The next ten years are going to be the most important the construction industry will ever witness," according to Jonathan Hunter of Elecosoft. The pandemic might have sharpened our appetite for introspection, but the evolutionary factors that are affecting the industry are endemic and have far greater ramifications than the strictures and shortages of lockdown, or the fallout from Brexit.

Climate change is becoming the single biggest issue affecting the planet. Global resources are finite, populations most certainly aren't, and meeting the challenges of urban and infrastructure growth whilst managing sustainability requires more than just pious proclamations of carbon reduction targets set 20 or 30 years hence. "The industry has to become more efficient," said Jonathan. "We have to reduce our carbon footprints and minimise waste while working on very low margins."

Risk mitigation is probably just as big an issue for a contractor. The comprehensive records that we now amass on a project aren't just to support the project's lifecycle, but to correctly assess culpability in the event of structural failure, missed deadlines, or under-performance. "Besides keeping tight control on costs, we need to give protection against penalties for delay, or risk of litigation," according to Jonathan. In corroboration of this, he added that the bulk of the large amount of data that is accumulated for each project is accounted for by the comprehensive records of communications between project members, the records of who reviewed and authorised changes to a project, and the apportioning of costs. The minutiae of building plans, detailing minor items like door furniture, light fittings and such are probably of less importance for a project manager.

To counter the attentions of lawyers, and the demands of the planet, we have the evolving technologies that will transform the ways we live, work, travel and play. The drive to sustainable technologies is forcing the development of alternative energy supplies, electrical vehicles and, within the industry itself, the use of drones, robotics, and virtual and augmented realities to create and utilise digital twins to explore design possibilities and efficiencies, as well as modern techniques such as modular building and off-site fabrication.

We also have access to much more information than we ever had, and the means to utilise it effectively. To give a small case in point, Jonathan alluded to the U-values of materials used in construction, which can be used to calculate the environmental value of one material against another when an architect is aiming for their design to meet BREEAMS or other sustainability targets.

Big Data Linking all of this together, Jonathan suggested, is a huge dependence on data. We need to know what is going on, not just on one project, but on multiple projects within an enterprise, and beyond the construction site and into the whole lifecycle of projects, from the earliest tendering and contract management stages to the operation and maintenance of portfolios of properties. We also need to leverage that information properly as well, by sharing it, analysing it, quantifying it, or changing it when we need to. I suggested that Elecosoft is, perhaps, developing Powerproject, the company's Project Management solution used worldwide on major projects, to become an ERP - an Enterprise Resource Management tool. Jonathan disagreed. "'Elecosoft is a customer-centric organisation," he said, "and we work closely with our customers within the built environment, using their feedback to refine our product." He explained that the company is entirely focused on the requirements of its core customers who are directly involved in the building lifecycle, from planning and construction to post-construction and maintenance, giving them insights and business intelligence upon which they can make informed decisions. Instead of relying on an extended ERP, Jonathan believes that a more focused approach relies on the integration of Elecosoft applications that directly address specific project management issues. These include Powerproject Vision, a configurable, web-based application that enables project managers to store multiple projects on the cloud, and Bidcon, a cost management application that facilitates fast and accurate take-offs from 2D drawings using Bluebeam, 3D models and other sources. It is supported by a comprehensive cost library for labour, materials, plant and suppliers prices, as well as CO2 estimates. Bringing all of this together, said Jonathan, is IconSystem, which provides a single source of truth for a project. IconSystem leverages BIM and allows project members to collaborate and share their data to store designs and track changes, and adhere to common standards across a range of building formats using a Common Data Environment, and to maintain project documentation every step of the way. Whilst Powerproject handles the resource management of a project, IconSystem is an integrated dynamic database which provides Elecosoft's users with a unique change management control centre. Making Data Work "Information is the key," Jonathan said. "The way you drive efficiency is through visibility of the appropriate data at the appropriate time in order to support better decisions. If you need to change a supplier at short notice or bring in additional plant or manpower to meet a deadline, you need to know the cost ramifications and the impact on the schedule. There may be new technologies arriving on the scene, and new construction methodologies which speed up the building process, but the basics have not changed." He explained further, saying that companies will naturally evolve and become involved in the operation and maintenance of properties for clients, or acquire prefabrication facilities to manufacture off-site. They may also range from multi-project and technology behemoths to single house builders, but they all have to meet the same problems of supply and demand, labour and costs, deadlines and cashflow. "It's not just the construction industry either," he added. "The manufacturing industry is dependent on the efficient handling of procurement, manufacturing processes dependent on JIT and FIFO workflows, delivery and after sales service. Dig a little deeper into the retail and hospitality industries, and you will end up at the same conclusion - it's not what you do, but how you do it, and how you use the information you acquire every day to improve processes, sharpen cashflows, handle change and deal with issues before they become problems. Powerproject can be configured to meet the Project Management needs of any one of these industries." "The future of Project Management, therefore, is not about changing the construction industry, or indeed any other industry, but about making it more efficient. It entails providing project managers with greater visibility into all aspects of a project and widening access on the construction site or production line to enable issues to be recognised and dealt with sooner by fully informed and committed employees." In other words "upstreaming the engagement of people down the value chain." An example of this is Elecosoft's configurable dashboard, which can be used from the building site to the boardroom and can provide KPIs on all aspects of a project, using information generated from Powerproject itself, or resourced from one of Elecosoft's integrated APIs. Improved Workflows The UK construction industry was in something of a crisis in the years 2008-2009. The lack of control on the construction site, delays and general lack of responsibility led to the Government's introduction of the BIM mandate. The lack of control was a field day for the legal industry though (I can remember early seminars on BIM where the attendees were more concerned about who owned the data and the legal implications than the benefits of BIM). "The whole process was improved," said Jonathan, "with proper paper trails, sign-off dates for individual workflows, archived data and overall better control." With more control over the process, the prospect of litigation is reduced or eliminated, as is much of the cost. Powerproject can be used to provide the crucial baselines of any issues. Recording the point at which a client may have changed specifications in a project, for example, enables issues to be resolved more quickly. How far does that control extend? With access to a project's BIM model and Powerproject's schedule and resource management, contractors can create complete 4D construction simulations to compare progress levels, forestall construction problems, or to supplement applications like Primavera P6, which has limited ability to maintain built 4D visualisations. Changing the Rules If the basics remain the same, I asked Jonathan, what will change in the industry, and how will Elecosoft accommodate those changes? "There will be changes within the industry, and as I said before, the next ten years are going to be significant. I also said that Elecosoft is customer-centric - and whilst we listen to them we respond to what they need, rather than what they want." That might appear to be paradoxical, but the integration of systems like Bidcon and IconSystem is geared by an understanding of what they need to fine-tune their control over all aspects of their operation. Technological changes may enhance the efficiency of a process and provide better and quicker data, but unless we make sure we have control over that data, we can't use it to our advantage. Similarly, when the Government changes the rules again, as it probably will over the next 10 years to deal with the accelerating climate change crisis, it is not the construction process that will be affected, but the data that we will need to glean from projects to modify processes and to calculate the ramifications of doing so - and to be able to make decisions based on that. So, does it all come down to Net Carbon Zero? "Sustainability is a global issue. As a global provider of software, we will meet it in all forms somewhere on the planet. We have tools that can calculate the environmental impacts of different building materials, and that can source and estimate the levels of CO2 that will be produced by building processes and subsequent occupation. Shortly we will not be aiming for BREEAMS to enhance our environmental credentials - we will be forced to do it through Government or even International regulations." Jonathan concluded that "The overall message for the future of Project Management is control. Control in order to make better decisions, control of our data, control of our processes, and certainly control over the changes that occur throughout the life of a project and that we will see in the future."