Are you building a construction data strategy? The 10 questions you need to answer before you begin.

The digitisation of construction work has the industry at the cusp of change. Industry leaders are now looking beyond the operational efficiencies that technology drives and are exploring how to use rich site data to inform commercial decisions.

In late 2021, SignOnSite hosted an event that brought industry leaders together to discuss best practices for executing data strategy.

We heard perspectives from people in Health & Safety, IT, and Operations from companies including Fleetwood, PBS, Southbase, Woollam & WBHO.

These leaders identified two opportunities when implementing their data strategies, including:

• Being able to obtain real-time oversight on commercial performance
• Being able to make data-driven decisions that have a higher probability of improving commercial & project performance, site productivity, risk, and safety.

For example, if your company wanted to reduce TRIFR with data, you could compare how effective measures are against each other. You can answer questions such as; Does TRIFR decrease when we hire workers with more than 3 years in the industry

Companies can make highly accurate decisions on improving essential metrics by analysing such measures. 

Uncovering the opportunity in data, industry leaders recommended answering 10 critical questions before executing a data strategy. These included:

1. What data is essential to collect?
2. Where is the data created, and by who?
3. Which digital tools should we use to collect data?
4. How do we integrate multiple data sources?
5. Which data analytics tool should we use to obtain a holistic view of commercial performance?
6. Which data analytics tool should we use to measure project performance, site productivity, risk, and safety?
7. Who needs access to the data analytics tool? What level of access do they need
8. Who needs to receive training using the data analytics tool?
9. How can we protect subcontractors' & workers' data privacy?
10. How can we keep our data secure?

The answers to these questions can be used to make informed decisions on what your data strategy seeks to achieve and helps formulate the building blocks needed to get there.

Without fully scoping out these answers, construction companies may find themselves in a position where their data strategy fails. To avoid this situation, construction companies can ask themselves the 10 questions recommended by our industry experts.