Integration and Adoption: Keys to Value from IT

Christian Burger, President, Burger Consulting Group

IT initiatives must be structured to maximize adoption. Best served by minimizing complexity of systems, and cutting back on bells & whistles.

Up-and-Coming IT Trends

• Project Management Integration (no best-in-class solution exists that does everything, therefore integration is required to leverage best-in-class tools across all functions)
• BIM – this technology will separate those who can from those who can’t and will be a differentiator for negotiated work
• Life-Cycle View of Projects (transition from construction to O&M – BIM is a key component of this)
• Electronic Content Management (ECM) everything is saved, managed, and searchable (including email, voicemail, recorded conference calls, etc.)
• Customer Relationship Management (tools to manage the client relationship, not just the project we are doing for them)
• Service-Oriented Architecture
• Web-Based Tools to get better utility out of all of the above
• ERP Upgrades & Exchanges (issues with legacy systems being replaced)
• Mobile Applications

Construction IT Trends

• Pressure to standardize (usually driven by management – not by users)
• Pressure to automate & provide better tools (usually driven by users, clients, or new hires who are more tech-savvy)
• Staffing better for IT (not a problem at Weston as much as smaller contractors where IT is one guy with one server)
• Degree of inefficiency remains high (most systems ~20% integrated)
• Well-chosen system poorly or partially implemented (so much energy is exhausted getting it launched and users on board that there is no appetite for 2nd tier, higher-value implementation)
• Struggling with competing systems (two groups have different legacy systems duplicating the same function – neither one will give it up)
• Many trends signal movement to a single platform (company need vs. single group need)
• Service-Oriented Architecture
• Changing methods for integration or interface will allow use of separate, specialized best-in-class systems
• Business Intelligence Tools reporting across multiple systems
• Web Services – AGCxml
• ECM tools

ECM

• Started as imaging and workflow
• Recognize that unstructured data is costly, risky, & inefficient
• Structure & governance of enterprise data
• Possibly an email-driven workflow engine

PM/ERP/ECM systems

• Building bridges between best-in-class systems instead of buying a single complete solution
• No single vendor has a best-in-class solution
• Example - Meridian does not want to be best-in class document management solution, wants to work well with other systems that are
• Does not think Oracle will be successful at this either, bought Primavera to leverage systems for other industries (health care, IT, manufacturing) and will not bother to compete too hard for Construction business – industry is too small.

Collaboration

• “Collaboration” circa 2000 over-estimated the market and capabilities
• Contractors worried about owner-driven collaboration – playing only in their “sandbox”
• Technology is moving to allow collaboration across platforms rather than all participants adopting a single platform (many linked sandboxes vs. one sandbox)

Business Intelligence

• Many ERP, PM systems come with BI functions – may not be what your org needs
• One comprehensive, well-integrated BI tool is better than a several “cool-looking” dashboards that are disjointed and poorly integrated

Meridian SOA framework

• Web Services in version 3.0
• .net platform allows for greater flexibility in applications/UI

Long-term Strategy for IT Infrastructure and Tools

• Have a three-year plan for IT strategy – where you want to be
• Get management buy-in on strategy and long-term value
• Continue discussion of value – not just cost

Improve Adoption - Effective Implementation

• Have Clear Business Objectives
• Roll out only when ready (not before)
• Have Executive sponsorship and attention
• Provide adequate support/help desk; go-to experts
• Have Effective training
• Provide integration that reduces effort/duplication (implementation makes folks more efficient/effective than before)
• Provide adequate initial reporting capabilities and resources to customize as new requirements emerge
• Training – continuous, standardized, customized by role and user level, train the “why” as much as the “how”