Bits, bytes and bricks: How to invest wisely in technology

The digital marketplace is hard to navigate, so how are construction firms ensuring they invest wisely in technology?

Construction companies, faced with the need to adopt digital technologies to keep pace in a fast-changing world, will inevitably come up against a vast range of options. AI, drones, wearables… it’s a minefield of risky choices that could either tie up cash or transform a business into a cutting-edge, efficient operator. So how do you ensure those crucial investments come good?

Among tier ones, much of the focus of late has been on the less glamorous but important side of tech, such as project-management tools. Balfour Beatty, for example, has zoned in on areas including telematics, supply chain integration, digital permitting and task management/short-term planning.

James Veitch, Balfour Beatty’s director of digital and technology, says: “We’ve focused on day-to-day management of tasks and activities, plus output monitoring. Various datasets used to fly around on paper that people had to push from one function – like commercial into operations – as well as measurements going backwards and forwards.”

Balfour “scoured the market” for software to tackle this issue, he says, but could not find anything suitable. So the company built its own Activity Information Management System (AIMS). “It wasn’t a significant spend in terms of standalone software, but significant in the sense of internal resources,” says Veitch. The system automates the collection of a wide range of data and allows Balfour’s teams to display trends. Section engineers and construction managers can track the progress of activities in real time and provide support as needed.

AIMS paid dividends immediately. “The first project where we deployed it in anger, it shaved months off the programme,” he says. Balfour now uses it on about 60 projects. It has also had an impact on how the company reconciles its physical construction progress on site with an overall contract programme, and the back-office assessment of costs and therefore profitability, says Veitch.

Another area where Balfour has boosted efficiency using tech is in issuing digitised permits – up to 20,000 at the latest count – for activities such as using a ladder, breaking ground or electrical work. “It’s a hugely laborious, intensive [and] time-consuming task,” he says. “Now, somebody doesn’t have to run around to find a signature from somebody who may or may not be in the office.”

The firm has also invested in higher-profile, headline-grabbing tech. Balfour was the first construction company to get a Spot robot from Boston Dynamics, according to Veitch. The robotic dog can be used to carry out inspections on site and capture data. “We’ve got it specifically for its surveying capability through the Lidar [light detection and ranging] scanner,” he says. “We’ve got one, with an option for some others.”

Balfour employed Spot on the high-profile Midland Metropolitan University Hospital project that it took over from Carillion, which collapsed in 2018. The robotic dog has also helped to improve health and safety. “We’ve used it in areas to avoid the need to put people in harm’s way,” says Veitch. “It’s been sent into areas that have been condemned due to asbestos.”

He declines to reveal how much Spot cost the firm, but an October 2022 contract notice from the UK Atomic Energy Authority put the price of a premium version with all ancillary equipment at about £180,000.

Management efficiencies

Kier, meanwhile, is trialling drones for its highways business with the support of government agency Innovate UK. But, as with Balfour and other tier ones, it has also focused on digital solutions to boost project management, such as Procore for its field systems. The software system allows managers to handle project details, schedule tasks and view progress, while connecting everybody working on a job. “We did a trial to see if it was the right solution,” says Louisa Finlay, Kier’s chief people officer. “The feedback from our site teams is it makes it easier for them to do their jobs, makes them more productive and improves communication.”

“Previously, we would have used external consultants, but now we’re building an internal digital construction team”

Thomas Flannery, McLaren

At McLaren, the digital focus in the past few years has also been on improving administrative systems. “There’s been a focus on the learning and development side of things,” says Thomas Flannery, McLaren’s senior digital construction manager. “That has been partly driven by the Building Safety Act 2022, and making sure that our people have the right competencies to go and work on projects.”

The software, provided by an external partner, Complete Competence, “harnesses the essential competence data for all McLaren people aligned to PAS 8672 [the standard used to assess the competence of principal contractors] and the Act, allowing technical skills gaps to be identified and targeted training to be delivered”, he says.

McLaren is also hiring people specifically to boost its digital construction offering. Flannery only joined the business himself in November. “Previously, we would have used external consultants, but now we’re building an internal digital construction team,” he says. Commenting on the cost-benefit of having an internal resource versus that of consultants, Flannery adds: “Take-up and engagement with digital construction platforms increase when there is someone driving this daily at project level. Project teams will think more creatively and be more inclined to investigate outside-of-the-box solutions to problems if they’ve got a specialist on hand who can help them visualise and interrogate these ideas.”

So why the general focus on investing in the back end side of things over some of the flashier technologies? As Balfour’s Veitch explains: “This was a strategic choice to address gaps in the digital ecosystem and ensure we had end-to-end visibility of our processes.” He adds that digitisation of “frontline operations” is a prerequisite for other initiatives such as generative AI, so the focus has been on ensuring it has “solid foundations to build upon”.

Meanwhile at McLaren, Flannery says the firm is prioritising tech that helps it comply with regulation and brings “greater certainty in design and programme”.

Matthew Cannon, Clancy’s chief executive, says it has invested about £4m over the past few years on improving systems that capture health and safety data plus training information. “We’ve also invested in data-visualisation tools so we can make sure that the data we’re capturing at the front end of the process is visible, and that enables us to make better decisions,” he says.

Clancy has been using Matrix iQ technology, which tracks its fleet and asset data so that it can be accessed on a single platform. “This innovative platform allows us to track mileage, driver behaviour and carbon footprint to gain a standardised view of the performance of our fleet and assets,” says Cannon. “This enables us to assess how we are using these vehicles, and where we can optimise performance and focus into specific areas where we can drive value. It also allows us to improve the safety of our workers and look for ways that we can reduce our environmental impact.”

Clancy also benefits from working on large frameworks for regulated utilities, which helps with decisions on technology investment. “The great advantage is we can plan a bit longer,” he says.

Advice for SMEs

For smaller firms arriving in the digital marketplace, however, the risk of making an expensive mistake is great. “There’s a lot of vendors out there trying to sell you their tool,” says Veitch. “But invariably they are not from construction themselves. They’re trying to transpose assumptions about construction in from other industries. So don’t try to implement new technology onto an in-flight project. You wouldn’t try to change the engine on an aeroplane while it’s flying. Wait until you’ve got a new project that’s suitable for the innovation.”

Finlay stresses the importance of initially setting your goal when investing in digital. “Otherwise, it can be just a nice-to-have,” she says. “And you need to have proper governance around it, too. Does it comply with cybersecurity? Can it be properly embedded into the business and looked after? We’ve invested quite a lot in making sure our hardware and connectivity is right.”

Neil Thompson, director of digital construction at consultancy Atkins, urges SMEs to “always start small, and if you’re doing something new, do it with a partner, don’t build it from scratch”. He says it is best to “do it in production with a customer that has an actual problem to solve”, while suggesting that SME tech firms “would love to partner up” with similar-sized contractors.

Companies can put structures in place to work out which technology is the best fit. Kier has a ‘digital council’, which meets about every six weeks and consists of around 20 people from across the business. Its purpose is to “make sure we learn fast the pros and cons, and introduce the right digital tech for the specific challenge”, says Finlay. “The aim is to ensure we have a completely aligned digital strategy.”

Aside from investing in equipment and systems, a company must also take into account training for staff. “We recognise that we need to support and upskill everybody,” says Finlay.

At McLaren, Flannery is also aware of how vital it is to bring staff along on the digital journey. “If you get your digital tech wrong and you get the rollout wrong, people will hate it and see it as an impediment to doing their job,” he says. “You’ll have to invest more money to get yourself back to an even keel.”

Leading the client

Despite all the talk of embracing technology, there are still areas where not much is happening. “I see the vast majority of the industry just optimising traditional ways to do things,” says Dale Sinclair, head of digital innovation at consultancy WSP.

Meanwhile, he talks of the need for a “paradigm shift” to really change the dial on the use of digital tech. One thing holding back digital take-up is the oft-heard excuse from contractors that the client didn’t ask for it.

“I don’t know a single client in the world that doesn’t want to have their buildings designed faster, better, greener, safer,” Sinclair says.

“That excuse about the client not asking for it gets us back to Henry Ford when he said: ‘If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.’”