Stop Playing Telephone with Your Construction Data: Achieve a Single Source of Truth with Technology

Telephone is a kids game, meant to prove that sharing information from one person to another can degrade the accuracy of the information. If your operations are running with disconnected data sources and limited accessibility across your team, you’re essentially playing telephone with your team and business, which could result in negative project outcomes. 

Let’s take a closer look at the problem with disconnected data and how technology can help you and your team achieve a single source of truth that will not only modernize, but drastically improve your business. 

Disruptions from multiple systems and data sources

As your business has grown, it’s likely you’ve added new processes and technology to help your team manage the influx of work and resolve challenges along the way. That’s a good thing. The problem, however, is that sometimes these solutions don’t speak well with one another when they are pieced together over time. When this happens, your team is forced to rely on multiple systems to manage an ever-growing workload. And when critical project data is housed in multiple systems, you lose sight of the cohesive picture and risk going over budget, over time, and damaging your reputation.

Disconnected systems also impair your team’s ability to effectively communicate and collaborate, resulting in impaired or even failed project performance. When team members are not accessing the same information, there’s an increased likelihood of confusion, disputes, delays, safety risks, and overspending. If just reading that gives you a sense of anxiety and stress, you can understand the depth of the problem we’re talking about here.

Continuing to purchase one-off solutions to fill the gaps only perpetuates the problem. The goal should not be a short-term or pressure point fix, but rather a long-term solution that can resolve the pains of today, while strengthening the company for the challenges and growing pains of the future. 

Opportunities for modernization 

Recent research from Deloitte suggests that the engineering and construction industry is moving toward connected construction to unlock new value streams in 2022. According to Deloitte, “these technologies can help bring assets, people, processes, and job sites onto one platform—making everyone and everything work smarter—reduce downtime, optimize asset utilization and efficiency, and gain greater visibility into operations.”

Further, the Construction Industry Institute promotes that “adoption of proven technology can improve construction industry productivity by 30-45%.” 

New technology investments are enabling construction and earthworks firms to increase efficiency, improve accuracy, streamline communications, and improve worker safety, among other advantages. 

The opportunities for modernization and optimization are boundless. By approaching new technology investments through a holistic lens, contractors can build a connected system that enables teams to operate and collaborate via a single source of truth.

What does a single source of truth really mean? 

As the name suggests, a single source of truth is the aggregation of data and information into a central hub that can be accessed by multiple stakeholders. It creates a single reference point, thereby eliminating data silos. 

Single source of truth for survey data and mapping

Many construction and earthworks firms are moving away from traditional surveying techniques that rely on a base and rover as their primary mode for survey data. Instead, they are leveraging drone surveying technology. Why? The simple answer is flexibility, efficiency, and ease of use. Not only do drone surveys reduce the safety risk on site, they allow surveyors and the entire team to capture highly accurate survey data in a fraction of the time (and as often as they’d like!). 

After the drone flight, the survey data is then processed either in-house or using a drone data processing and visualization provider, like Propeller. In-house processing requires skilled personnel to manage the data and deliver it to the team in a usable format, which can take valuable time and resources away from the project. Using a solution like Propeller, the team can simply fly the site, upload the data, and let our team of experts handle the processing in 24 hours or less, reducing the pressure on the team and ensuring optimal accuracy throughout the process.

Once processed, Propeller delivers each survey in a realistic and geographically accurate 3D model that allows the team to: 

• Assess how your project is doing across the entire lifecycle of the project
• Conduct virtual walkthroughs of your site, spot hazards, and resolve disputes
• Validate work
• Calculate stockpile volumes, measure surface areas, and visualize cut/fill 
• Edit terrain to remove inaccuracies and obstructions 
• Compare surveys to track progress 
• Communicate and collaborate with all stakeholders, regardless of location
• Generate and share reports 
• And more

The value of a drone data mapping and visualization solution like Propeller is optimal visibility, accessibility, and usability of your site survey data and production volumes. Propeller also seamlessly links up with many existing systems to ensure your data flows effortlessly. There’s no guesswork or siloed data to contend with—everyone has access to a single source of truth for your job sites. 

Propeller eliminates the need to play “telephone” in your construction and earthworks business. 

Are you dealing with disconnected systems in your construction or earthworks business? It’s time to stop the madness and lean into drone data technology that offers a single source of truth and the ability to scale with your business. Check out what Propeller can offer during a no-risk consultation. It can’t get much easier than that!