”. Construction software in general, as well as mobile apps, often have too many features. Sometimes what should be several apps is lumped into one – apps are over-engineered to cater for too many customer demands and different ways to do things; or they reflect over-ambitious attempts to computerise and change a lot of construction processes in one fell swoop with the result that most of it is left unused. Cut the features and learn to live better with less.

Next, apps need to be for the entire team. In the UK, the practice has been to buy a few licenses for a project. Instead, all of the project team needs to use the apps, including all engineers, work package owners of every type, subcontractors, consultants and clients.

That means, of course, that apps have to be affordable. Making them affordable means that they can be used by everyone and achieve enterprise-wide deployment, something rarely seen in the UK. It also means that such apps can be used by the small guy as well as the Balfour Beatty’s of this world. SME firms and trade contractors have a huge need for improved systems, and mobility and the cloud have a great deal to offer them.

Finally, I believe that collaboration is moving from the web-based document management type platforms to a new real time mobile collaboration. That means that apps with “social enterprise” capabilities which facilitate team conversations will become essential.

One day, no one in construction will go in-field without their app, any more than they would without their hard hat. But for that to happen, the software and the way it is acquired and sold has to change.

Peter Daly is CEO of SmartBuilder Software (Dublin and London), whose new app Plan2Finish has just been released