The global construction industry is undergoing massive change. Like every sector, technology is rapidly shifting how construction and engineering firms design, manage and build projects.

On 14 October, Bluebeam executives participated in a roundtable discussion in the U.K. on this topic with other influential technology executives of construction, design and engineering firms.

The Participants:

Denise Chevin, Editor BIM+

Joe Williams, VP of Global Industry Insights, Bluebeam, Inc.

James Chambers, Regional Director UKI, Bluebeam, Inc.

Shervin Yousefzadeh, Digital Construction Manager – Civils, Graham Group

Davide Gatti, BIM Manager, Multiplex

Donatella Fiorella, BIM Manager, ISG

Urszula Kanturska, Construction Data & Technology Integration Lead, Bylor JV – Hinkley Point C

Nelly Twumasi-Mensah, Business Projects and Change Lead, Faithful and Gould

Martin Coyne, BIM Practice Manager, KPF

Andrew Gamblen, Digital Manager, Willmott Dixon

During the conversation, each executive shared their perspective on how construction, design and engineering firms can better address the challenges brought by evolving industry technology – from determining how to influence late-adopters to finally make the transition from paper to digital, to identifying the return on investment of new technology.

Here are five takeaways from the discussion:

Tech adoption is a “show, don’t tell” proposition

Demonstrating that technology can make work more efficient to project teams still reliant on traditional methods is a big challenge for the construction industry.

As part of getting those late-adopters to transition to the new, digital world, the executives participating in the roundtable discussion agreed that showing the “facts and figures” of how new technology can improve the speed, effort and efficiency of traditional workflows is a big part of influencing the change.

However, as Shervin Yousefzadeh, digital construction manager of Graham Group, pointed out, sometimes people also need to experience the impact the technology can have on their jobs first-hand to understand the real value.

“You can sit there and present for two hours telling them about the value [of technology],” Yousefzadeh said. “They need to see the value; they need to see facts; and they also need to experience that.”

Oftentimes, the most impactful way to convince late-adopters of the virtues of new technology is showing them the true return on the time they’ll save. This was the case for Yousefzadeh when his firm spent two weeks demonstrating how much time a paper-based team’s switch to tablets would save it.

“Once they saw these benefits, they started to believe in that technology, they start to use it better and better, and they could save more time and have more time for themselves,” Yousefzadeh said.

There should be a designated digital innovation team or leader inside a company

Digital adoption isn’t going to happen on its own, especially with the speed at which technology is changing.

As a result, the panelists agreed that every construction firm – from general contractors to engineering and design firms – need to have a dedicated person or team owning and driving the firm’s technology adoption and innovation.