News & Media Coverage

The construction industry is in the midst of a significant technology transformation as contractors adopt the latest cloud technologies to help enhance operations, automate workflows, streamline data into single streams and extend collaboration beyond the walls of the office. Yet, for an industry that has historically struggled with change, many contractors who have yet to modernize may not know where to start—or how to integrate and maximize their technology investments to get the most out of new solutions put in place.

Information is power, but are contractors collecting what they need to make better decisions? A new report on how contractors collect and use jobsite data is based on responses from 187 companies.

The ability to gather and analyse project data has improved or improved significantly for nearly two-thirds of the respondents to a survey of construction managers, specialty trade contractors, and design/build firms. The study was conducted by Dodge Data & Analytics and Viewpoint via an online survey.

A new report released today by Dodge Data & Analytics, in collaboration with construction management software provider Viewpoint, a Trimble company, reveals a sea change in the way project data is gathered and analysed across the construction industry – change that is poised to improve key project outcomes according to construction managers, specialty trade contractors and design/build firms surveyed.

When it comes to effectively managing today’s complex construction projects, collaboration is the key to success. With large, multi-faceted projects involving the potential for dozens, even hundreds of subcontractors, keeping track of communications, processing data, tracking job progress and changes and managing compliance issues can be a hefty task for even the most skilled project managers and construction lead teams.

Construction is a high stakes game, with massive projects and equally massive budgets balancing on a knife-edge between success and failure. ‘‘A 2016 report by McKinsey, Managing Construction’s Digital Future, showed that around the world, on average, large projects go 20 per cent over schedule and up to 80 per cent over budget,’’ says Ian Desbrow, managing director of Australia and New Zealand sales for US-based construction software firm Viewpoint, ‘‘Australia is no exception. The industry is highly volatile, many contractors operate with razor-thin margins and just a handful of project issues can dramatically affect profitability.’’

Neverfail recently announced that it has opened a new data center in Sydney, Australia. The company said the new data center, which is now online and already serving the company's various ISV and enterprise clients, supports production and disaster recovery for customers and enables customer growth in the APAC region.

American disaster recovery and cloud company Neverfail announced the opening of its new data center this week. The Sydney data center has been online since February, already serving 38 customers.

Storms such as Cyclone Debbie and construction mishaps such as cut wires can wreak havoc on business connectivity. Given the importance of maintaining and restoring connectivity following disruptive events, many businesses have created data recovery plans. One of the key factors in such plans is choosing on-premise versus cloud-based storage.

Australia’s mining boom propelled the economy forward while most other countries were faltering in the global financial crisis. Huge demand from China and India for resources such as iron ore and coal started climbing around 2003, but commodities prices began a downward trend in 2013.