New construction report reveals the
“Data Ownership Battle” between
project owners and contractors
Florida Construction News special feature
A new study by Dodge Data & An-
alytics in collaboration with con-
struction technology provider
e-Builder, a Trimble Company, re-
veals the unintended consequences
of increased adoption of project
management software by project
owners and the impact it has when
contractors use their own, discon-
nected software workflows.
The study, entitled “Connecting
Owners and Contractors: How Tech-
nology Drives Connected Construc-
tion,” highlights the challenges that
arise when owners and contractors
manage construction projects using
disparate software applications with-
out automated data exchange. For
standard processes such as RFIs,
submittals and progress payments,
this situation can drive increased
cost, higher risks and schedule de-
lays. Conflict over data ownership
and transparency often results in du-
plicate data entry and negative im-
pacts to productivity.
Key findings from the study re-
veal the growing challenge:
• 42% of contractors report using
both the owner’s project manage-
ment application, as well as a
specialized project management
application designed for contrac-
tors. This results in increased risk
to the contractor due to dupli-
cated effort.
• Only 45% of respondents are sat-
isfied with the current state of
data connectedness. 65% of
owners and 51% of contractors
see high or very high value in a
single data platform that all par-
ties can use for collaboration and
sharing. • 73% of contractors report
medium or high impact on the
productivity of workers due to
double-entry of construction data.
“The need for contractors and
owners to use their own project
management applications has al-
ways been there,” said Steve Jones,
senior director of industry insights
from Dodge Data & Analytics.
“The problem is, they (the two ap-
plications) have not worked together
well. The data in this research quan-
tifies the impact of the data silos be-
tween contractor and owner.” The
problem will only increase as more
project owners adopt their own proj-
ect management system.
Trimble’s strategy of connecting
construction data, as part of its Con-
structible Process, seeks to provide
efficiencies in building construction.
“The instant the first construction
management software was in-
vented, the clash over data owner-
ship and transparency on
construction projects was born,”
said Chris Bell, vice-president of
Marketing at e-Builder. “Unlike some
vendors that attempt to serve multi-
ple stakeholders with the same ap-
plication, the latest technology trend
is purpose-built software with con-
nected data. We are proud to be the
first to offer this for construction
project management.”
A complementary version of the
Connecting Owners &
Contractors SmartMarket Brief is avail-
able at www.connectedaec.com.
Florida Construction News — OCTOBER 2019 – 11