With tech forever evolving, industries are adopting new strategies.
This year, contractors and construction leaders are facing a complex yet interesting landscape. Navigating the industry continues to be a task of innovation and flexibility. Increased funding from a 2022 federal infrastructure bill amid ongoing supply chain and labor shortages mean a complicated path forward. With the increase of automation across all industries and new tech solutions arising daily, construction leaders and their teams must also adapt to an ever-changing environment.
Associated General Contractors (AGC) recently published their 2023 Construction Outlook Survey, which takes a look at how builders are assessing the upcoming year’s economic prospects, project work, and logistical challenges.
Builders turn to software to increase safety, productivity, and efficiency.
With these new innovations come new challenges in both training and implementation. Progress isn’t always considered to be a one-size-fits-all solution, and can more often than not be a painful process when integrating new software and processes. Finding flexible and adaptable solutions is key to making sure your firms can transition seamlessly to be more secure, more efficient, and more successful.
One section of AGC’s survey highlighted the biggest tech challenges that builders face. While some of the responses were usual for IT across all industries, (updating software, training and implementation), others emphasized the unique challenges that come in construction technology. As you grow and adapt your construction firm to the evolving landscape, read on for the most common tech challenges that builders face and our recommendations on how to solve them:
Training and implementation for new technology.
Adapting to new tech can be difficult, especially when the entire team (not to mention the entire company) needs to train for using and collaborating on the accompanying platforms. To reduce training friction for new software and systems, utilize your leadership team and potential trainers. Set aside some time before full implementation for you and your team leaders to understand the new tech, allowing you to confidently and effectively pass on the information to others. Training must be a priority, and agreeing on clear deadlines, effective training formats, and possible incentives are great potential ways of ensuring team-wide cooperation.
Ahead of training and even before selecting tech solutions, it’s also helpful to find tech and software that are intuitive. Platforms that are easy-to-use or at least set up with UX in mind can simplify training and remove the pains of a complicated integration process. At TrueLook, our platform interface is designed to be completely user-friendly to minimize the learning curve – we aim to ease users’ experience, not over complicate it. We also provide demos and walk-throughs on request to help construction leaders make sure they are making the right decision for their jobsites and team.
Securing company data.
With the risk of cyber threats increasing, data security is now more critical than ever. As remote work increased from 2019 to 2020, data breaches in construction also shot up by 800%, leaving many firms vulnerable to potential fraud and theft. Luckily, this is the priority for most, if not all, new software and tech platforms and companies. As with implementation, company-wide training is critical in making sure new software and tech are used safely and securely. All employees should not only understand how to handle both sensitive personal and company data, but know how and where to store it.
It’s also helpful to know where data lives, and who is using and viewing it as part of their work. TrueLook users can rest assured knowing their data is secure in our encrypted cloud-based servers. Moreover, with admin tools, camera owners can create new users, restrict and grant access, or share direct, secure links within the platform. This way, TrueLook users have full view and control of their data and those who have access to it.
Connecting remote job sites and communicating between field and office.
Even as some industries are beginning to return to pre-2020 work environments, construction has always employed remote sites and field work as a large component of projects. While there is no workaround in having to connect across different locations, new mobile technology is making it easier than ever to access your jobsites remotely. Finding platforms that are mobile friendly and have remote access from different devices is an easy way of ensuring that your jobsites always remain within reach.
Our construction cameras and platform are designed to connect teams across multiple locations. Built with 4G LTE and 24/7 live imagery and steaming, our range of cameras facilitate remote monitoring for you and your team. To ensure easy and accessible collaboration and sharing, we’ve also designed our platform to be mobile-friendly and accessible from your desktop, laptop, phone, or tablet. We also include additional features like automatic email updates and viewer analytics on camera usage.
Navigating the tech landscape with TrueLook.
As a leader in construction camera technology, our team at TrueLook understands the roadblocks that come with innovation and expansion. We are constantly listening to our customers’ feedback and their ever-evolving needs in this changing landscape. We strive to update our technology and software to ensure your jobsites remain productive, efficient, and secure. Stay tuned on our blog for new camera and platform features that solve your tech challenges, or schedule a demo today to see your next tech solution in action!
