How Adopting a Data-Driven Culture Will Help to Make the Most of the Infrastructure Bill

With the passing of President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, state and local governments are faced with the decision of how best to utilize the funds to make the much-needed public works upgrades. However, while the spending money has been granted, a major concern is whether or not the construction industry has the capability to actually execute.

The construction industry as a whole has been among the least willing to adopt digital technologies. For decades, and even today, many projects are managed on paper or electronic forms that require manual integration processes to generate reports. According to a McKinsey report, cost and schedule overruns are the norm in the construction industry. More specifically, large construction projects typically take 20 percent longer to finish than scheduled and are up to 80 percent over budget.

The problem is many construction companies not only use outdated systems, but a plethora of different systems that are not integrated to manage their projects. This results in a lack of project governance, control and transparency needed to successfully deliver projects.

If projects continue to be delivered late and overbudget, funds allocated from the infrastructure bill will not be maximized to its fullest extent.

Efficient Project Delivery is Key to Maximizing Allocated Infrastructure Fuds

Over the past several years, the construction industry has made strides in adopting new digital technologies to better manage their project business processes. In some ways, the pandemic has been the push companies have needed to take the plunge and find ways to be more productive, efficient, and sustainable.

Construction companies are starting to recognize the importance of real-time data and its crucial role in business processes and outcomes. Operating in project silos with project financials being managed in one solution and project operations in another has led to business leaders making important business decisions based on unreliable data because of the time it takes to manually consolidate and integrate project data from different solutions.

Now, many construction companies are looking to build a data-driven culture to be able to make decisions based on insights gained using accurate and reliable data. Keep in mind, the amount of data isn’t the problem. It’s the fact that data often gets stored away, providing no meaningful and tangible value.

A Data-Driven Approach to Managing Projects

When it comes to managing any project, but especially large complex projects, operating from a single source of truth is of utmost importance. Running complex projects that involves different departments and stakeholders requires all hands-on deck, which only works if everyone is working on the same page towards the same goal.

Project Business Automation is a new category of business systems that puts projects front and center by integrating and automating the operational and financial aspects of projects on one comprehensive solution. PBA takes a process-first approach to project business and provides a continuously updated real-time view of all core project business processes.

To learn more about Project Business Automation, download the PBA Quick Guide.

PBA provides the foundation for a data-driven culture by providing transparency and governance, enabling unprecedented intelligence for your company. When the right information gets to the right people at the right time, you’re able to make important business decisions based on accurate data, solve problems better, and mitigate any risk or issues that may arise.

With the number of megaprojects coming down the pipeline, construction companies need to step up and invest in a business system that centers around projects. After all, if projects are your bread and butter, it would only make sense to do just that.