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Quantity Surveyor RemainsResponsive Despite Data Explosion

Case Study

Riley Consulting relies on Newforma software to manage quality and improve client service.

Established in 1890, Riley Consulting has built its construction and property consultancy on a record of responsive service, on-time project delivery, and cost management. But a 21st-century explosion of digital data threatened to undermine those strengths.

consultants armed with mobile devices, and an exponential growth in project email. How could the company turn those factors into strengths instead of threats?

Riley implemented Newforma® Project Center to streamline email

project information management platform.

Partner said, “We’ve written Newforma into our project execution plans. It’s at the center of the way we do business.”

Riley Consulting is a leading construction

across the United Kingdom as well as internationally in South Africa and Australia. Involved in over 2,000 annual projects valued over £1.75 billion, Riley Consulting caters to an eclectic range of sectors with a commitment to being approachable, responsive and comprehensive. The company specialises in cost management, project management, health and safety services, building services design, space planning, building surveying, facilities management, and property and development consultancy.

OBJECTIVES • Manage explosive email growth.

• Maximize the value of a recentlylaunched mobile tablet program.

• Minimize wasteful reporting delays.

• Eliminate costly project extranets.

• Ensure employees are working fromcurrent project information.

RESULTS • Responsiveness has risen.

• Double-handling of date has dropped.

• Collaboration has improved.

• Accountability has risen.

• Confusion and disputes have dropped.

Case Study

Case Study

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What once took two hours now takes 10 minutes.Partner Andrew Turner is one of the Riley executives looking for better

management system when we came across Newforma. We immediately saw that it not only ticked that box, but it also did so much more.”

revisions,” Turner said.

A common data environment for BIM projects“With building information modeling (BIM), the amount of data we share with our partners and the frequency of revisions has skyrocketed,” Turner said.

Some of Turner’s colleagues turned to personal cloud storage solutions like Dropbox. “That was scary. There was no audit trail, no accountability when

Riley now employs the Shared Folders feature of Newforma software to

“Our contractors and consultants all use it to collaborate, saving the cost of an external extranet like 4Projects or BIW.”

Turner says, “I don’t carry any paper around. Ever.”

were using disparate apps to capture information at project sites, requiring

Turner provided an illustration: “We had used another app on a project, but it stored its information in its own cloud. When we saw the Newforma apps integrated with the application used at the desk, we were convinced. The Plans app on the iPad is my favorite.”

create my daily site reports. Because the data automatically uploads to the software at my desk, I can create a Newforma Action Item for anything that needs to be dealt with. One of the best things is the way Newforma links related tasks.”

By improving the process by which defects are logged and passed on to the client, Riley produces reports in 10 minutes that once took up to two hours.

Reducing administrative burden for repeat businessRiley garners frequent repeat business, often handling multiple projects for the same client.

“We use Newforma software to manage each client’s standard project specs, cost reports and other documents,” Turner said. “It cuts down on administrative tasks and errors. All in all, Newforma is an important contributor to ongoing client relationships.”

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Cultural change and technological innovation areaxiomatic. In the built environment, BIM and ‘bigdata’ promise much, but they have to overcomeindustry global challenges and fragmentation. At the RICS, we have recently commissioned athink tank report on the future of our profession –our Futures Report (futures@rics.org).

This report focuses on the major touch points ofchange that we believe will have a significant impacton the surveying and related built and naturalenvironment professions. We have seen throughthis study that our world is changing, becomingmore complex, and that the pace of change isincreasing. Many resultant impacts are already beingfelt across the sectors and markets in which RICSoperates. Actions identified in this report applynot just to surveying, but equally to those in therelated disciplines of architecture, engineering,financial services and, increasingly, technology.

Within the context of this report, this piececonsiders global issues, how these relate to theconstruction professions and why technology canfacilitate effective improvements.

GLOBAL CHALLENGESBusiness practices are increasingly demandingglobal rules. We have seen this in the accountingarena, with international financial accountingstandards (IFRS), and, with 70% of global wealthin land and property, valuation, measurement ofproperty and ethics are prime candidates forinternational standards.

Uncertainty or risk, is a major drag on investment inconstruction and infrastructure. In turn, uncertaintyis often caused by a lack of comparable, consistentand collaborative standards. Hence, we are makingthe case, with other like-minded global bodies, forthe vision of how International ConstructionMeasurement Standards (ICMS) could appropriatelyconnect with, and be a next step, of InternationalProperty Measurement Standards (IPMS) – acurrent, ongoing project. ICMS will involve thecollaborative development and implementation ofinternationally agreed and recognised measurementstandards for the construction and infrastructuresectors.

Alan Muse, Global Director of BuiltEnvironment Professional Groups atthe RICS provides an overview ofthe findings from a think tank reportinto BIM and ‘big data’

BIM is a bit of a problem

EDITORIAL FEATURE

Currently, there is a lack of measurement standardsrelevant to the construction industry at a globallevel, particularly in emerging and developingmarkets (whose share of construction will increase– see Figure 1).

This lack of measurement standards means thatconstruction projects, their inherent workselements and the resultant assets are incomparablefrom one geographical market to another.

The international measurement standard principleswill integrate with detailed measurement standardsin accordance with local market jurisdictions toensure the standards are adopted by practitioners(bottom up). The standards will be developed inconsultation with expert, internationalpractitioners and panels, subject to internationalconsultation and stakeholder review. All this willimprove certainty in construction and enhanceproject performance for the users of the industry(see Figure 2).

CONSTRUCTION CHALLENGESGlobally, construction project organisations arehighly differentiated, made up of people fromdifferent disciplines and organisations, with differentloyalties and priorities, from different backgroundsand cultures, in different places, who join the teamat different times. There are likely to be greatdifferences in attitudes and behaviour, as well asdifferences in specialised knowledge, betweenarchitects and builders, engineers and costconsultants. Distinct sub-cultures have their ownbeliefs, values, language, dress codes, expectations,codes of conduct, norms and practices.

Teamwork between parties with differing aims andinterests is more difficult to achieve productivelywhen a gain for one party is a loss for the other.When each participant represents an organisationwith its own agenda, it is more important to gainan advantage over the other party than to solvethe problems in the best interest of the project.Economic competition predisposes people and

Figure 1

organisations to act in selfish, rather thancooperative ways. Indeed, from a ‘radical change’perspective it can be argued that where there arefundamental differences of interest between projectstakeholders (internal or external – including, forinstance, groups who are totally opposed to theproject) than any claims to ‘collaboration’ aresimply a way of suppressing, containing or co-optingconflict, by attempting to redefine it as functional,leading to consensus. Conflict may have beendiscouraged, but only within certain limits, givingan illusion of engagement with multiplestakeholders’ views.

The problem is, biases invariably creep into anyteam’s reasoning – and often dangerously distortits thinking. A team that has fallen in love with itsrecommendation, for instance, may subconsciouslydismiss evidence that contradicts its theories, givefar too much weight to one piece of data, or makefaulty comparisons to another business case. That’swhy, with important decisions, senior managementand project managers need to conduct a carefulreview not only of the content of recommendations,but of the recommendation process.

Technology can help leaders examine whether ateam has explored alternatives appropriately,gathered all the right information, and used well-grounded numbers to support its case. They also

highlight considerations such as whether theteam might be unduly influenced by self-interest,overconfidence, or attachment to past decisions.

Clients can build decision processes over timethat reduce the effects of biases and upgrade thequality of decisions their organisations make. Thepayoffs can be significant: A McKinsey study ofmore than 1,000 business investments for instance,showed that when companies worked to reducethe effects of bias, they raised their returns oninvestment by seven percentage points.

TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGESBIM is an important concern for industryprofessionals not least because of the perceivedthreat of technology (see Figure 3). It is evident thatmost professional bodies in the built environmentdomain around the world are helping their membersto develop a deeper understanding of BIM, withenhancements and embellishments in areas thatconnect with their members. The message is loudand clear: BIM is here to stay – it is not a case ofif, but when.

The built environment sector is striving to be ahighly efficient, quality-centred, socially responsibleand bullish industry capable of successfullydelivering the requirements of current and futuregenerations. BIM can play a strategic role in thistransformation, but it is naïve to assume that BIMalone (if at all) can make such sweeping changes.But it is clear that BIM, along with othercomplementary paradigms such as lean principles,offsite construction, integrated project delivery,sustainability and smart cities, can provide thenecessary impetus.

Smart cities BIM is not limited to a single asset: itcan also be used to develop an information-richmodel at the district, precinct or city level. Thesemodels can become the foundation or digital‘DNA’ of smart cities. Smart cities have spatial,physical, digital, commercial and social dimensions.

Built environment professionals can contributethrough information-rich 3D modelling to theultimate realisation of the smart city concept.BIM for a smart city framework requires use ofdata standards such as CityGML, LandXML and

Construction(ICMS)

Valuationand Ethics(IVS/IES)

Land(ILMS)

Property(IPMS)

Figure 2

EDITORIAL FEATURE

Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). BIM providesone of the key pieces of information for thesmart city concept, but it alone cannot delivereverything. The city model needs to be linked to avariety of other data sources such as geospatialdata, sensor data, transactional data from citizens,and statistical data.

SYNTHESISHow do these challenges come together for theRICS?

One central theme is decision-making. Internationalstandards and BIM, separately and jointly, improvedecision-making. Standards also allow classificationsto be developed for the productive use oftechnology (see Figure 4).

In addition, RICS has recently published researchon the direction of BIM in global construction.

COLLABORATIVE BIMCollaboration in the construction industry canhelp to align the incentives of clients and suppliers.But even with the best will in the worldcommunication and coordination can be difficultto achieve, particularly for complex projects.

If properly designed, collaborative BIM can providesolutions for this.

This report outlines findings from a research projectexploring the potential and pitfalls of collaborationand matching these with an analysis of BIM.

Using interviews and online surveys, novel insightsfrom behavioural economics and incentive theoryare applied to investigations of collaborative workingand the potential of BIM as toolkits, for improvinginformation flows and enabling collaborativeworking practices, particularly for lower tiers ofthe construction supply chain.

UTILISATION OF BIM INCONSTRUCTION COST AND PROJECTMANAGEMENT PRACTICESAs the development and uptake of BIM continuesin major construction markets worldwide, it isimperative that construction industry stakeholdersgain an understanding of the utilisation of BIM inconstruction cost and project management practices.This knowledge will enable them to become familiarwith potential issues that may both positively andnegatively affect the future adoption of BIM andtake the necessary approach to promote it.

Arbitrators and mediators

Construction managers

Urban planners

Surveyors

Appraisers and assessors of real estate

Surveying technicians

Real estate brokers

Brokerage clerks

Cost estimators

Building inspectors

Real estate, property & community assoc. managers

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9UNLIKELY TO BE AFFECTED

Probability of professionals being affected by technology

LIKELY TO BE AFFECTED Source: Frey and Osbourne 2013

Figure 3

With this objective in mind, the research assessesthe opportunities and challenges facing constructionprofessionals and the sector as a whole in theadoption of BIM in construction cost and projectmanagement. Based on this it formulates bestpractices and recommendations relevant to policymakers, professional bodies and practitionerswhich will help develop suitable strategies to fosterthe development of BIM in the future.

BIM AND THE VALUE DIMENSIONBIM offers rich opportunities for propertyprofessionals to use information throughout theproperty lifecycle. However, the potential benefitsit may have for this sector have been largelyuntapped to-date. BIM tools and processes wereoriginally developed by the architecture, engineeringand construction (AEC) sector to assist in managingdesign and construction data. As these technologiesand processes mature and evolve, so too does theopportunity for other professional groups to utilisevarious types of data contained within, or linkedto, BIM models.

Using feedback from workshops in Sydney andLondon and a global online survey this researchreport identifies the data types and needs mostsignificant to property professionals’ and mapsthese across the property lifecycle. It then evaluatesthe extent to which this data is generated inArchitecture Engineering and Constructionfocused BIM deliverables. Following on from thisthe research looks at issues around training and

education for property professionals along withthe ways in which BIM can be integrated intoproperty education.

CONCLUSIONOne of the key future challenges highlighted for thesurveying profession is new technology. At the sametime, this is set within the context of increasinglyglobal business practices and fragmentation andlack of collaboration in construction. RICS wantsto create a worldwide debate in the builtenvironment professions on how the industry canuse these challenges as agents for change andprocess improvement. Join in the futures debateat futures@rics.org or e-mail me directly atamuse@rics.org .

Alan Muse BSc (Hons) MSc FRICSGlobal Director of Built Environment Professional GroupsRICSTel: +44 (0)24 7686 8555contactrics@rics.orgwww.rics.org/ukwww.twitter.com/RICSnews

Measurementstandards

Improved data

Improveddecisionmaking

Improvedmarketefficiency

Marketgrowth

Figure 4

EDITORIAL FEATURE

Newforma UK85 Tottenham Court Rd. London, W1T 4TQ, UK

+44 207 268 3020