{"id":177,"date":"2016-06-10T11:17:30","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T18:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/blog\/?p=177"},"modified":"2024-04-02T15:19:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T08:19:53","slug":"contractor-forecast-cloudy-big-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/blog\/cloud\/contractor-forecast-cloudy-big-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Contractor Forecast: Cloudy With A Chance Of Big Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

How often have you been out to a construction site when you see a foreman working on a plan and they are not sure whether or not it\u2019s the right one? What if the architect made a change back in the office? Or how many times has your client wanted to add last-minute changes to a half-a-year long project? Can the average general contractor manage all these requests?<\/p>\n

Technology has\u00a0rapidly escalated the status quo for how we do business across every profession.\u00a0Clients will be demanding\u00a0more out of their projects\u00a0than ever before. Particularly, as we take a look at the forecast of today's construction industry, we'll examine how whether or not new technology actually solves some of the problems or burdens the average contractor with more uncertainty.<\/p>\n

The field today<\/strong><\/h2>\n

With some\u00a0rustling and soft\u00a0breezes of change slowly gaining traction in\u00a0the field of construction, certain trends have begun cropping up. Clipboards are now traded in for tablet devices, notepads being\u00a0replaced with smartphones, and we\u2019re even budgeting for social media now! The days of yonder seeing pencil clippings and paper trails in the field\u00a0are gradually fading as more and more job sites become \"paperless\" in a sense. However,\u00a0simply exchanging\u00a0PDFs to one another isn\u2019t the same as deploying\u00a0a true \u201cpaperless job-site.\u201d This newfound digital approach isn't\u00a0necessarily better or worse; on the contrary, it's an alternative<\/em>. Another choice for\u00a0morphing the\u00a0tried-and-true\u00a0best practices\u00a0we preach with the existing tech of today.<\/p>\n

After all, if it's not broken, why fix it?<\/p>\n

One of our very own founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, once ran into this same predicament\u00a0and his rebuttal?<\/p>\n

\u201cAn ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Innovating new technology can be that ounce of prevention. With cutting-edge software solutions<\/a> in development today, we are slowly, yet surely seeing it make\u00a0its way into the hands of project managers and every general contractor around the world. With the capacity to mitigate risks and provide laser-focused accuracy for surveying the field, it can make building larger projects less discombobulated, while at the same time deliver a more economical return on investment in time and resources.<\/p>\n

A new era of industry<\/h2>\n

The margin for human error is forgivable on an occasional basis, however tracking and measuring the reasons why those mistakes happen in the first place is what counts most. With better and improved ways for implementing, integrating, and executing projects of all scope and sizes, construction management software can make the jobs of every engineer and contractor provisioned in a much safer job-site and also offer a lens to progressive measurements for handling future workloads more efficiently.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Computer Aided Design (CAD) software is continually pushing its own envelope\u00a0as well. It\u2019s not hard to believe that\u00a0one day, we'll enable clients to virtually walk through blueprints and floor plans we once were only able to showcase through PowerPoint presentations. Geometric concept designs combined with virtual reality might not be too far off in our case. CAD systems will soon\u00a0expand its reach to every engineers\u2019 workstation with the ability to generate higher capabilities for designing greater\u00a0and more encompassing project schematics.<\/p>\n

We are even starting to see drones introduced into the field by giving a more aerial and dynamic real-time form of surveying. Remote controlled drones will\u00a0offer an alternative way for\u00a0mapping, monitoring, and video recording that only a few years ago, we thought was improbable. These new discoveries have completely reinvented the wheel for many of our traditional methods of surveying and tools of project management. Yet, will these new inventions\u00a0stick? Or will they stumble and dwindle as\u00a0just another fad of the week?<\/p>\n

Fundamentals<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The only\u00a0caveat to this astronomical trajectory we are quickly heading towards, is will we actually have enough data to procure and store all this new and exciting technology? The flash of \u201cnew\u201d often beguiles or even eclipses our non-immediate\u00a0understanding of fundamentals. We sometimes forget\u00a0the most rudimentary basics of simple data requirements.<\/p>\n

In his 1974 collection, Where the Sidewalk Ends<\/em>, Shel Silverstein, author of The Giving Tree<\/em>, poignantly demonstrates this lesson on fundamentals in his poem titled: \u201cInvention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done it, I\u2019ve done it!
\nGuess what I\u2019ve done!
\nInvented a light that plugs into the sun.
\nThe sun is bright enough,
\nThe bulb is strong enough,
\nBut, oh, there\u2019s only one thing wrong\u2026<\/p>\n

The cord ain\u2019t long enough.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The cord in this scenario\u00a0simply means housing more data and having enough computing power for\u00a0your infrastructure. We can have all these flashy new systems and tools in place, but\u00a0if we don't have a long enough cord to plug them in, we're\u00a0left stranded\u00a0in a state of motionless inertia.<\/p>\n

A simple solution could be to purchase and install more servers or expand your IT staff to take care of the problem. That's all fine and dandy, but just as one option offers a path to invest into your\u00a0long-term goals, another\u00a0route might\u00a0provide you with a shortcut.<\/p>\n

The cloud for every contractor<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As technology advances, so too will\u00a0the complexities of managing your\u00a0own internet infrastructure. Which is why those complexities seem rather appealing when we can offload them to someone else's shoulders, don't you think? Say a cloud provider<\/a> for instance. The cloud\u00a0still works\u00a0as a service to\u00a0annex\u00a0your already massive networking infrastructure, yet can also be much more integrated within your network\u00a0to\u00a0further leverage the\u00a0benefits for\u00a0delivering and receiving\u00a0information in real-time. Including\u00a0flexibility\u00a0to scale\u00a0up or down\u00a0<\/span>instantaneously\u00a0and\u00a0custom-built architectures to layer for more security and disaster protocols.<\/span><\/p>\n

At its core,\u00a0the cloud\u00a0is just a powerful server(s) located at an off-site data center. It's a haven where your information can be\u00a0stored and retrieved. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

For the general contractor, this means that your database, containing\u00a0all of your software applications and Building Information Modeling (BIM) programs, accounting information, project management records; every single one of them can be stored 24\/7 and accessible only by\u00a0you, anywhere, and on any one of your team\u2019s devices.<\/p>\n

Think of the\u00a0cloud as segmentation, not separation.<\/h2>\n

The road through\u00a0a\u00a0cloud solution might just be what takes you\u00a0to your destination quicker, yet\u00a0the path\u00a0can\u00a0also intertwine and shift\u00a0to meet\u00a0your\u00a0long-term objectives. As builders, you\u00a0pave your\u00a0own path. The cloud can supply\u00a0the virtual\u00a0brick and mortar to do so. All the\u00a0while\u00a0providing you with the knowledge and expertise\u00a0of seasoned wilderness guides. So by the time those fancy new inventions become\u00a0bug-free and stable to use, you've already been given a road map on where you need to proceed.<\/p>\n

As future\u00a0headlines roll and our anticipation grow\u00a0ever more steadily for newer and bigger tools of the trade, it is vital to remind ourselves of\u00a0the basic undertakings before stepping onto these unearthed territories. Err on the side of caution and remember that it\u2019s okay to take a few steps back to secure your\u00a0foothold. As you take that giant leap onto the fresh new concrete pavement of the world to come (this industry so illustriously has helped molded), just remember to build\u00a0a long enough cord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How often have you been out to a construction site when you see a foreman working on a plan and they are not sure whether or not it\u2019s the right one? What if the architect made a change back in the office? Or how many times has your client wanted to add last-minute changes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[946],"tags":[1044,1045,1046,1047,1036,1048,988,1049,1051,1052,1053,1054,1055],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud","tag-bigdata","tag-bim","tag-business","tag-cad","tag-cloud","tag-construction","tag-contractor","tag-drone","tag-infrastructure","tag-paperless","tag-software","tag-technology","tag-virtual-reality","post-wrapper"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wowrack.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}