a much more comprehensive data approach. The aim now is to get this continuous loop going on and continue to iterate and improve data capture and process across Oracle Construction and Engineering products. So, what’s Oracle Construction and Engineering’s perspective on why the industry should care so much about data? More data provides an opportunity for better insights and helps maintain continuous improvement, so the broader solution for end-to-end life cycle management is going to be a much more compelling offering for customers. To best manage any project, access to a common data environment to ensure centralisation and collaboration around the data is imperative. The Oracle Construction and Engineering vision is to provide a platform that gives insights into this data, including showing how the project is tracking today based on what's already happened, and predicting what might happen based on assumed learning insights. Historically, the construction sector has seen projects run over time and budget. This is due in part to the absence of a master data set across projects as well as a limited ability to analyse project data. Having access to this information helps project teams to learn lessons from previous experiences. However, technology use is growing all the time and we are now gathering data in the cloud allowing us to make better predictions into the future. We believe that for organisations to drive performance and continued improvement across their processes, projects, and organisation, they need the right tools and data strategy. Data helps them learn what’s working and not working, what’s on track or off so they can make more-informed decisions or act faster. Big data can help them predict future outcomes – on current and future projects. But there’s a flow to this which starts with buy in across the business or project. Accurate data is dependent on www.cbnme.com
product adoption - people actually using the product. Adoption requires that people trust using a system, which is important in project delivery where you need insights from what’s happening across the supply chain, not just from one company. Also, adoption requires that teams have a good experience working with a new solution. It’s easy to use, it’s fast, and it’s accessible from where they do their work. That’s why our key investment areas will focus on cloud products – to bring innovation faster, with seamless and immediate upgrades. We’ll also be focusing on connecting processes across the project and asset lifecycle as well as on security, which remains a top priority for Oracle. What does this technology mean to the construction and engineering industry? Global construction is in a boom period, and all predictions suggest that for at least the next 15 years, the growth rate for construction will outpace the world's GDP. If you look globally, technology is gaining penetration within the industry. Why is that? Because engineering and construction businesses today need to find the competitive advantage in what’s fast becoming a very crowded industry. To do this they need to reduce risk, work faster, deliver higher quality projects, safely– and repeat that over and over. They need standardisation, they need to be compliant, they need to connect the supply chain to transform how project teams collaborate. They need to make their processes faster more transparent for both their subcontractors and customers. In summary, they need to innovate – and do so faster than their peers. There is an opportunity to help organisations within the industry migrate to the cloud, decrease operational and infrastructure costs, and free up IT resources. Construction companies have always had limited IT staff, and the cloud enables them to have the infrastructure, security and controls for projects. Companies embracing innovation
and digital transformation increasingly have a ‘margin advantage'. In a competitive environment, a ‘margin advantage' is going to win more profitable business. What does the future hold for construction technology? The worksite of the future will be all about connecting project teams and supply chains as well as the processes and systems used across the project and asset lifecycle. The cloud and availability of 5G will enable real-time collaboration from virtually anywhere, and a range of technologies will also deliver dramatic project delivery improvements: IoT, drones, autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, powered exoskeletons, prefabrication, etc. This combination of connectedness and innovation will enable organisations within the industry to unlock new levels of productivity, safety, and quality. Construction really is on the verge of an exciting and dramatic transformation as the physical and digital worlds increasingly blur in the built environment. The future is one where the emerging technology we see today become the disruptive technology of tomorrow. Cloud, mobile, IoT, big data, AR/VR, machine learning – create an incredible opportunity for innovation, and we are investing significantly to be at the forefront of that. We’re driving innovation and have created an Innovation Lab in the United States. It’s a simulated project worksite with integrated technologies enabling visitors to interact with leading-edge solutions, including connected devices, autonomous vehicles, drones, augmented reality, visualisation, and artificial intelligence tools. By presenting these hands-on experiences within a simulated connected worksite, the Innovation Lab is able to powerfully bring to life the performance improvements and data insights these technologies can deliver. And given the growing role of digital transformation in organisations’ success, the need for such a facility has never been greater.
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