Meeting Demand for Digital Project Delivery through Strategic Partnerships

A sentence that will always be true: the prevalence and utility of construction project data is greater now than it has ever been before. Data will be more important tomorrow than it is today, more important next month than this one - ever more important to the industry’s future than its past.

Accurate and standardized data collection is the building block to the construction technologies that will soon become the centerpiece of projects large and small: Building Information Modeling (BIM), Civil Information Modeling (CIM), and the creation of digital twins. You can’t create complex and insightful 3D models of your transportation assets without a complex and insightful network of data flowing in to support them.

When it comes to the importance of field data to support digital project delivery and other digital assets, don’t take it from us - look to the data itself.

The Civil Quarterly, an appropriately-named quarterly report on the heavy civil construction industry, reports that 88% of civil engineers are collecting project inspection data on their projects. Of that 88%, a little less than a third are still using paper forms to collect their data. Similar percentage splits apply to survey/terrain data, item progress data, and other areas that support robust project dashboards or digital twins.

We also see the data reflect the growing demand for BIM and CIM on heavy civil projects: 66% of civil engineers currently use BIM on their projects. That demand will continue to grow as project owners deepen their understanding of the benefits of BIM, ranging from reduced rework to improved coordination in the field. Currently, The Civil Quarterly reports that 87% of project owners have some kind of BIM requirement on their projects, though that number doesn’t apply to all of their projects.

It’s now more important than ever for industry tech providers to work together and pair effective solutions in tandem. Some excel at building data collection technology, while others have comprehensive platforms to organize, store, and report that data. Through strategic partnerships and new or enhanced functionality, we can build a successful foundation for organizations who need to streamline field data capture and inspection processes.

For 20+ years, Infotech has provided field staff with intuitive, powerful, and configurable mobile apps to manage data collection and inspection activities in the field. These solutions are widely adopted on infrastructure projects at the Federal and State Department of Transportation (DOT) levels as well as with local municipalities and AEC firms.

We consider ourselves experts at creating systems of record for project owners, and our lengthy history of working with federal, state, and local transportation agencies allows us to understand the nuances of varied needs and expectations. That said, at the end of the day, we’re a software company. Our goal is to marry connection and collection by integrating our platforms with tools for capturing accurate location coordinates, asset data, and more. This new interoperability and functionality enables users to easily capture required geospatial data for measurements while eliminating data entry errors.

Field data collection has historically been a manual process that is prone to errors due to the inefficiencies of these processes. By integrating with the leading field data capture devices, on-site staff can quickly and accurately collect auditable data and connect it to the payment process with a single point of data entry, directly in the field where the work is being performed.

Infotech-developed solutions have long been trusted to protect the owner by ensuring projects are easily auditable and both federal and state specifications are being followed. Combining the data already being put to work across Infotech solutions with streamlined and accurate site capture processes fits perfectly with the developing Global Information Systems (GIS) initiatives directly impacting the construction industry.

To find out more about how agencies and firms are using our Appia platform for construction administration and inspection with their tools for field data capture, visit infotechinc.com/partnerships.