It is true that in line with its ongoing digital transformation plans, ALEC has appointed Andy Boutle as its Head of Digital Construction. The newly created role tasks Boutle with the digitization of the entire value chain for projects undertaken by ALEC, with an emphasis on increasing workflow communication and vertical efficiencies.
“While the pandemic has certainly been a catalyst of transformation, there is still a long road ahead for the digitalization of the sector. The benefits — ranging from improving quality and safety to reducing costs and project timelines, and increasing profits — are abundantly clear. But there remains trepidation in the region largely due to the steep learning curve and challenges around integration between systems, and deciding what investments will yield maximum positive impact,” said Kez Taylor, CEO, ALEC.
He added that ALEC has successfully leveraged the latest technologies on several projects and believes it is now time to double down on these digital investments. “In doing so, we will inevitability promote technology adoption among our customers and partners, leading to a digital-first mindset across the industry that advances the sector towards greater efficiency, quality, and sustainability,” said Taylor.
According to a study by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), investing in technology and innovation are among the key factors in boosting the construction sector’s productivity by up to 60 percent. It revealed that digital technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), augmented/virtual reality, robotics, and cloud are heralding a new era of possibilities and efficiencies for the global construction sector. However, there remain several bottlenecks in the adoption of these technologies in the region.
“ALEC’s increasing focus on digital transformation in recent years is making our operations more productive, efficient, sustainable, and accurate, whilst reducing risk and resource wastage. This translates to an improved level of service and quality of the product for our customers. In parallel, our partners are benefitting from the streamlining of collaborative processes made possible by our expertly integrated systems,” said Boutle.
Boutle further highlighted that ALEC recognizes that the challenges faced by the construction sector as a whole – skills and labour shortages, productivity issues, attitudes towards change, outdated procurement models, and more – have the potential to be addressed by industry-wide digital transformation. “However, they cannot be solved overnight or independently by a single organization. ALEC is therefore committed to collaborating with key industry stakeholders to increase the overall maturity of the market and promote the drive towards interoperability and standardization, both of which are critical to the transformation of the sector,” he said.
Yet, with Boutle’s appointment, ALEC has already initiated the process of achieving the BSI Kitemark ISO 19650 certification for information management using BIM. The company is also currently deploying a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that will digitalize its processes to enhance business intelligence through analytics and reporting.
