Managing IT Costs in the Construction Industry
The construction industry and why it’s still paper reliant
The construction industry runs on precision, reliability and durability. Every project has multiple processes that must be executed with meticulous accuracy, be it building a simple foot bridge or designing a towering sky scraper. And traditionally, these processes have been completed on paper because it can track highly technical details on site and is a useful medium for such a fragmented industry.
From managing engineering deliverables to examining architect drawings, the rigorous nature of the industry seems to necessitate high paper usage. Additionally, administrative documentation such as procurement and supply invoices mean that every project inevitably generates a tsunami of paper records to track a multitude of moving parts and suppliers.
But IT managers and CIOs in the construction industry are beginning to sit up and take notice of this growing paper problem: where exactly are my IT department’s mounting costs coming from, and what can I do to reduce expenses?
How much is that mountain of paper work costing you?
If you guessed purchasing of paper, you’d be slightly off; paper is not actually that expensive. In fact, one of the most significant costs comes from managing your printed documents, as well as storing them for referencing later.
To counter this, preliminary steps are already being taken to help the construction industry embrace digitalisation. In the face of increasingly common cost and schedule overruns, software providers are exploring technology that can improve the construction industry’s flagging productivity through efficient collaboration.
This has driven key innovations in cloud solutions that improve how different construction teams and suppliers collaborate with each other. For example, architect drawings that are modified on site can be quickly scanned onto a cloud platform where other project members may easily access it and instantly learn about design updates. This reduces the cost of managing heaps of physical documents, while also improving data accuracy and overall performance.
The paper elephant in the room – construction industry printers
However, the construction industry is not going 100% paperless in the foreseeable future. This is because the most critical documents, like detailed project planning and precise MEP engineering designs are still printed out for easy collaboration on booming construction sites and architecture firms alike.
Architects must ensure their drawings are accurate and clear to the tiniest degree, in an industry where even the tiniest misinterpretation could cost immense expenses and delays. Contractors on site rely on huge paper print outs to guarantee their final builds are on point, especially when project revisions and developer changes are all too common. The industry is rife with stories about soured business relationships due to miscommunication between the many moving parts as well as project delays arising from misread fine line changes. Because of this, IT departments must ensure their printers can produce the sharpest, highest quality images for accuracy and precision.
And with how construction projects are running on tighter and tighter deadlines, IT departments cannot afford to spend precious time and money on maintenance and printer breakdowns; multifunction printers have to be built to be sturdier and more durable, capable of heavy-duty printing and providing peace of mind for IT Decision Makers.
Starting digital renovation with print management
For the construction industry, the advent of industry 4.0 can be intimidating. The fear of losing out if a digital transformation strategy is not already in the works could be well founded, but while digital transformation of the entire business should be the end goal, the challenges of change can be overwhelming.
Digital renovation could be the answer: by rolling out department by department changes, IT Managers and CIOs can build internal confidence in the digital transformation process. FUJIFILM Business Innovation is ready to share our lessons on painless cloud migration with you. Learn more here.