Digital Disruption in the Construction Industry
Window manufacturers
In the digital era, the construction industry is still one of the fastest-growing industries. Surprisingly, it has been one of the last industries to be boosted by digital disruption. Now, the race for digital for construction companies has started to tighten; at the moment 70% of construction companies believe that those companies who do not adopt digital tools will go out of business.
Offering Management, among other technologies, is now creating opportunities for construction companies. Buildings are massive and complex projects that are not considered ‘ready’ when the construction project is finished - but rather set into a maintenance phase. Ideally, buildings can be seen as ecosystems that a network of subcontractors maintain and develop with full automation according to the property owner’s development strategy.
From an Offering Management perspective, this unlocks massive commercial opportunities for Offering Management enabled companies that manufacture products or services for the construction industry.
As an example, let’s look at the relationship between a construction company and a window manufacturer. We are in the phase where the constructor starts requesting quotes from window manufacturers based on the specifications defined in BIM. As windows are highly customizable products, let’s assume there are two window manufacturers. Window manufacturer A pulls in the specifications directly from the construction company’s BIM to their quoting tool and production configurator while window manufacturer B crafts their quote manually.
In this case, the window manufacturer A can generate their quote automatically within the same day with a fully customized quote for the product, delivery and related lifecycle services. All this with zero human error in both quoting and production.
While manufacturer B is still waiting to allocate sales support from production, manufacturer A has already delivered their quote using fewer resources in the sales process as well as improving their opportunity of winning the deal with higher profit.
If the construction company cannot provide API access to their BIM, they can use subcontractors’ configuration tools to design or reconfigure the needed products and in response, get a quote for the entire delivery. This way, the desired products will be delivered to the desired construction area, in desired time. Additionally, the subcontractor can increase their efficiency, profits and service quality by including an automated bidding system for window installation partners as part of their automatic quoting process.
The order-to-delivery process can be done with Offering Management tools that talk to each other in every step, from design to delivery to service. The bottom line is that Offering Management tools and methods lower the costs and waste in every part of the process, from design to manufacturing and finally to distribution and lifecycle services - a lucrative offer for construction companies with high ambition delivery schedules and environmental strategy.
Looking for streamlining your quoting or procurement process?