By Claire Rutkowski, Chief Innovation
"I want to go digital, but I don't know where to start..."
Digital transformation is nothing new for businesses. While architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) has traditionally lagged behind other industries, we’re catching up. Resource shortages, accelerating climate change, population growth, aging infrastructure, and rapid urbanization are just a handful of global macro trends driving our industry to change more quickly. The pandemic proved we can adapt and thrive when a big change is thrust upon us.
Going digital means so much more than simply converting paper files to electronic PDFs. Technically, this is digitization, because the data is still locked in file formats which has limited value. True digital transformation involves reimagining how you do business and taking a customer-driven approach to applying digital processes and creating digital outputs. For the AEC industry, this can mean anything from using photogrammetry and drones for surveying, inspecting, and reality capture, to artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced analytics, recommendation engines, and generative and component-based design.
How do you know where your business stands from a digital perspective? Maturity models are available from McKinsey, Gartner, and other analyst firms. But those models can get complicated very quickly. For simplicity, here’s a three-tiered model to help you easily evaluate your organization.
How do you know where you need to focus?
It really depends on your organization’s starting point, appetite for and ability to absorb change, and resource availability. As with any maturity model, you can’t go from lowest to highest without moving through the mid-range; there is no “easy button” on this journey. However, going digital is a process that can be planned and implemented with careful consideration. Here are a few ideas to get you started, with considerations for each tier:
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Continually move from 2D to 3D design.
This is a simple place to start if you are currently at a lower level of digital maturity.
Use tools to design with real-time engineering work in progress.
Manage your supply chain collaboration electronically with tools that facilitate easy and safe sharing of information rather than sending things back and forth over email.
Begin to curate component libraries, which will democratize institutional knowledge and help enforce best practices across your portfolio.
The goal should be to improve efficiency across the work you do by reducing document versions, leveraging component-based design, applying automation, and creating consistency for processes.
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Generate more reusable data to improve competitiveness.
Once the foundational elements discussed above are in place, this new focus will help you move into the mid-range level of digital maturity. You should already be realizing gains in efficiency garnered by moving from 2D to 3D. To uncover reusable data, consider extracting insights from across your portfolio. For instance, if you are consistently using components in your design, look at how effective each of those components performs in physical assets. You may also be able to create recommendations and actions based on remote inspections and remote monitoring.
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Offer new business models with IoT-ready digital deliverables.
With efficiency and effectiveness well in hand, the most mature organizations have the funding they need to truly make transformational changes.
Some firms act as digital integrators, using their experience to bring together multiple vendors and suppliers into single platforms that generate full life cycle digital twins for their clients.
Other firms create new immersive metaverse experiences and sustainability reporting.
In some cases, mature firms are also hosting and maintaining digital twins for their clients and providing dynamic common operating pictures with dashboards and sensor monitoring capabilities that can determine when action needs to be taken or suggest ways to increase energy efficiency and improve sustainability.
Going digital is a necessary journey that we’re experiencing collectively and individually. For AEC firms and the industry, it won’t be easy. The challenges we all face are so pervasive. However, Bentley is here to help you start where you are right now. Regardless of how digitally mature your organization is in 2023, I encourage you to keep your destination in your sights and keep pushing forward.
