The role that mobile devices play in the construction business is a staggering 92.8% according to the 2019 JBKnowledge Construction Technology Report.

When I read that statistic I was blown away. Of course I knew that the construction industry was heavily dependent on mobile devices and apps, but to see that large of a percentage was a real eye opener.

And the number of apps used by a typical employee has doubled over the past year according to another survey.

In 2019, 21.7% of respondents reported using three construction-based apps, while in 2020, 22% of respondents said they used six or more construction-based apps.

Bottom line is that mobile devices and mobile apps are a critical part of the construction industry and how employees work with project data.

Integration is Key

Reading further into the report by JBKnowledge, an interesting statistic comes to light:2

How important are mobile integration and capabilities when making software purchasing decisions?

• Very Important 48.5%

• Important 40.9%

Ok, that makes sense. We all want our mobile apps to talk to each other and share critical field data in real time, right?

And then comes the kicker:

Number of apps that integrate data?

None 26.4%!

Yes, that is what the report found out! The majority of apps are not integrated and do not share information between themselves.

And as you might imagine, employees without the lack of app integration are turning to manually re-entering that data across those six apps at a whopping 53% of the time!

As a person that relies on data to run my business, the thought of employees manually entering the same data across different apps and platforms sent off alarm bells.

Remember the telephone game?

Where a line of people whisper what they heard to the next person in line?

And the last person repeats out loud what they heard?

Well guess what? The original message was completely lost after it was passed between each person multiple times.

The point here, manual data entry is a recipe for disaster when it comes to data integrity. Humans are inherently prone to error especially when they are repeating the same task over and over.

Are you willing to take a chance that one of your employees enters the wrong data into a critical business application that could possibly send the whole project sideways and cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars?

Of course not.

That’s why it is critical as a business manager to have ALL your critical applications integrated.

Integration allows:

· apps to “talk with each other”

· data is shared between themselves automatically in real-time

· for the elimination of repeat manual data entries across various apps

· real-time updates of data in each application

Which Apps are Most Affected?

There are several applications used across the construction industry that need to be considered when working on your Application Integration Plan.

Below are some of the most popular mobile apps for various categories of use:

Daily report management: Procore at 23.5% with Bluebeam (Revu) in a close second place with 22.1%

Daily Photo/Video management: Bluebeam (Revu) with 36.7% and Procore with 34.5% of total users

Top mobile apps to view BIM files: Bluebeam (Revu) again leads the pack with 71.9% of total users with Naviswords, BIM 360 Docs and BIM 360 Glue trailing behind

Popular mobile apps for drone control: DJI GO and DroneDeploy

Plan management: Bluebeam (Revu), Procore and PlanGrid dominating the field

Safety Management apps: Procore holds the top position with Bluebeam (Revu) in a distant second place

Top Accounting/ERP software: Sage, Viewpoint were both at the top of the heap

Takeoff software: OnScreen Takeoff and Bluebeam were by far the most popular

Estimating Software: Sage Estimating held a strong first position with a number of lesser-known apps trailing far behind

Top bid management software: SmartBid, BuildingConnected and iSqFt (ConstructConnect) all held the top positions in this category

Project Scheduling Software: Microsoft Project and Primavera P6 were by far and away the most popular

Project Management Software: Procore dominates this category

Top CRM software: Cosential and SalesForce both hold control in this area

Disaster Waiting to Happen

I’m sure you picked out at least six if not more apps from the above categories that your team is using on a daily basis.

As noted above, the Construction Technology Report found that employees were manually entering data in the following ways:

• Manually: 49%

• Spreadsheets: 44%

• Comma separated value (CSV) files: 37%

• Email: 16%

If apps are not integrated, the employee is forced to get creative and input that data into the other apps manually, or in some cases not all...

13% of respondents said they do not transfer the data to other applications!

I don’t even want to think about that lost data and how it would affect my business. What a nightmare.

Manually integrating data between apps has been the most common practice for each of the last five years, according to the report, highlighting the need for a solution, especially since the usage of mobile devices isn’t going away.

Apache Kafka to the Rescue!

Thankfully for us business managers, there is a very viable and flexible solution to the HUGE problem of application integration and integration development.

That solution is Apache Kafka. If you have not heard about it, I highly recommend you check out my previous articles here and here.

They both will give you the foundation to understand some of the keyword phrases and concepts of how Apache Kafka works to integrate data across an endless number of applications.

And not only integration, but real-time data sharing. A user can input data in one app and that data is automatically added to another app that can be viewed by the entire team across all types of devices literally at the same time the person is entering that data.

Manual re-entry of data is not necessary freeing up countless man hours in data entry as well as man hours lost searching for bad data that is affecting other applications and reporting.

From an IT perspective, Apache Kafka allows for updates and upgrades to applications without disrupting workflow in other areas and applications.

The beauty of Apache Kafka is that it is built on a series of modules that contain what are called Producers (apps produce data) and Consumers (apps that receive data from other apps). The Producer and Consumer portion of Apache Kafka sit outside of applications and can be worked on by multiple development teams simultaneously.

Applications become uncoupled meaning they operate as standalone apps and do not rely on other components to function.

In Conclusion

As a business manager or business owner, you know that good clean reliable data is key to a successful project. Users rely on a multitude of applications to perform their daily tasks and it is critical that the data is shared across applications and platforms in real-time. Not just for business efficiency but ultimately for the success of your business and the bottom line.

Today, more than ever before, a business has to develop an Application Integration Plan that identifies that applications that are used, what data needs to be shared between those apps and working with an IT partner who understands construction industry applications and has experience integrating those applications with Apache Kafka.

AEC Cloud is a logical choice when considering a partner to help with your Application Integration Plan. We have over 25 years working in the construction industry and know what works and how to execute projects on time and on budget.

Give us a call today and find out what we can do to help your business solve its application integration problem.

I would also recommend you take a look through the JBKnowledge 2019 Construction Technology Report. I am sure you will find it useful as you begin to think about your business application integration needs.

We look forward to hearing from you.