The world before COVID-19 seemed like it would never slow down, but the impact of the virus really made time seem like a luxury because it was virtually non-existent; at least for those of us in the construction industry. Overnight, companies in this sector had to figure out how to overcome these new challenges that the virus presented, and they had to do so quickly.
Those who work in the field had to figure out how to conduct business while fighting this war against the invisible enemy. Companies who usually map their digital strategy in one-to-three year phases had to do so in the matter of weeks or even days. This major business disruption pushed companies on the fast track of technology adoption.
The latest issue of Dodge Data & Analytic’s The Civil Quarterly report, a result of a partnership with Founding partner Infotech, Platinum partner Leica Geosystems and Gold partners Command Alkon and Digital Construction Works, explored the many technology strategies that have received new attention in the industry to reduce negative impacts and support the needs for social distancing and increased remote office work in business procedures. Top cited technologies that survey participants adopted include Ruggedized Tablets, Machine Control, Drones and Electronic Ticketing (eTicketing).
Twenty three percent of contractors who participated in the survey reported adopting technology to support social distancing during this time, and 39% of contractors said that they had adopted new technologies to minimize business disruptions in general in the last three years. Engineers were asked the same question, and 50% reported that they had adopted technology to minimize business disruptions in the last three years (drones being the technologies widely used across engineers).
Contractors and engineers were also asked to identify the top three technologies that would be most efficacious in keeping business going should something at the scale of COVID-19 strike in the future. The highest level of agreement between engineers and contractors is that eTicketing will be valuable to reduce future negative impacts.
Chasing paper down is an age-old industry challenge, and the coronavirus is speeding up digitizing the data on paper tickets. eTicketing helps make jobsites safer as paper tickets no longer have to be passed from person to person. eTickets are a real-time, digital representation of materials’ load information throughout the procure-to-pay or order-to-cash lifecycle of the business process or project workflow. The eTicket stays in sync with the load’s journey, capturing order information, batch results, delivery status updates, electronic proof of delivery, inspection/test results, and job cost/cost codes through invoice and payment processes.
eTicketing provides real-time information to all participants in the entire construction supply chain. Because of eTicketing, businesses and their trading partners have greater visibility to what is going on within the project lifecycle.
To learn more about exchanging electronic ticket data through Command Alkon's CONNEX Platform, click here.
