The construction industry is today the second least digitised industry in the world. This lack of digitisation costs the industry as much as US$500 billion a year, in rework alone. Companies in the ASEAN region are starting to realise the benefits of going digital and those who are succeeding understand how imperative it is. In an increasingly competitive and challenging industry, leveraging technology and the data it gleans makes the difference between those who win and those who lose. Two companies that have embarked on such a digital transformation are Makati Development Corporation (MDC) in the Philippines and Precise Development Pte Ltd in Singapore.
Read: Makati Development Corporation sees improved productivity and huge savings
Ginaflor C. Oris, Chief Financial Officer of MDC, defined the company’s digitisation goals as “to build a data-driven culture to ensure that digitisation becomes an important component of our bigger strategy of industrialising construction. And we wanted to reap significant and quantifiable improvements in our safety, quality, timely delivery, cost efficiency and sustainability operating metrics.”
Before adopting Procore, MDC already had some digital platforms and was using various software. But the company faced difficulties in gathering data directly from the field and in generating reports real time or close to real time. This did not allow management to have better insights, leading to agile decision making – data was residing in separate silos. Procore’s integrated platform changed all that. The results for MDC were clear.
“By implementing Procore in our construction projects, we saved over 2,500 man hours from faster turnaround times. We significantly reduced some costs, and more importantly, improved visibility of information on the status of our projects for all stakeholders,” said Ginaflor. “Last year we were able to successfully shift our budgeting process using digital collaboration – and we saved over 26,500 man hours. I can’t imagine our project teams going back to our manual way of doing things.”
Read: Precise Development drives better cost control and collaboration with technology
In Singapore, Precise Development turned to automated construction technology to streamline their workflow and quality assurance outcomes. This was a goal made more urgent by the global health crisis. Ongoing site lockdowns meant Precise had to counter increasing costs in materials and labour with significant workforce and administration time savings.
Precise Development was an early adopter of Procore Project Management and Quality and Safety. The goal was to improve the flow within design and build projects initially. However, Procore’s ability to generate time and resource savings for Precise Development paid off as the company faced the challenges and disruptions brought upon by COVID-19. The transparent collaboration and multiple-party communication process significantly improved project management tasks for all stakeholders.
“As we specialise in design and build projects, we are often still finalising a lot of design while building. Tracking and managing these elements, plus material and labour costs – and Singapore is very expensive in both – in this environment via Procore is key”, said Kelvin Lim, Architectural Manager of Precise Development.
“Everyone can rely on the data to help us replace site visits and face-to-face discussions with a safe way to communicate. With Procore, we have a transparent quality process. This places more emphasis on building right the first time and creating an accountability roadmap. It helps us track defects if we need to and remediate those with the right parties.”
In addition, as Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) is pushing for an industry-wide digital transformation, Precise Development is able to position itself as a construction technology innovator and compliance leader. Kelvin said, “The BCA’s implementation of the ISO19650 standard is a crucial part of planning, designing and managing building projects more efficiently. Our smart Procore construction technology ensures we meet the requirement to have a digital platform in place to streamline our workflow.”
Procore improves collaboration throughout the construction lifecycle
More companies within ASEAN are selecting Procore as their construction management platform of choice.
“ASEAN is a high-growth market, and we are looking forward to partnering with the industry to uplift its digital capability and provide value to all stakeholders in construction. We are here to enable the construction leaders to better manage the construction lifecycle with a construction management platform” said Tom Karemacher, Vice President, APAC of Procore.
Learn how MDC has successfully kickstarted their digital transformation journey in this on-demand webinar.
