The McKinsey & Company September 2018 Capital Projects & Infrastructure article entitled “Seizing opportunity in today’s construction technology ecosystem,” authored by Jose Luis Blanco, Andrew Mullin, Kaustubh Pandya, Matthew Parsons, and Maria Joao Ribeirinho, highlights “a new analysis of the construction technology ecosystem finds emerging trends, constellations of solutions, and an ever-increasing universe of technology use cases that are disrupting the way we plan, design, and execute projects.”
Three key trends in today’s construction technology ecosystem
“After decades of under-digitization, the engineering and construction (E&C) sector is making bold moves in a new era.” Focusing in on the technology solutions that construction stakeholders leverage during the construction phase of the project life cycle (versus the entire asset life cycle — concept and feasibility, design and engineering, pre-construction, construction, and operations and maintenance), the McKinsey & Company research from last year identified the following three key trends in today’s construction technology ecosystem:
- Emergence of technology clusters;
- Industry-wide technology investment of more than $10 billion in less than a decade, and;
- The lack of integrated solutions.
The lack of integrated solutions
Further, the McKinsey & Company research from last year also segmented “the lack of integrated solutions” in three use case clusters across today’s construction technology ecosystem from field to team to office:
- On-site execution (field);
- Digital collaboration (team), and;
- Back-office and adjacencies (office).
Data exchange between weather enabled decision support solutions and other construction technology systems
Accordingly, to address the challenges and sometimes pains with “the lack of integrated solutions” in three use case clusters from on-site execution (field) to digital collaboration (team) to back-office and adjacencies (office), WeatherBuild promotes integration with and data exchange between its weather enabled decision support solutions and other systems, Enterprise Application Software (EAS) and Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM), such as Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management products.
WeatherBuild API (Application Programming Interface)
The WeatherBuild API (Application Programming Interface) enables WeatherBuild customers, leading contractors, owners and operators, to enhance the functionality of partner solutions and internal applications. Further, the WeatherBuild API is very simple REST API; all API calls are made via HTTP GET requests from one or many WeatherBuild API endpoints. WeatherBuild’s Application Programming Interface promotes integrated solutions from on-site execution (field) to digital collaboration (team) to back-office and adjacencies (office).
WeatherBuild Web Services Integration
To further address the challenges and sometimes pains with “the lack of integrated solutions,” WeatherBuild supports web services integration, with Oracle Primavera P6 EPPM for example. As a part of P6 Web Services, “activity services” enable WeatherBuild to get project schedule activities and work breakdown structures (WBS) from P6 via automated communications between the database servers. Then, WeatherBuild uses its proprietary machine learning and predictive analytics to identify schedule activities at risk of being impacted by weather events.
(Source: Blanco, Jose Luis, et al. “Seizing Opportunity in Today’s Construction Technology Ecosystem.” McKinsey & Company, 2018, www.mckinsey.com/industries/capital-projects-and-infrastructure/our-insights/seizing-opportunity-in-todays-construction-technology-ecosystem.)
More in the next blog post about weather decision support, weather safety and weather risk management…
About the authors of “Seizing opportunity in today’s construction technology ecosystem”
Jose Luis Blanco is a partner in McKinsey’s Philadelphia office, where Matthew Parsons is a senior partner. Andrew Mullin is a partner in the Toronto office; Kaustubh Pandya is an alumnus of the San Francisco office; and Maria Joao Ribeirinho is a partner in the Lisbon and Madrid offices.
McKinsey Capital Projects & Infrastructure
McKinsey’s Capital Projects & Infrastructure practice is a leading adviser on the planning, financing, construction delivery, and operation of infrastructure, energy, mining, real estate, and other large capital projects and portfolios worldwide. We help clients improve on-time and on-budget delivery of major projects and get the most out of existing capital assets. Working alongside owners, developers, contractors, and financiers, we have experience across all markets, asset classes, and stages of the project life cycle. McKinsey provides our clients with a unique combination of strategic advisers, practitioners with deep sector and market knowledge, and senior technical experts with decades of industry experience in design and construction. Over the past five years, we have delivered impact across more than 3,000 engagements, including work on 150 major projects collectively valued at more than $1 trillion. Our unique ability to partner with our clients and drive fundamental change is rooted in our independent perspective, our alignment with client goals, a deep commitment to innovation and impact, and the depth and breadth of our expertise and experience.
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm, deeply committed to helping institutions in the private, public and social sectors achieve lasting success. For 90 years, our primary objective has been to serve as our clients’ most trusted external advisor. With consultants in over 110 locations in over 60 countries, across industries and functions, we bring unparalleled expertise to clients anywhere in the world. We work closely with teams at all levels of an organization to shape winning strategies, mobilize for change, build capabilities and drive successful execution.
Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, WeatherBuild® offers a suite of decision support solutions that empower contractors, owners and operators to improve situational awareness and make better-informed decisions about weather events, schedule impacts, safety risks and probable outcomes.
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