By now most of us know that data is king and wields a lot of power through timely insight. So it's no surprise that building owners and developers value construction data. In fact, based on a joint study conducted by FMI and PlanGrid, 71% of owners believe that capturing and retaining more data in the design and build phases will reduce their lifecycle operations costs. Clearly the majority of owners agree data is key.

Data's Deadly without Quality Control

Information is power, right? So then doesn't more information equal more power? Well yes and no.  Not surprisingly the value of data depends a lot on how you harness and manage the information continuously. If volumes of data are captured and retained but there's no Data Quality Control, then more information can translate into just more errors and potentially more risk. In other words it's critical to ensure you practice Quality Construction Information Management. Without this, volumes of misdirected data could result in higher error rates driving higher rework costs. This can derail your current project timeline, and in turn rob you of time for future projects or new business.

Reams of incoming data without the necessary quality management can also result in information overload for your construction team. Too much data without enough skilled staff to manage it can cause splintered focus and poor follow-through to completion on projects. This may result in projects having mismatched or incomplete data that doesn't prove relevant or timely enough and thus causes inefficient work. Plus this can ripple outwards to cause issues with Construction audits and close-outs. You could end up finding missed hidden gems after the fact that are now sadly irrelevant. This may mean you are also paying for technology to capture data that never got used on a timely basis. You may even unknowingly be paying to store data that is now stale and useless.

So how can you best leverage construction data to ensure it's well-managed?

Three Cornerstones to Useful Data

Three cornerstones are proving essential: 

1) Get planning software like PlanGrid, ProCore or others to help you easily access and quickly change your build data, and communicate all updates to your whole team on a timely basis.

2) Set up your quality-control process for your data and be sure to integrate it into all your software applications so there are no stalls or hiccups.

3) Ensure skilled staff is available for ongoing data management, but remember if you are stretched with lean staffing see BarkerBlue Build for Professional CIM services.

Owners typically only benefit from capturing more data when it's well-managed data. This requires ongoing data quality-control, and skilled staff to effectively manage the information. BarkerBlue's certified trained staff can help with all your plan data during all project phases. From initial set-up and software integration, to managing multiple change-orders and RFIs, to communicating one single source of truth to your entire team, plus improving final close-out and archiving, we help you stay in synch and on track to deadline. Contact BarkerBlue to learn more.