Why the way you manage data is wasting time and money

Infrastructure clients and their suppliers too often act in ways that limit the value of their data.

That was the verdict of a recent roundtable discussion on digitalisation hosted by the ICE.

The participants, who included senior representatives of infrastructure owners, contractors and regulators, agreed that digital tools are improving the delivery and management of assets. But they also argued that the whole sector can and should improve how it handles data.

The discussion, held in partnership with software company Bluebeam, identified several practices that waste time, effort and money.

They include:

• Collecting the same material repeatedly. Clients often already hold the asset data needed by their project teams, but they either don’t trust it or can’t access it easily, so they incur unnecessary costs on surveys and investigations to collect it all again.
• Gathering more than is needed. Clients sometimes ask contractors for an excessively long list of data points about assets they’ve worked on. This is less likely to be because the client is being rigorous and more because it’s unsure of what will add value.
• Failing to make quality checks. If the data being handed over at the end of a project is not thoroughly verified at the time, any errors in it could cause serious problems in the longer term.
• Hoarding data. Organisations often fail to share the data they have with parties that could use it to improve outcomes for all.

“A long time ago, data was hard to find, hard to produce and costly to store. Those problems are not there any more,” said James Chambers, director of global industry development at Bluebeam.

“The bigger problems these days are connecting that data, storing it in a smart place, democratising it, sharing it and deciding what you want to use.”

The importance of incentives

Participants agreed that procurement criteria and contractual incentives are the most powerful tools for improving data management throughout the supply chain.

Clearer contracts could allay the concerns about data security and legal responsibilities for accuracy that underlie many wasteful practices, said Dr Jo Jolly, Ofwat’s director for natural assets, environment and innovation.

“The industry has to address the root causes: how we contract and procure; how we allocate risk and insure; and how we pay,” she stressed. “Ultimately, clients hold these levers.”

Jolly noted that more collaborative modes of delivery could also enable better data management.

These included insurance-backed alliancing, where the parties benefit from shared cover, capped professional indemnity and advanced payments through a project bank account.

Reasons to be ‘cautiously optimistic’

The discussion identified other factors that could improve data management across the industry.

One is the use of total expenditure regulation in the water and energy sectors, which means that infrastructure owners must consider capital and operating expenditure together rather than separately. This approach places greater value on investments – including those in data management – aimed at maximising an asset’s lifetime performance.

The sector’s growing adoption of AI tools could also lead to improvements in the quality and accessibility of engineering information.

Hamish Muir, design and engineering director at contractor AmcoGiffen, said he was “cautiously optimistic” that such trends will encourage asset owners to make their data more freely available to suppliers.

Because it aids risk management, data is “one of the things we crave within the construction industry”, he said. “If we use technologies such as AI correctly, it could bring huge efficiencies, enabling better assurance and, ultimately, improving the quality of the products we deliver.”

Participants also discussed the skills challenges associated with AI. They highlighted the value of two-way mentoring, which brings senior and junior employees together to discuss emerging technologies and their uses.

Such schemes can help early-career professionals to use AI responsibly, while enabling more experienced colleagues to better understand its potential benefits.