The importance of informaction in the construction industry

Over the past few years, the world has experienced a second technological revolution — a profound transformation in how companies produce and deliver goods and services. This change has been driven by the increasing use of technology across virtually every industry. Today, it's not an exaggeration to say that companies must embrace this transformation and implement digital tools if they wish to stay in the game. And at the center of this transformation lies a fundamental element: information.

Information is now so essential that the global economy revolves around it. It has become the new currency in the business world. A company’s future depends on how agilely it can respond to changes in the information generated and consumed by its users or within its projects. Success also depends on the ability to democratize access to that information within the organization — and to update and leverage it quickly. Much of this capability hinges on a strong alliance with technology.

The construction industry (AECO: Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations) is no exception to this wave of digital transformation. In our sector, every project generates and relies on vast amounts of information — from pre-feasibility to final delivery and operation. Information has always been a part of our projects. That’s not new. What is new, however, is the widespread use of digital technology. And it’s no secret that our industry suffers from a chronic productivity gap and low digitalization rates.

Despite having access to large volumes of project information, we often fail to use it effectively. As Jonathon Broughton once noted: "Sherlock Holmes was highly intuitive, but only after collecting enough information to eliminate false positives." We need to apply this mindset in construction — to use our data better, to define and control our projects more precisely, and to eliminate unreliable assumptions.

Well-managed information helps us eliminate subjectivity and analyze problems based on facts, not guesses. This is essential for decision-making and for mastering the delicate art of prediction — a skill central to every construction project. After all, construction schedules and cost estimates are exercises in forecasting the future. The only way to make them reliable is to ground them in objective data, so project scope and reality can align as closely as possible — and we can deliver successful outcomes.

Although there’s still a long way to go, I believe we’re on the right path. The construction industry’s push for digital transformation must be accompanied by an equally strong recognition of information’s role as a central asset. We need to understand how to generate it, store it, manage it, analyze it, and use it to forecast outcomes. Only then will our technological efforts lead to a meaningful union with information — and only then will we begin to pay off the historical productivity debt that continues to burden our industry.