I t’s no exaggeration to say that the industry faces a data crisis. The nature of their work means that AEC companies generate vast volumes of project data across design files, contracts, models, field reports, RFIs and more. Yet much of it remains scattered across siloed tools, inaccessible formats, and disconnected teams, acting as a major drag on productivity as workers at all levels waste time hunting for information and duplicating work. This isn’t just an anecdotal observation — research consistently ranks AEC as a data laggard. The construction industry has been among the slowest to digitise.¹ Research has found that poor data and miscommunication cause 52 percent of all rework in construction.² The sector’s data problem is a significant factor in its lagging productivity compared to other industries. All those lost hours chasing data and reworking projects add up. McKinsey found that construction productivity only increased by 10 percent between 2000 and 2022, compared to a 50 percent jump in total economic productivity.³ To understand how the industry can break this cycle and solve its data crisis, Nexus Magazine sat down with Carlos A. Baldor Jr., President and CTO of BST Global, a leading provider of enterprise resource planning and work management software tools for AEC firms. Our conversation explored what it will really take for companies in the industry to harness data as an engine of productivity and competitive advantage.
Q: The AEC industry is drowning in fragmented, siloed data. How are you addressing what many call a “polluted data estate”? A: It’s undeniable that the volume and rate of data being produced have grown exponentially, while the systems and techniques used to manage it are outdated. Much of the information we handle is still locked in formats such as design documents, contracts and models, which makes it inaccessible, hard to search, and often stripped of context or fidelity. Fixing the data estate starts by rethinking how that data is created, not only how it’s stored. Trying to “capture” the data at the end of a project without reshaping the upstream processes is just more of the same. Our approach is to work with clients from the start to understand the desired data outcomes and then redesign workflows around those goals. Take contracts, for example: they’re one of the richest sources of operational insight, yet most firms have no pathway to apply them effectively. Q: Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) everywhere are struggling with data democratisation. How do you balance accessibility with governance? A: Several methodologies have emerged that deal with this exact challenge, and they align with how our product teams evolved to ensure they are focused on their clients and users. Approaches such as data mesh decentralise ownership.⁴ Under a mesh model, the teams closest to the work, whether that is finance, operations or IT, create and manage their own data products. They curate them, govern access to them and define quality thresholds. They are in the best position to own and govern such data products, including who consumes them and how they are consumed. This approach marks a shift from centralised IT bottlenecks to domain-driven ownership. By empowering teams while still enforcing data-product standards, you get the benefits of democratisation without creating confusion. Q: What’s your view on the statement “data is the new oil”? A: It’s a catchy phrase, but overly simplistic. A lot of effort today goes into “mining” data. But data is only valuable when it is used collaboratively and intentionally. Data becomes valuable not by being extracted, but when every producer and consumer feels responsible for its clarity, context and purpose, and when it is actively applied to solve real-world construction and design problems. In knowledge-based industries like AEC, the biggest impediment is inconsistency: people rarely provide information with enough context to be usable across disciplines or levels of expertise. Take the logistics industry: sensors monitor every step of the process, making inefficiencies immediately visible and reinforcing outcomes. AEC could do something similar for asset operations, but this is harder in the design process because projects are so unique.
What drives construction rework
Over half of construction rework is linked to poor data and miscommunication (52 percent).
52%
Rework caused by other factors
48%
Rework caused by poor data and miscommunication
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