It was the pandemic that finally made Prevost Construction's use of data intelligence look really smart.

The Carlsbad, California-based general contractor had already been harvesting budget and planning data from its binders and hard drives manually since 2015. When the pandemic struck, that groundwork let the company quickly adopt a data-first mindset to navigate the initial lockdowns and even grow the business as investment poured into biotech and life science projects.    

“When the apocalypse of COVID hit, our aptitude and interest in data collection pointed us to solutions that could manage data to keep operations running,” said Zach Hoffman, Prevost's director of field operations.

In particular, Prevost adopted Safe Site Check In, a smartphone app-driven solution for tracking employee check-in, check-out and movement across different areas within a jobsite. When infections occurred, the company was able to immediately provide data sets for both accountability and contact tracing that allowed projects to stay active when others were shuttered. 

“We do a lot of lab construction for large international companies where we’re reporting into a global safety committee,” Hoffman said. “The pandemic created very demanding protocols and we were able to pull real-time reports of where and when our trades were on site. Without that data response to accountability, we would have closed our doors on so many projects, but instead we were able to step up, wow our clients and still reach $97 million in revenue across 2020.”

Prevost isn't alone among contractors leveraging data intelligence in their businesses. Pros say the data is out there in construction, from machine telematics to building materials in motion across the supply chain, staff location tracking, BIM, blueprints, budgets and even more mundane areas like payroll. 

For construction companies willing to gain fluency in the language of data intelligence, leveraging the vast amount of info that's already in their systems promises unheralded gains in efficiency, productivity, product quality and jobsite safety.

“We see contractors of all sizes using data to be safer and more profitable and to win more work,” said Matt Abeles, vice president of construction technology and innovation at Associated Builders and Contractors. “Data intelligence allows contractors to make decisions by using real insights that maximize potential for growth and improvement.”

Improved feedback loops

PCL Construction, for example, has created a smart construction platform that aggregates data sets as disparate as material delivery times and locations, real time machine and workforce telemetry, throughput and even jobsite humidity to gain productivity and quality advantages. 

“We are leveraging those data sets to build models for our jobsites that can be put into the digital twin and leveraged within a BIM environment,” said Andrew Ahrendt, director of integrated construction services at PCL's U.S. headquarters in Denver.

He said that "feedback loop" today is much faster and continues to improve.

“We think construction, engineering and manufacturing are closely aligned there,” Ahrendt said. “Data and analytics are tools just like a forklift or hammer. Whether it’s simple one-to-one comparisons or very complex models like a digital twin or artificial intelligence or machine learning, the idea is simply to bring data into a format where you can convey plans, strategies and outcomes in order to develop the certainty that you can reach your goals.”

Flattening the learning curve

Still, data intelligence isn’t without its challenges. 

Often the sheer size of data sets makes processing inherently dependent on artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytic software and systems. Consider that the latest DCC 2.0 update to the Dodge Construction Network includes more than 3 trillion data elements tracking construction projects, companies, the people at those companies and the products used on construction projects.

“There are more digital tools and construction-related data available in construction than ever before,” said Steve Masters, senior vice president of product management at Dodge. “The challenge now is to leverage the right tools and maximize data to gain the right insights at the right time, to simplify construction's increasing complexity and ensure reliable growth and profitability for all involved.”

Patrick MacLeamy, one of the progenitors of the data science that ultimately led to BIM in the mid 1990s, agrees there are still some upfront hurdles for using data in construction today. 

“There is a learning curve for sure," said MacLeamy, chairman of digital workflow firm BuildingSmart International and the former CEO of global architecture and engineering firm HOK. But he sees an AEC industry today that’s vastly different from the one he operated in during the 1970s and 1980s. He credits open BIM standards and other efforts to standardize construction data globally with creating a common language that enables faster, broader adoption of data intelligence disciplines. 

"But we’ve already seen incredible advances in vertical construction where the GCs were way ahead in the adoption of BIM, because the complete datasets save time and money, and they are subsequently passing the demand for data intelligence on the jobsite to MEP and other subcontractors,” MacLeamy said. 

Bridging the data gap

In fact, the construction industry might now be positioned to help other built-environment sectors better succeed with data intelligence. 

MacLeamy said some of the fastest-growing adoption of open BIM standards today can be seen in the road, bridge, tunnel and energy infrastructure sectors. Likewise, PCL is exploring opportunities to evolve BIM-powered smart construction platforms into data intelligent facilities management systems.  

“Bridging the gap of data transformation from the engineering environment to the construction environment to the operations and maintenance environment is the next jump,” Ahrendt said. “If we can continue to leverage open APIs and take a master data approach that reduces proprietary and single source data platforms and programs it will only continue to help the industry evolve.” 

Dodge’s Masters agrees that the biggest barrier to widespread adoption of data intelligence has been siloed data sets across multiple platforms that required licenses to access even the most basic of information. But that's quickly changing.

“Construction cannot continue without innovation,” Masters said. “The world demands that we change our ways, grow more efficient and evolve. This applies not only to the physical aspects of building, but the inner workings of the overall process.”

As Hensel Phelps looks for better ways to improve on all things safety, the multinational contractor is piloting technology solutions like Edify, an app designed to create safety-minded culture within construction companies.

Every morning, Hensel Phelps workers log in and answer a seemingly simple question: Why do you want to be safe today? 

Their answers are generally thoughtful, sometimes poignant. They post pictures of their families or mention an anniversary dinner with their spouse that night. 

“They’re not just filling it out to fill it out,” said Thai Nguyen, chief innovation officer for the Greeley, Colorado, firm. “It gets them to think: What am I doing today? What is important to me? Getting that engagement and commitment moving forward goes a long way.”

While Hensel Phelps’ investment in safety technology is all about “getting that individual home safe that day,” Nguyen said, Edify does a lot more than that. The platform’s use of AI to analyze reams of data collected from the field also tracks and improves productivity. 

“It’s symbiotic,” Nguyen said.

Increasing Investment

Construction is a notoriously dangerous industry, accounting for 6% of the overall workforce in the U.S., but about 20% of worker deaths, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2020, 1,008 construction workers suffered fatal work injuries — more than any other worker segment.

While that percentage is still too high, the industry’s increased use of advanced technologies, including wearables, sensors, AI tools and extended-reality platforms, is driving improvement, experts say. 

“Safety tech provides better data to make decisions and drives efficiency to achieve safer projects,” said Jerry N. Shupe, Hensel Phelps’ corporate director of safety and health. 

Digital and mobile tools and software are starting to see widespread adoption, said Casey Banks, managing risk control consultant for construction at insurance company Travelers, because they not only help drive efficiency and safety on the jobsite but also easily integrate into a company’s existing risk-management programs.

Construction companies’ spending on safety technology is increasing, too, said Associated Builders and Contractors Vice President of Construction Technology and Innovation Matt Abeles, who cited a recent study showing 47% of contractors spend between $1,000 and $10,000 on it each year.

“It used to be, we’ll get it if we really need it,” Abeles said. “Now we’re seeing people put aside technology dollars specifically for safety.”

Jake Nickerson, a dispatcher for Harwich, Massachusetts-based contractor Robert B. Our Co., said investing in TennaCAM, a dash-cam device that allows the company to monitor equipment movement and driver safety, is saving him both time and headaches. Tenna is a fleet-tracking platform for everything from heavy iron to vehicles and mid-size equipment.

“The vast majority of our guys do a fantastic job of driving safely, driving within the speed limit and under our standards,” Nickerson said. “Some don’t, and we’ve been able to curb that very quickly due to the data that Tenna gives us.”

Data management

Wearables — devices that track where workers are within jobsites and monitor everything from personal health conditions to potential job site hazards — are seeing particularly widespread adoption. By 2023, the United States Chamber of Commerce predicts, almost a quarter of contractors will be using the technology.

While wearables go a long way toward keeping workers safe, the massive amount of data they’re able to collect — and analyze using machine learning and AI — is making the biggest difference in contractors’ ROI on safety tech investments.

“We’re getting better at collecting data with 360-degree cameras, LIDAR, drones, wearables and machine sensors," Nguyen said. "But the real value is how it surfaces, in a way that’s very transparent, giving everyone access and actual items that will improve on these trends.”

Florence, Italy-based safety technology company Advanced Microwave Engineering, which introduced its TAG Tracking worker-monitoring system in 2017, recently launched cloud software that obtains, processes and summarizes safety and efficiency data and uses AI to assess risk levels and determine best strategies to create safer, more efficient work zones. 

In addition to providing real-time location information that allows contractors to monitor safety and efficiency across construction sites, AME analyzes the relationship between the two.

Though AME has been in business since 1999, the company has just begun to tap what’s possible, said AME technical system engineer Gabriele Fioravanti. “This is a field that runs so fast, so fast,” he said. “There is a lot of possibility.”

The tech industry is in turmoil.

Large companies like Twitter, Amazon and Meta have slashed jobs at a relentless pace, dumping thousands of workers with a vast array of tech skills into the employment market. Now, the Harvard Business Review writes, these mass layoffs present a significant opportunity for traditional companies to modernize — and no industry presents a sorer need than construction.

Some contractors are starting to wonder what these newly unemployed techies can do for them. 

For example, Montreal-based contractor WSP discussed the flight of tech workers on its most recent earnings call. Alexandre L’Heureux, president and CEO, noted that it was in a position to expand what it could offer to its clients.

“We are taking advantage of what’s going on in the labor market," L'Heureux said. "More importantly, we’re taking advantage of our brand to attract the smartest and brightest individuals in our industry, but also outside of our industry.”

However, in order to do so, contractors will have to pay up. Experts told CIO Dive that good tech talent won’t come cheap.

“It’s easy to read the headlines and think you’re going to be able to get talent, and at cheaper rates than it was before,” said Thomas Vick, Dallas/Fort Worth regional director for human resources consulting and recruiting firm Robert Half. “That is not the case. If you’re not making competitive offers, you’re not going to take talent away from where they are now.”

And just because tech companies are conducting layoffs does not necessarily mean they’re laying off tech workers, CIO Dive reported. The cuts at Amazon, for example, are reportedly across various divisions, including human resources.

Filling a need

Contech giants such as Trimble are always looking for new workers with the right skills.

“We don't currently see a tactical advantage in seeking out newly displaced talent from recent layoffs," said Eric Harris, Trimble’s director of strategic communications, in an emailed statement. But, he added, "Trimble is always looking for the right talent to fulfill our long and short-term business needs.” Harris invited any job-seekers to apply for open positions at the company.

One area tech workers could find themselves in the construction industry is in the startup space, filling needs where contractors are looking for innovation, said Max Brickman, the managing director of Columbus, Ohio-based venture capital firm Heartland Ventures.

Brickman believes that laid-off tech workers have the skills to fill these niches, and that historically, Big Tech layoffs have led to spikes in business creation.

“So for us, that’s an exciting time, and we want to be hearing from those folks,” Brickman said.

James Barrett, chief innovation officer for Turner Construction, had grown tired of startups telling him that technology-based solutions to the firm’s problems were not available. 

“I got frustrated over the years, dealing with the random, unpredictable process of hoping the right startup would show up at the right time with the right path to the right problem,” he said.

Michael Yang, managing partner for technology investment firm OMERS Ventures, had a solution. 

“You know what?” he said to Barrett. “Here at OMERS Ventures, we have had entrepreneurs in residence who have co-developed and incubated businesses from whole cloth with corporations, to seize upon their pain points and the white space they see in the market.”

Barrett was intrigued, and Turner’s entrepreneur-in-residence program, in partnership with OMERS Ventures, was born. Instead of waiting for startups that may or may not present compelling technology solutions, Turner and OMERS are seeking out promising entrepreneurs and giving them the time and resources to build and capitalize on solving real problems because, as Barrett pointed out, “the foundation of any good startup is the founder.” 

Both partners dug into their deep Rolodexes to let people know they were interested in meeting with anyone who had aspirations to start a tech company serving the construction industry. After a series of extensive interviews, they brought on Adam Fischer and Luke Tucker, gave them monthly stipends, access to Turner’s employees, subcontractors and suppliers, and set them loose to find problems technology could solve. OMERS will have the right of first refusal to invest in the startups that result.

Fischer and Tucker are “kind of our trial balloons and guinea pigs,” Yang said. “There’s not a definitive timeline, but they do have a series of milestones and gates to track their progress and make sure they have motivation and a sense of urgency — which they naturally do, because being founders, they have that personality trait.”

Finding the pain points

Austin, Texas-based Tucker recently left his role as director of product management for Workrise, where he oversaw the launch of a mobile app and a client-facing web app for small and midsize subcontractors, which he said are “really underserved from a technology perspective.” He was interested in delivering a holistic communication protocol that subcontractors could run their businesses on, but those contractors are “not necessarily on the Internet looking for how to solve their problems,” he said.

“The critical strategic question was, ‘What’s the wedge? How do you get in the door?’” Tucker said. “That was the question I really wanted to answer in this program, and what was so exciting to me was the fact that Turner has this extensive network of subcontractors who are much more willing to take my phone call. And that’s played out.”

Through the program, Tucker has had instant access to conversations that would have taken weeks or months to materialize — if they materialized at all. He’s been able to talk with Turner employees to understand how general contractors think about subs. “It was the fastest path to get to that full 360-degree view,” he said.

Based on all these conversations, Tucker is developing a cash flow structure similar to DailyPay, giving subcontractors access to earnings in real time rather than waiting the traditional 30 to 90 days. If all goes as planned, he’ll launch the company in about two months.

When San Francisco-based Fischer heard about the entrepreneur-in-residence program, he had just left Monetics, a debt-management platform for commercial real estate that he founded in 2019, after it was acquired by Derivative Path.

“Jim and Michael’s whole bottoms-up approach of really identifying the pain points to solve was what caught my eye,” Fischer said.

Given his background in fintech, Fischer is identifying problems around construction costs, insurance, data management and profitability “because there are a lot of pain points on the financial side of things,” he said.

“I’m still going through the process and asking a lot of questions,” he said. “Is the pain point big enough? Can we actually solve it with technology? We’re doing a bunch of experiments, and we’re going to get to one that will be like, that’s it. The potential customers and people in the industry that we spoke with will be like, ‘Hey, when can I get signed up?’ That’s how we’ll know we found the right pain point.”

Turner — the country’s largest contractor by revenue — and OMERS continue to recruit entrepreneurs, and Barrett said they’re reaching out to historically Black colleges this fall because “there’s still lack of representation” in the construction industry.

Barrett also hopes to tap into venture capital funds from the ESG and climate tech sectors. 

“It’s a great model from an investor standpoint because we’re increasing the probability of that investment delivering a significant return,” Barrett said. “That’s why OMERS Ventures has really focused a lot of time and attention to this and other VCs have expressed interest as well.”

Awareness training plays an important role in an organization’s overall cybersecurity posture. But while security tools and platforms are regularly updated or replaced to meet the challenges of a constantly changing threat landscape, security awareness training has remained stagnant. 

Training is the first, and often the only, interaction with the security team, said Marisa Fagan, head of trust culture and training at Atlassian. It’s an opportunity for the security team to create a positive experience that delights as well as educates employees, which could have big payoffs later with faster incident resolution and fewer mistakes with security impacts.

That’s in a perfect world. In the actual workplace, security awareness training isn’t meeting those objectives. 

At the Insider Risk Summit in late September, Fagan explained that traditional awareness training does not focus on outcomes, it’s not interesting or engaging, and worst of all, it doesn’t convince anyone to actually care about security. 

It isn’t surprising that traditional cybersecurity training approaches aren’t working. 

“When you look at the data over the past five to 10 years, the approaches haven’t moved the needle in materially reducing organization risks,” said Mary Dziorny, cyber strategy manager at Accenture.

What’s missing from traditional security awareness training

Security awareness training has stagnated, in part, because it is a financially undervalued — and underfunded — piece of the cybersecurity platform. 

Security awareness training professionals end up spending most of their work time on other projects, according to a study from the SANS Institute. Or they have the wrong people in charge of awareness training, relying on those with high technical skills to lead the effort who might not have the soft skills needed to engage co-workers.

Also, there aren’t enough people on the awareness training team. Most companies have one or fewer people in charge of training programs. The organizations that have more mature training programs and a more mature security posture are those that have four or more people responsible for awareness training. 

Not having enough — or the right people — to do the job could be why security awareness training itself misses the mark. 

“Fundamentally, the industry is struggling to connect the realities of adult learning best practices with how organizations need to run their businesses, which is efficient and effective,” said Dziorny.

Security training today tends to emphasize specific focus areas, like how to ensure the organization is meeting compliance regulations or to improve employee production, but it skips things like employee engagement or improving employee job satisfaction. 

“Through more hands-on learning and upskilling, rather than outmoded table-topping exercises, security teams can see how their organization performs on relevant and timely exercises and simulations — even within hours of a new threat going live — so they can prove their ability and stay current,” said Max Vetter, VP of content at Immersive Labs.

Revamping awareness training through behavior

As cyberattacks become more sophisticated, employees need to take a more active role as the first line of defense. That means more effective cybersecurity awareness training, while working through the parameters of current budgets and staffing. 

It should focus on making the training more engaging and looking at how to change human behavior.

One change to awareness training is to either get rid of or deemphasize the term awareness. 

There’s a simplistic take that just by saying “awareness training,” users will automatically become aware of all the security issues and problems solved. 

It doesn’t work that way, said Ira Winkler, field CISO and VP with CYE. 

Rather than focus on awareness, the emphasis should be on how to change behavior. With behavioral science, you want to put things in place like reward systems, modifications to the user experience, or more established guidelines. 

“The goal is to have measurable improvement in security-related behaviors, and that’s very different from the concept of awareness,” said Winkler. 

One way to achieve this is to actually catch users performing good security behaviors and reward them, rather than looking for mistakes and punishing them. This could include highlighting when employees take security training classes, report a phishing email, or regularly use multifactor authentication. 

You might reward these behaviors in different ways — the point is to have a constant system to do so.

Storytelling as training

Another behavioral training method is to use storytelling. 

“Not only is storytelling a proven educational method rooted in behavioral science, it has the added feature of being entertaining as well,” said Fagan. 

Educating and entertaining should work in tandem to cement security-related concepts in employees’ minds. Security should become a habit, but to get to that point, training should follow the pop culture format. 

“The most successful security training content creators are now providing rich, engaging HD videos that tell stories with characters over several episodes with interactive elements,” said Fagan.

Like popular TV shows or NFL games, security training videos should aim to generate "water cooler" discussions around the office to reinforce the messaging. 

“Using this method, we've seen a second wave of people view the training in greater numbers than in previous years simply because they wanted to understand what the first people to take the training were talking about,” said Fagan. 

Cybersecurity is a distributed business problem, and it is time to move beyond the annual “how to spot a phishing email” style of training, and do more to support users to incorporate cybersecurity into their everyday work behaviors. 

“We need to use realistic exercises that span from executives down to the most technical teams to unlock new levels of real-world performance measurement,” said Vetter.

Dive Brief:

• Cemex Ventures has named the eight winners of its 6th Construction Startup Competition incubator.
• The companies represent key industry sectors that Cemex Ventures identified for the 2022 competition. The corporate venture capital unit of Cemex partnered with Black & Veatch, Dysruptek by Haskell and Ferrovial for the event.
• The winners will participate in a “Pitch Day” at Procore’s Groundbreak 2022 conference on Nov. 9, where the companies will present their solutions to top executives, industry leaders and other startups.

Dive Insight:

Cemex uses the competition to highlight startups looking to disrupt the typical business ecosystem, said Gonzalo Galindo, the head of Cemex Ventures, in an email.

“The Construction Startup Competition is a vehicle for tangible impact and results for many different stakeholders in the construction sector,” Galindo said.

The winners of the competition are:

• 2050 Materials (United Kingdom): Platform to find, compare and specify sustainable building products to save time and money at any project stage.
• Automatic Construction (United States): Cast-in-place concrete buildings at one-fifth the cost using a pre-fab inflatable concrete formwork.
• Carbon Limit (United States): Carbon-negative cement technology that reduces the carbon footprint of concrete and turns it into a CO2 sponge.
• Cathago (Germany): Purchase2Pay platform connecting the procurement department, construction site and external suppliers, from requisition over invoice verification to payment.
• Constru (Israel): AI-powered construction solution that turns captured imagery into insights for better data-driven decision making.
• Exodigo (United States): Sensors and AI technology that identifies utilities and other underground entities accurately without the need to dig.
• Loris (United States): Portable, battery-powered light towers to instantly deliver safety, security, WiFi and transparency to job sites.
• Soil Connect (United States): Dirt and aggregates marketplace that connects those who have soil and aggregates with those who need it.

The competition has featured participants from over 80 countries, according to the release. The winners also benefit from networking and the entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur development that comes with pitching their products to business owners and other startups.

Last week, Suffolk announced the winners of its BOOST accelerator program. In a similar vein of exposure, the winners of the BOOST program will test their products on Suffolk jobsites and prepare their products for use in a broader construction market.

ConTech Conversations presents a discussion with a leader in the construction technology field each month. Click here for past discussions.

Phillippe Falkner wants you to be ahead of the curve. 

As safety director and business services specialist with Dallas-based Ed Bell Construction, Falkner believes that contractors need to get more in touch with how tech weaves into their business, from big data to safety and everything in between. 

After getting his start as a surveyor, he moved to what he calls the “forefront” of tech like CAD, draft modeling and more in the mid-1990s. From then on, he says he's always been the “tech guy.”

Here, Construction Dive talks with Falkner about how contractors can be safer and more efficient and stay ahead of their competitors.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

CONSTRUCTION DIVE: Safety is a big concern for a lot of contractors and workers. How can tech aid safety efforts and initiatives, or just make people safer?

PHILLIPPE FALKNER: While safety has always been the primary concern, it’s taken on a whole new angle the last two-plus years. The number of new people to construction is overwhelming, many of them with no experience doing any type of “safety exposure” work, for lack of a better term.

Challenges that the industry always faced are exacerbated. Things the industry had overcome, and weren’t current issues, have resurfaced.

Tech and software are going to be the keys to mitigating this, because there’s just too many new folks for current safety professionals to handle, along with all of the old ongoing concerns. 

Efficiently tracking near misses, leading indicators and having efficient, useful inspections you can actually follow up on are key. You’ve got to find a better way to mitigate the hazards for your employees or engineer the hazard out entirely.

But so many hazards cannot be avoided; we need new tech to protect them instead of just accepting “it’s the way it is.”

What areas of construction tech are you the most excited about?

I’m still excited to see where the drone market continues to head. I read an article recently that stated drone advancements in our industry had plateaued; I don’t believe that at all. There are still so many new ways to use drones for safety, project quantification of work, inspection and planning. 

People may be talking about these in limited circles and doing R&D here and there, but that tool is not yet in the hands of every contractor. That should be a day-to-day tool, no different from a survey crew or a measuring wheel. 

I think while drones themselves have become affordable, much of the processing software and other capabilities that are being developed are still cost prohibitive. Economy of scale should catch up soon, and then I see these being as mainstream as having a digital plans solution or 3D modeling/BIM.

Looking further out, the technology and science behind wearables, and what enormous amount of data is untapped there fascinates me. Do we really know about our most important resource: our employees? 

COVID changed so much about why people work, where, what they do and for what reasons. 

Observing motions and production, and figuring out how they’re affected by geography, scope of work, time of day, time of year, etc. leads us to the great pile of data in the bucket of “we don’t know what we don’t know.” 

Only then can we start figuring out if there’s some other metric we need to be avoiding or taking advantage of. 

What is one thing that contractors who are hesitant about using tech should know?

I feel like so many contractors still see technology, software, etc. as an “extra” instead of a baseline tool. These items are just as key to performing and controlling costs as any piece of equipment or resource in a budget. Too often because it’s lumped into an overhead allocation, it’s seen as expendable. 

The amount of technological change over the last 20 years is substantial. But more has changed in the last 10 years, five years and especially two years than the preceding same time periods. And anything that hadn’t yet been affected, COVID and 2020 changed all that. 

All companies have choices to make about whether to be ahead or behind. Your competition is using it to their advantage. If tech was a fad, it would have burned out by now. Owners, insurance companies and the government are all expecting contractors to use this tech to improve projects; many are mandating it. 

The time to be hesitant has passed. Whether it’s fear of implementation, fear of cost, fear of change — the industry and your competition are moving past their fears, and past you. They’ve survived and thrived. Soon, they won’t be viewed as ahead of the curve, you will only be viewed as behind it.