Technology in Construction: A Case for Better Customer Experience

In this short article, I will try to explain what we do at BuildNext including importance of using technology in construction, our reasoning on why we are doing it the way we do it, and where we expect it to progress in the future.

Internet for Efficiency and Improved Customer Experience

“The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow” – Bill Gates

Internet has revolutionized almost every sector in the world today. For instance, digital banking has completely taken the world by storm. Similarly, ride hailing tech companies in automobile industry, hyper local food delivery companies etc have taken customer experience in some of the largest industries in the world to never-seen-before levels.

We can’t talk about internet in business without talking about large e-commerce companies like Amazon or Alibaba. But what about visibly offline commerce model seen in industries such as apparel or fast food chains? Even they use connected systems to the benefit of customers.

How would you rate your purchase experience with the industries mentioned above? I am sure there is a certain sense of delight and satisfaction associated with each of them at one point in time or other. IMPS, UPI in banking, Swiggy or Zomato in deliveries, Uber or Ola in ride hailing, Amazon, all of them have at some point or other given us top notch service experience let alone amazing (at times unsustainable) discounts!

It’s the same while we buy a car or a laptop from an offline store. There is no uncertainty, we always know how much we need to pay and for what we are paying for.

What about customer experience in construction sector?

But what about that time you had a fantastic experience while building your dream home or furnishing your office interiors? Did you have a delightful experience procuring 50 bags of cement for concrete of your home? What about that time you finished your project exactly when you wanted it finished within the budget you had set while starting off? If it sounded funny or weird reading any of the above, we have our problem which needs a solution right now. Advent and benefits of technology hasn’t reached construction at scale.

It’s in this context that we at BuildNext started working on a platform for construction materials and services using best practices, standards and processes from other industries. Using these, we are focusing on enhancing efficiencies and customer experience in construction sector.

Internet is helping us maintain a huge live database of products and services, which helps take decisions faster. Using internet, we are creating a set of documents that sync to each other and to these databases. We are creating a system where every collaborator is always on the same page.

What does that mean for you as a customer?

It means capturing all your preferences and decisions now happen in one place. Timely sharing of this information to all service providers involved in your project happens in a way they can’t miss. In turn, their inputs are similarly fed right on to your laptop or mobile so that feedback loop is complete.

Internet is thus reducing our unproductive hours of work to a very large extent. This directly leads to improved customer experience.

Today, development of new technologies in construction is happening at a breakneck pace. Futuristic tech like connected equipment and tools, telematics, mobile apps, autonomous heavy equipment, drones, robots, augmented and virtual reality, and 3D printed buildings are here already. Many job sites across the world use these now.

Let’s have a look at the latest technological interventions that conquered the construction industry through the years and its impact on the present modern arena.

Data to Innovate and Process Improvement

“If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic – being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago.” – Elon Musk

How BuildNext uses data to improve and innovate:

We use simple data analytics and basic machine learning capabilities to keep improving our data with every new piece of information. Data on supply patterns, on technology comparisons, on cost and efficiency comparisons, on quality parameters and on customer experience parameters are all part of this.

We will be able to determine which parts can be optimized further using data. Moreover, we will be able to identify specific opportunities for technology transfer and modularization in the near future analyzing the data.

For example, we know a particular work activity, say brick masonry, has defined inputs to it in terms of labor man hours needed per cum, materials required etc. Lets say we get hundreds of data points from different service providers using our platform, doing this exact same activity per cum. We can easily find patterns and model the ideal optimal spent expected per cum of brick masonry activity.

Now extent this simple data-based approach over hundreds of activities needed to complete a construction process. This can help us easily innovate the way construction process is managed at site irrespective of size.

That said, we don’t trade data. We ensure that we are able to keep data safe and protected, with all necessary access controls in place. We value the privacy of both customers and businesses in terms of data management.

Software Tools for Delightful Customer Experience

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” – Jeff Bezos

Traditionally, customer experience has always taken a backseat in the industry. Software, technology, marketing, has all targeted businesses and professionals, for good reason as well. Builders have recently started thinking of improved customer experiences. As a result, we have started seeing experience sales in the segment. Construction as an experience, is still waiting for a premium customer experience to be created.

This is where our software products come in. Our virtual reality product helps contractors and architects take you through a building as if it is already constructed. VR helps you do virtual trials of various building finishes, fittings and furniture if needed. In addition, VR can also show you the cost impact of a new product replacement real time through our BoQ tool.

Our access controlled PRO Tools experience has photo updates and timeline charts auto-created. Above all, you can access the data with just the right amount of information and detail.

We target making building construction processes and decision making as pleasant as a car purchase experience for you with the help of technology!

Construction is in-situ Manufacturing

“Profitability is coming from productivity, efficiency, management, austerity, and the way to manage the business.” – Carlos Slim

We try to look at construction as an onsite custom manufacturing activity. Therefore we adopt as many best practices and efficiency tracking as possible from a conventional factory-based manufacturing system to onsite building. We track simple parameters like completion and consumption of input raw materials, labor, machinery. This is then used to track variances in actual site data on cost and time with respect to plan. This tracking helps us fix issues much earlier than usual. 

In some ways, various large projects are using these methods and their much-refined forms utilizing advanced software. Specialty of BuildNext tools lies in the ability to use them on much smaller projects. This is possible with practically no extra effort to your benefit. In a way BuildNext is speeding up the advent of technology in construction.

Past, Present, and Future of Internet Technology in Construction

“I have been quoted saying that, in the future, all companies will be Internet companies. I still believe that. More than ever, really.” – Andy Grove

A lot of the data collection and tracking that we do might not have been possible till recently. As a result of high speed mobile data becoming a norm, all of this is now very easy.

In the near future, we will see a drastic improvement in processing power capabilities of devices, especially handheld devices. We are going to see much faster data transfer speeds. As a result, we are going to see landmark changes in customer experiences in all customer facing sectors around us. Retail, financing, automotive, accommodation, restaurants, healthcare, tourism, education, everywhere. And construction is definitely starting to catch up. Benefits of using technology in construction will be clear as a day.

At BuildNext, we strive to be at the forefront of that revolution, for as long as possible!

Technology to transform construction is here!