Almost 60% of the construction companies incorporate technological tools to the management of their projects

The pandemic has marked a before and after in the construction sector, as in many other activities, especially in the digital field. Using technology throughout the construction process of a project is not a practice that has emerged recently. Years ago, the leading construction companies have already incorporated it into their day-to-day life. However, it is true that the smallest companies are those that have recently started to get started in digitization.

In this sense, Enrique Criado, country manager of the proptech PlanRadar for Spain, tells OKDIARIO that «the pandemic has accelerated the change of companies in the real estate and construction sectors towards digitization beyond the most basic processes ”.

To find out how the sector is at the moment, the proptech has carried out a study in which construction companies, architecture studios, engineering firms, investment and real estate development firms and investment companies have participated. facility management from all over Europe. Thus, it follows that 58% of those surveyed claim to have incorporated technological tools to its project management in the year of the pandemic, going from being administered with paper or through email and spreadsheets to equipping itself with apps to manage tasks and track progress or incidents.

What areas are digitized?

Criado assures that until now the solutions that have been considered have all been very oriented to the previous phases of project implementation, that is, to the design part of the asset. “But we see that there are still many pending subjects in Spain,” he says. Thus, in his opinion among the solutions that are sought in the sector stand out «the digitization on site and elements of productivity on site ».

While the report highlights that the project management areas in which more technology has been incorporated are in the project documentation, inspection and quality control in works. And in the processes that have become more efficient thanks to technology, productivity improvements in quality management (87% of those surveyed), the creation and monitoring of tasks (79%) and visits and control stand out. of works (77%). In the first and last of these tasks, respondents have stated that the use of technology saves them on average 4 hours of work per week.

Finally, the mobile apps and construction management technology are surprising companies in the sector with how quickly they become part of daily operations, with 70% of those surveyed using them on a day-to-day basis.