Head contractors in the Australian and New Zealand construction industries are adopting technology in response to COVID-19 according to a study by Autodesk.

The research report, Connected procurement: The foundation of construction success, was based on a survey by Censuswide in June 2020 of 503 construction project owners, head contractors and subcontractors involved in the tendering process.

It finds that 26% of owners, 24% of subcontractors are 20% of head contracts in ANZ have adopted technology in response to the pandemic as well as 80% of contractors seeing errors in some or all of their construction projects as a result of outdated manual processes.

“Autodesk commissioned this survey to explore the tendering process across the construction industry, including how new and existing business relationships factor into the process, the impact of COVID-19, the extent to which technology is being used and its potential future impact,” Autodesk Construction Solutions head of marketing,” APAC operations Adele Bernard says.

“We found that technology is being adopted broadly by the construction industry in 2020. The industry is moving to a digital world to reduce errors and risk, save time, connect with the right suppliers and work effectively remotely.”

The survey results found that across ANZ, the technologies used to invite, submit and review tenders currently are email, Google Drive, Microsoft Excel, Dropbox, Microsoft Project, spreadsheets, custom solutions or paper-based tender submissions.

“The preconstruction process, and specifically procurement, remains highly individual. Many companies make limited or disjointed use of technology, leading to inefficiencies and errors that can compromise the success of the project – and the business,” Adele says.

“Challenges experienced during the process of procurement and tendering can ultimately impact project outcomes. Whether a business makes or loses money is down to the things they do before – rather than during – construction.

“Inefficient procurement processes increase the risk of mistakes that could have serious repercussions for the business or the project itself. Technology can help to overcome issues during this process and prepare for the future of construction.”

In October 2020, Autodesk announced the international expansion of BuildingConnected, a construction management solution that centralises and streamlines the tendering process, and encompasses the Autodesk Construction Cloud builders network, a crowd-sourced network of construction professionals. BuildingConnected is now available for customers in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Ireland.

BuildingConnected helps preconstruction teams:

• Quickly solicit bids with customisable templates and accurately compare those bids in a side-by-side ‘apples-to-apples’ fashion;
• Track against internal budgets with real-time cost updates;
• Easily collaborate with other estimators on the team, and follow communications and bid versions;
• Export bids and summary sheets for transparent collaboration with owners; and
• Gain valuable insight into historical bid data and reports to optimise for future projects.