“Calculating the ROI of a real-time analytics solution was easy for us when you are talking about gaining 5-10% efficiency on a $100 million dollar construction project.””
These words were from the Chief Operations Officer of a construction company based in the upper Midwest. Fulton Analytics’ team designed and deployed a real-time analytics dashboard built with Microsoft Power BI. As the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted supply chain and delivery schedules it was critical that their portfolio of construction projects were still delivered on-time and under budget.
The construction industry has not traditionally been known for leading technology innovation. However, in recent years a movement around IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and Advanced Analytics has shifted the industry. This construction company was focused on building a real-time analytics dashboard and consolidating data from Procore Technologies, Tekla, Smartsheet, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Safety First
As a Microsoft 365 customer, this construction company had already begun to leverage Power BI to create safety reporting for their teams in the field, and meet OSHA compliance requirements. They were able to create advanced data visualizations and share these insights across the organization or easily export to PDF/PowerPoint to share a static report with external safety departments. In doing this, they quickly discovered the power of this industry leading analytics platform.
Big Load
As our team of data experts architected and white-boarded a solution, we quickly realized this would be a big undertaking. Combining multiple systems into a single source of truth required advanced data modeling and data engineering expertise.
Utilizing our agile iterative Data Success Framework we were able to build a Power BI prototype in just a couple of weeks. We were able to quickly get feedback from business stakeholders and continue building. In just 8 weeks, our team at Fulton Analytics was able to deploy a custom real-time Construction Analytics Dashboard that:
Streamline Project Management to mitigate overages and inefficiencies
Project Management Scorecard to track performance and increase accountability
Identify bottlenecks and remove obstacles to on-time project delivery
Mapping with drill-through by project location and quick insights tooltips
Digging Pipelines
Any good construction project starts with a solid foundation; a good data analytics project is the same. Our team consolidated data resources by moving them to the Azure cloud platform and building robust data pipelines to feed the analytics solution. These automated pipelines were critical to ensuring the data was refreshing real-time. Today, the cloud-based environment gives them the foundation and scalability to build out Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and Advanced Analytics solutions in the future.
The Final Build
The opportunity for Digital Transformation in the construction industry is massive. However, data-driven transformation can be a messy proposition. By selecting an industry-leading platform like Power BI and engaging an experienced partner to help with the ‘dirty work’, we were able to deliver a custom analytics solution in just 8 weeks. The solution will help this Midwest-based construction company realize ROI of tens of millions of dollars.
To design a custom data analytics solution contact: info@fultonanalytics.com
Robert Gerads is CEO of Fulton Analytics, a data analytics strategy and consulting firm based in St. Paul, MN.
He is also the founder of the Twin Cities Power BI Meetup.