Digital initiatives are no longer a novel concept. The construction industry has made impressive investments in digital programs—particularly among owner-operators and global engineering, procurement and construction companies (EPCs). To enable greater business transparency and agility throughout the value chain, companies today are implementing new architectures and approaches to harness technology innovations. These innovations are intended to improve key project indicators related to cost management, delivery cycle time and resource productivity, but our study found this is only happening a third of the time. 

Data-driven insights play an integral role in creating various digital solutions (for example a ‘digital twin’). Owner-operators are already using big data analytics to predict market trends, optimize commercial viability ahead of design as well as for predict project performance. In addition, EPCs are using data to build logistics control towers and digital twins that digitize asset and site layout designs.

Few executives would dispute the critical importance of having reliable and transparent data to enable a highly trusted, collaborative decision making process for project planning and execution—especially during the Covid-19 crisis.