Across the hundreds of SymTerra users, the feedback we are getting proves that ground-up access to digital tools designed for fieldwork is not only hugely needed but has been long overdue to embrace digital change in the construction industry
We think this is the culmination of several factors, including the digital journey that remote working forced many of us into, breaking down some perceived barriers and speeding up adoption.
Simultaneously, we are seeing a substantial number of people we might term ‘digital natives’ growing into senior roles across the sector. This will undoubtedly help shape a more digital future in the industry.
More important is recognising how far the technology has come. For many years, the tools available to organisations operating in the built environment – from contractors to utility providers, developers to infrastructure bodies – were too costly, too difficult to scale across projects, or too focused (often exclusively) on office-based teams and not those on the ground doing the works.
Until recently, we were all trailing along, waiting for a tipping point of economic and legislative pressure to push digitisation to the front of every organisation operating in the built environment, not just the small, select group of Tier 1 contractors with the time and resources to implement large-scale customised digital solutions.
The tipping point for digital change has finally arrived
Putting the right digital tools in the hands of previously unserved site teams will allow organisations to smoothly align with everything from OpenBIM to the Building Safety Act – essential for survival and outperforming competition in the coming years.
We can expect the market to continue to stimulate digitisation adoption, and data remains at the heart of that journey, answering the two critical pressures of the economic and legislative environments. Commercial defensibility and record-keeping are the two sides of the digital coin that most interest our client coupled with ‘Bottom-up BIM’ as we call it, is the watershed moment we have been waiting for.
What the industry is missing is the ability to democratise access to digital tools. Empowering site teams from organisations of all sizes to take ownership and control of project data is a critical moment promising real change in how the sector captures, retains, manages, and defends data in construction.
Importantly, democratising digital access is transforming life on (and off) site for workers across the construction and infrastructure supply chain.
Case study: Rescue2
We spoke to a SymTerra user, Tony Bowman of Rescue 2, a specialist contractor managing the sewer network and surface water for one of the UK’s largest water companies, managing their sewer network and the surface water.
Previously, Tony’s team used paper reports, which were filled out after the site visit, resulting in missing data and a lack of essential real time information throughout the sewer network.
Now, SymTerra enables his team to input data accurately, seamlessly, and immediately from site, giving their client a much improved, live feed of their site visits.
According to Tony, “By getting paperwork done on site while you are in the van, you can get your weekends back! Once you get home, you shut the door and the job’s done.” Through SymTerra Tony can link each update with his client’s digital twin, for a complete digital record of all related works.
For the first time, this enables a live feed of updates against each individual asset, enabling better decision making, risk management, cost savings and a safer environment for teams on the ground. Put simply, in the words of Tony, “The symterra app is a game changer.”
John Ryan
Director
SymTerra
*Please note: This is a commercial profile
