Mitigating risk with technology

Construction businesses have always had to navigate a high level of risk, but recent challenges have further compounded the issue. The current landscape highlights just how critical risk management is for AEC firms. Technology, particularly an integrated cloud platform, will continue to play a vital role in helping businesses better manage risk by connecting connect all project stakeholders, processes, and data in one integrated platform.

Technology delivers an array of benefits, including greater mobility, automation, monitoring, collaboration, and safety, all of which can help contribute to lower business risk.

Benefits

Mobility

Having anytime anywhere access to business-critical data helps ensure teams are always relying on the most current data when making decisions. Mobile and cloud technologies keep teams in sync, help increase efficiency, and allow stakeholders to keep tabs on projects in real-time.

Automation

Teams can save time and avoid costly errors by automating manual processes, which can be time-consuming and error-prone. Plus, when using connected solutions any time variables such as material costs or labor hours are affected and updated in one system, they are updated everywhere, and allow you to automatically project out the impact the changes will have on your budget.

Monitoring

Dashboards and automated alerts are two helpful risk management tools. Dashboards can provide role-based views of the most important information, so you always know where you stand on any given project and automated alerts can immediately notify the right people when certain conditions are met or a specific situation occurs, so they can act quickly to mitigate business impact.

Collaboration – There are a lot of people involved in a construction product, including owners, builders, subcontractors, and suppliers. Managing all of these stakeholders and ensuring they have what they need to complete their work on time and within budget is essential to delivering a successful project. Technology can help foster increased collaboration so that everyone has the information they need when they need it, and can track critical areas such as upcoming deadlines, contracts, and compliance.

Safety

Advancements in technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) allow for effective (and safe) jobsite training, while the smart sensors that come with wearables and the Internet of things (IoT) can provide further safety measures.

With so many different technologies available to address a wide range of business issues, it can be difficult to know where to begin. A good rule of thumb is to understand your greatest challenges and start there. Have an honest dialogue with your teams and make a list of the most pressing business issues that are opening you up to excessive risk. How can technology help automate or streamline some of those processes?