The construction industry is ripe for revolution. Ever since the financial crisis, productivity in the UK has flatlined – and the construction industry has been one of the worst affected sectors.

Not only did the collapse of Carillion in early 2018 shake the industry, but advancements to technology, the housing crisis and uncertainties presented by Brexit mean that the sector has reached a critical moment. Navigating these changes and obstacles is not an easy task, but, as a result, conversations surrounding trust and productivity have come to the forefront.

Bam Design managing director Andrew Pryke stated that “In this industry, 50% of projects finish over time and over budget.” So how will we move forward into a future where productivity is on the upward trend again and stakeholder relationships are improved?

The construction industry has a reputation for resisting change, but why is this? It is perhaps because the stakes are higher than most other industries. Everything has to be done in a way that you know works. This is not only because of the huge financial risks involved in construction projects, but also health and safety risks that must be taken into consideration. The consequences of faulty construction can lead to lost lives – think Grenfell tower. So, by necessity, the industry is risk averse and slow.

Change does comes at a cost, but the cost of better industry-wide productivity should never involve risking lives or compromising the wellbeing of people. Outdated processes and inefficient industry practises are what are eating up budgets – and those are the corners that need to be cut.

• Skills Shortage – There has been a chronic skills shortage along the supply chain. This problem has only worsened with the EU referendum and the plunging value of the pound causing many EU workers to return to their home country. And, with Brexit on the horizon the country is likely to lose more talent.
• Paper Industry – The industry lacks a widespread use of integrated business systems and is still heavily reliant on paper-based systems to manage work. Each company will have their own system to manage jobs – meaning that information has to be duplicated between different parties along the chain of work, which is time-consuming and leads to errors.
• Poor data management – The industry is awash with data, but often companies don’t have immediate access or the right tools to do anything with it. IFS global industry director of engineering, construction and infrastructure Kenny Ingram remarks that Carillion’s collapse “happened for all sorts of reasons, but partly perhaps because they didn’t have the right information to make decisions early enough.”
• Poor information management – This is often as a result of poor data management but also can also be a result of lack of sufficient systems in place leading to information being mismanaged, emails being lost, reports being sent to the wrong recipients etc. This incurs a more immediate and widespread risk.

According to a recent study, 25% increase in productivity could almost double the UK average profit margin of construction companies. The issue is critical to the economy, but what can be done to solve it?

• Apprenticeship schemes – The industry needs to re-engage with young people to offer more attractive careers in the industry.
• Improving diversity quotas – The gender pay gap in the construction industry is one of the worst in the UK. By encouraging more women to join the construction workforce, the industry could dramatically reduce the labour shortage.
• Embracing new technologies – The adoption of new technologies, such as integrated workforce management systems, will help the industry to significantly streamline the various stages of any one job. Using systems with analytics and reporting tools built into the dashboard allows for the end-to-end visibility of any one project. It is also a way to provide better management of data.
• Better communication – Better communication between parties means a higher likelihood of carrying out the job in the most efficient way. Using an integrated workforce management system is one way to access all contractors and levels of management in real-time throughout a project’s lifecycle.
• Better data management – Having someone who is responsible for inputting data in a particular convention and analysing that data would mean companies can keep on top of their progress and spot mishaps as they occur. Rearranging the data in spreadsheets could improve data management allowing stakeholders to spot trends earlier.
• Offsite and modular methods – The use of offsite and modular methods could help to provide badly needed housing stock at a quicker and more economical rate. These methods are more economical as the scale of production increases with government targets to build large numbers of homes. By preparing building units in controlled factory conditions you can better adhere to health and safety standards whilst avoiding the detrimental effects of weather on site which can often slow the process down. These are not a panacea and can’t be used in all scenarios, but may help to keep cost and time down in some projects and therefore have a positive impact on productivity.

Short term cost savings should not detract from long-term value. This comes into apprenticeships, social value and construction projects that stand the test of time. This is vital if we are to move into a more sustainable future for construction. The key for the industry is not only embracing new technologies, but entering this era of digital transformation with a comprehensive strategy in place so that everyone is informed along the chain.

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Trust is paramount for any company to function. It is the confidence, between individuals and between companies, that the work gets completed in the best possible way.

Construction projects are the backbone of economic growth for many countries. Each year a magnitude of funds is funnelled into infrastructure projects – think HS2 and Crossrail in the UK. But often because of the sheer scale and complexity of these construction projects (the number of phases and contractual links, and the government involvement), scope for corruption in the industry is high. However, trust issues often also arise from much less nefarious circumstances. Usually, because of miscommunication i.e. something not being noted down in minutes, minutes being distributed later than expected, change orders not being acknowledged etc.

The collapse of Carillion in early 2018 shook the UK construction sector to the core and brought the trust conversation to the forefront. Brexit, the housing crisis and sustainability issues also present the industry with hefty obstacles. Having a solid foundation of trust is now more critical than ever.

In the words of Laurence Peberdy, a freelance Project Manager for the construction industry, “The main function of trust in the construction industry, is that it allows for changes to the contract to be incorporated in a way that is not obstructive to the programme.”

In an ideal scenario, the instruction process used to alter construction contracts is usually as followed:

• The change order (CO) is issued by a Project Manager (PM) or Contract Administrator (CA) to a Contractor or Construction Company.
• The Contractor will then respond to the change order with an estimated impact of the change upon cost and time (it is a form that they fill out, for example they may advise, ‘this change would add 4 weeks to the programme and cost an additional £2000’).
• The Project Manager would then review this response and decide whether or not to instruct the change by issuing either a Project Manager’s Instruction (PMI) or Contract Administrators Instruction (CAI).
• Finally, the Contractor acknowledges receipt of this instruction.

In some scenarios, a project manager will need to issue an instruction without issuing a change order and waiting for advice regarding time and cost implications from the contractor – this requires the PM to trust the contractor.

The construction payment model is heavily reliant on credit. The cost of materials and labour can be substantial, and the need to float this cost can be detrimental. This credit-based approach extends along the entire chain of work. In many cases, a company’s own bills can’t be paid until payment is received from parties higher up on the contracting chain. Stresses for lower-tiered stakeholders can create problems and risk for those on the top-end too. There’s room for money to slip through the cracks all the way along this chain and, thus, the likelihood of disputes is high.

In construction projects, clients are very inclined to change their minds. The process of formalising this change is by sending a contract administrator or project manager the instruction via email to the contractor. These emails can often be missed and you end up with changes not incorporated. This can lead to big mistakes causing trust to breakdown if both (or either) parties feel the other can’t be responsible for the communication procedures.

Similarly to the payment situation, general job information can be lost or missed along the chain of contractors and subcontractors. It’s normal for the work to be concealed and the cost and difficulty to see that the work has been done according to standards makes it appealing for contractors to do a poor job and bribe officials to certify their work. There is also a culture of secrecy surrounding costs and the true costs are often kept secret in the name of confidentiality.

Paying people on time engenders goodwill between two parties. One way to achieve this is by implementing a workforce management system that integrates with your invoicing system. This means, as soon as a job is complete, you can raise an invoice straight away – leading to faster payments and less disputes along the chain of work.

You could also improve trust by improving a company’s ability to quote, so the numbers come in right away without any unpleasant surprises.

Delivering on time and on budget means optimising the communication and decision making process.

Matt Voyce, Construction Director at Quintain says “We deal with issues in a very fair and quick way. We’re very streamlined in our management, we can take fleet-of-foot decisions that are in the interest of the job. We don’t allow things to fester; we deal with things head on.”

This means having a way to access all contractors and levels of management in real-time. Better communication between parties means a higher likelihood of carrying out the job in the best possible way.

Integrated workforce management systems like Okappy give stakeholders a better view of the status of jobs. Users have the ability to edit the job details as they’re updated and also view job history for each respective customer or subcontractor.

You could also improve trust by using information management technology for clearer version control, so you can track changes to a project as they happen and still access past versions. BIM 360 is a system that gives users the confidence that they are always working on the most current version, whilst also knowing that they can access older versions when required.

The effect of poor trust between industry stakeholders is the increased likelihood of failing a client’s needs. These stakeholder relationships focus on their respective self-interests rather than on mutual interests. Innovative collaboration systems are what provide the building blocks for a more trustworthy industry. The improved efficiency and communication that they bring will lead to an industry that thrives AND stands the test of time.

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This was a big year for Okappy and we couldn’t be more proud of the product we’ve been working hard on over the last 3 ½ years! Reflecting upon our journey, we thought we’d share a review of how far we’ve come this year.

Improved Performance

On the technology side, 2018 has seen improvements to the reliability and performance of the system as usage has grown dramatically. Part of improving performance is understanding where the bottlenecks are.

Over the year we’ve implemented better monitoring so we can improve our understanding of the performance and reliability of the platform. This has allowed us to dramatically speed up certain aspects of the system and better handle large spikes in traffic. We’ve also implemented automated testing across the platform with over 1,000 tests now running each night!

New Developments

Highlights of the features and improvements we’ve rolled out this year include:

• The ability to link jobs
• A more in-depth auditing to the system
• Improvements to reporting functionality
• Enhancements to search throughout the platform
• Improvements to the calendar and scheduling
• Improvements to the performance of the iOS app when in poor network conditions
• Enhancements to Android app for more consistency with the iOS app

Over the next quarter we’re planning to work on the following:

• Optimising our onboarding through the website and apps
• Allowing customers to add/edit their own templates
• Enhancing invoicing, calendar and scheduler
• Improving location functionality within our apps
• Improving performance across the platform
• Automating and promoting referrals

Thought Leaders

This year we’ve been invited to give over 8 seminars to industry leaders on how companies can adapt to the changing world of work. This included speaking at UK Construction Week and being shortlisted to speak at the Mayor of London’s TechInvest event for smart city technologies. We were also selected to be on the innovation trail at UK Construction Week. This year we’ve more than doubled our social media following and continue to generate interest across the Trades media.

Out and About

This year we attended 4 trade shows including the Facilities Management show at Excel, Construction Week at the NEC, Drain Trader show in Glasgow and HVAC show at Excel. These shows were a great opportunity to meet with industry leading companies and raise awareness of how Okappy is helping businesses to better collaborate.

In the Press

We’ve received a lot of coverage in the Trades press over the past year and have also taken part in a number of marketing collaborations with other businesses. We’d like to thank FM World, FMJ, Drain Trader, ThisWeekinFM, iOffice, Elevation Magazine and UK Construction Week for their support and promotion of our core work.

Seeing Our Customers Thrive

It has been very heartwarming to see our efforts reap benefits for customers. We have received a number of reviews from customers who have really benefited from the system. Here is a selection of our favourites…

“This app is superb, it’s changed the way my business operates. I run a building and maintenance firm. It has saved us a lot of time and money in the past 9 months. I can’t rate it highly enough. The support is also very good.” – Leo, Director LA Rosser Ltd.

“Okappy has reduced the amount of paperwork by about 90% and, on an even better note, it has reduced my workload by about 80% as a Service Manager who manages multiple engineers… The Okappy system has improved the service we provide whilst helping to make us super efficient and provide the best service for our customers.” – Lee, Services Manager at BEC Security Perimeter.

“With Okappy, we now collaborate in a whole new way! We get the job done far more efficiently than we’ve ever been able to, which has had a real positive impact.” – Anthony, Director of Convert Water Ltd.

“We can always see what is going on with each job at a glance. We get job information back straight away but I always have the option to change it if I need to.” – Mark, Managing Director, Maclin Pumps.

“Okappy helps us build better relationships in the industry. It’s not just job management, but a network to connect with our employees, customers and subcontractors!” – Kris, Director of MW Lifts Services Ltd.

The A-Team

And, of course, none of this would be possible without the hard work of team Okappy behind the scenes! This year the team has really grown. Earlier in the year we welcomed Joe who has been leading on the Sales front and  Zeeshan whose wealth of expertise on frontend development has helped us accelerate building a software we are truly proud of. We’ve also had a number of interns and short term employees including Noah who helped us work on our API and Ren who worked across testing.

Not only do we feel we have the right balance of creativity, technical know-how and fine-tuned business acumen, but a group of people who share the common goal of creating a product that really helps improve people’s working lives. We believe we have an opportunity to help millions of companies around the world collaborate and communicate in a better way. So on that note, we wish you all a happy new year and look forward to what 2019 has in store!

To end, here is a selection of some of our personal highlights and lowlights from the year…

Robin, iOS Guru 

“My low points involved

unnecessary anger

upsetting people

My highest point was

getting a sneaky haiku

onto the app store”

Joe, Chatty Sales Guy 

“My lowest point was when I gave myself whiplash whilst I flung my bag over my shoulder running for the train in my excitement to get to work. But the high point was that I found a good Osteopath…”

Naomi, Artsy Fartsy Person 

“My highlight involved working closely with Joe to work out the perfect coffee blend for our coffee breaks. My lowest moment was one day when the office manager announced there was no more coffee… we really lost the plot that day (a bit like this).”

Zeeshan, Frontend Dude 

“My highlight was speaking at a Raspberry Pi Conference about importance of AI and presenting a Raspberry based solution for loading bays at busy industrial units. My lowlight was sticking my car’s wing mirrors with scotch tape after motorcyclists broke both of them and I did not have time to go get replacements. Mind you, this could easily be a highlight as three months on, the scotch tape is holding strong.”

Richard, Everyone’s Boss 

“My low point was getting Robin angry when I noticed he posted a haiku onto the app store. My high point was seeing the look on Naomi and Gerry’s faces when they realised that Joe spent more time doing his hair in the morning than they did.”

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