IBM, Red Hat and Cobuilder have joined forces to develop OpenBuilt, a platform designed to help securely connect fragmented construction industry supply chains
Built on Red Hat OpenShift and running on IBM Cloud, OpenBuilt will offer new digital solutions to help innovate and drive more efficient, sustainable and safer construction projects.
A cross-industry ecosystem of five partners will play a vital role in the development process together with IBM, Red Hat and Cobuilder, including Cemex, EDIN Network, Backe, Sol Services and Element.
OpenBuilt is designed to allow companies across the global built environment and construction industry to securely connect their current technology platforms and digital solutions to partners, suppliers or subcontractors in their supply chain via a single integration hub.
With a foundation on Red Hat OpenShift running on IBM Cloud, OpenBuilt aims to help improve communication and securely exchange data across the supply chain.
‘Breaking down silos’
Mark Farmer, CEO of Cast Consultancy, commented: “In pursuing the broad goal of construction industry transformation, there is a critical need to break down the deep silos and fragmentation that exists in how we organise and operate design, manufacture, construction and operation processes. This is equally true in the emerging digitalisation challenge.
“To create more strategic and scalable intelligent workflows we need data and software to be part of a fully connected ecosystem. The concept of digital platforms is nothing new but if construction is ever going to realise the full potential of some of the technology solutions that are now proliferating and if those solutions are ever going to be given the chance to scale to maturity then there is a need for market leadership in creating a unifying platform that can host these solutions and enables interoperability.
“What IBM and partners are offering through Open Built is the opportunity to act as a digital integrator at an international and industry-wide level, glueing together what is becoming an increasingly fragmented digital market place for construction technology solutions.
“This is an important step forward which has great potential to make our industry more efficient.”
Jon O’Donnell, managing partner of IBM Global Business Services EMEA, added: “The global construction landscape is evolving and requires a new approach towards industry-wide technology platforms with new levels of openness, innovation and collaboration.
“Together with our partners, we are creating OpenBuilt to empower the construction industry to break down its silos with intelligent workflows and play an active role in designing and driving its transformation.
“Successful companies across the construction supply chain are coming together to embrace a digital future, harnessing the power of an open hybrid cloud approach and adopting new technologies to gain a real competitive advantage.
“We want to inspire other companies to join us and accelerate the march towards a truly digital construction industry.”
