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Data: You have a ton of it, likely more than you even know. But are you doing anything useful with it? (Note: You should be.)
Businesses today collect almost immeasurable amounts of data from numerous sources and construction companies are no exception. Some industries, like marketing, put it to work, using data science to develop new customer journeys, better ways to attract prospects, and more.
Put simply, data science is the art of using data to gain insights that help you make better decisions. The field has only started to make inroads in the construction industry, albeit slowly. Still, those that have embraced data science to uncover patterns and trends have been able to better avoid missteps and steer their businesses to greater profits.
Data science helps construction companies solve some of the issues that most plague them such as poor planning, budgeting, miscalculations, cost overruns, low return on assets, or insufficient means for the building. It’s an industry where data science has tremendous potential.
Even small steps in the journey to embracing data science can pay dividends. Let’s look at a few ways data science and construction help build success.
A clearer big picture
Data can give you a realistic and honest picture of the health of projects and the company as a whole. Of course, this means that your data must be clean, accurate, and up to date. The first step for many construction companies in getting this deeper level of understanding is to improve the data collection process.
A financial automation platform like Briq can help by reducing human error, increasing accuracy, and providing the ability to have real-time data collection. Otherwise, your insights are being based on information that’s out-of-date before you even see it.
Time savings
Because data science takes advantage of huge amounts of information, some of which isn’t best interpreted by people, AI, and machine learning tools are often used to collect, share, or analyze the data.
This frees up time your teams spend on data collection while improving the ability for teams to share information with each other. That time saved can then be turned around to help make better use of the insights gleaned from analyzing that data.
Data analytics
The goal of all this is to gain insights from which to make better decisions. This is done through data analytics. Initially, your ability to analyze the patterns and trends presented from your data may start simple: knowing a location that’s underperforming; seeing a building category that’s more profitable; recognizing slower-paying owners.
Over time, your analysis can become more predictive and prescriptive: what actions need to take place to gain more profitable contracts? Which steps lead to faster payment? What will put a project back on track? where do you need to invest your resources to get the most return?
Learn from your past
To become more predictive, you need to look at both historical and current data. Again, construction companies have a wealth of historical data around the countless projects you’ve completed. Unfortunately, most of this data lies dormant and unused.
By using financial automation, you can conduct various S-curves and highly accurate what-if scenarios to test out theories and strategies to make better decisions about your next steps. You can support your already well-honed gut instincts with the data-based evidence that helps make sure you’re on the best track.
Can you account for everything? Of course not — the last few years have illustrated that — but with good data science, backed by clean, real-time data, you can become more proactive and prescriptive when uncertainties come.
Want to learn more about the benefits of data science in the construction industry? Check out our recent eBook A Match Made in Heaven: Data Science and Construction.
To find out firsthand how Briq financial automation can help you make better data-driven decisions, visit briq.com/demo.
