Twenty years ago, the construction and building industry operated as a vast constellation of silos, with every service provider — from project managers, architects and engineers to contractors and subcontractors — using their own distinct technology platforms. There was little automation and there were numerous processes, all of which created duplicate data in disparate point solution programs, spreadsheets, word processing software, PDFs and email platforms. Though the creative and talented people in the building industry could generally manage projects in a consistent delivery process, there was little efficiency, wide room for errors and too much time spent duplicating efforts.
Two decades later, our industry is mostly in the same inefficient, fragmented place, with multiple data in siloed technology point solutions, on various servers and in duplicate documents. Nearly 70 percent of all work in the building industry is still managed in Excel spreadsheets, according to a recent report by McKinsey & Company. Though today we’re more automated — we have construction contractors utilizing sophisticated software for their projects and architects employing state-of-the-art technology for their designs — we still haven’t been connected in any meaningful way for project management teams to share common project data, and also link real-time communication and transparency of that data to manage critical project information.
Today I’m excited about the future of project management in the building industry. At Cushman & Wakefield, we work to help our clients successfully meet rigorous objectives, solve problems and manage their projects — so we invest in world-class technology platforms that are always on the cusp of what’s next in corporate real estate. Recently, our Project & Development Services team established a strategic investment and collaboration with Ingenious.Build, a cutting-edge, cloud-based project management software platform that takes the building and construction industry to levels of efficiency, accuracy and strategic direction never seen before — and we’re the first corporate real estate firm to introduce such an innovative and collaborative platform to the market.
Ingenious Build allows everyone involved in a building project — from the owners, developers and project managers to the contractors, architects and engineers — to move away from the confusion and uncertainty of separate software systems, fragmented data and independent documents to an AI-driven single source-of-truth database that captures critical project data and communication, accurately and in real time. We trained more than 500 Cushman & Wakefield professionals as part of this effort to provide the most forward-thinking platform in the industry. It’s a big, ambitious initiative, and it supports our vision to defragment the project delivery process with what we believe is the “PM delivery model of the future.” This new platform is foundational to our delivery vision, and is specifically driven to achieve the following priorities:
- Provide an effective and productive automation tool for our project managers in the delivery process
- Establish consistent deliverables and workflow process/approvals with speed and efficiency
- Capture critical project data, accurately and in real time through a single, transparent cloud platform
- Increase collaboration and productivity among all project team members
- Allow more room and time for strategic planning and risk mitigation
Our utilization of Ingenious.Build allows all parties to shift from an inefficient, administrative paper-pushing function to an elevated, intuitive and strategic approach of providing visibility into every facet of a building project and everyone sharing the same information on one automated platform. Until now, there has never been a full-fledged technology solution that allows everyone involved in a building project to collaborate and communicate through one universal platform. It’s an incredible development for an industry that demands speed, transparency and accountability, from idea conception to project completion — and sometimes beyond.
If you would like more information about Cushman & Wakefield and our Ingenious.Build Project Management platform, please contact: cwingeniousio@cushwake.com
Ingenious.Build-formerly IngeniousIO.com.
