Project bids It is no surprise that 57 percent of construction companies want ac - cess to consistent financial and project data . More competitive bid- ding environments in a fragmented ecosystem can be challenging for contractors to navigate and firms often need to decide whether to bid on a project with incomplete information. Historically, organi - zations have relied on individual knowledge and experience, which is valuable, but may be subject to unconscious bias or affected by individual motivations. With projects of five to 10 years lead time, it is difficult to accurately predict scope, complications and market shifts; misjudging financial risks can have a significant impact on a construction firm operating at, say, 7 percent margin, in an industry with an average bid success rate of 25 percent. AI tools can discover siloed information from historical projects to provide data that commercial teams can harness to make informed de- cisions to balance portfolios and calculate accurate contingency levels. By enabling access to data that may not traditionally be easily avail- able, such as historic contracts, workforce capacity, and geographical average spend, teams can uncover variables that may predict project profitability and enable more efficient and successful tendering. Procurement The subcontractor procurement process can be a lengthy one, with multiple specialists involved and a lack of empirical evidence to inform outcomes. Adopting AI technology can reduce the time and labour intensive process from weeks to days, and avoid any element of un- conscious bias in the process. In an era where sustainability continues to dominate the agenda, organisations in the construction industry can also use AI technology to visually map projects against criteria, such as the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, to identify areas of alignment and whether a project will further the organization’s social and environmental objectives.
The engineering industry can use AI-based technology to build part - nerships to solve the challenges that its clients, and the wider engineer- ing sector, are facing. With the help of iKVA’s knowledge manage - ment technology, large engineering and infrastructure organizations can compare and map out the content of pitches they receive against a framework that is tailored to incorporate their overall strategy and goals. This means that internal and external stakeholders are instantly able to assess the relevance of a subcontractor for future investment or partnership. By visually mapping unstructured data from different locations, large firms are able to identify similarities between new and existing datasets, which allow them to quickly and easily navigate emerging engineering technology solutions offered by a range of po- tential partnerships. A further benefit of the technology is that it enables a variety of organisations to anonymously submit pitches through the portal, which helped to remove any element of unconscious bias when reviewing submissions. It is clear that this type of tool has wider applications in the industry to create connections between contractors and subcontractors efficiently, accurately and without bias. Conclusion Thanks to advances in AI technology, big data can now benefit con - struction teams from the earliest stages of project development by enabling commercial and procurement teams to identify opportunities to successfully secure new project business, improve time and labour intensive review processes and reduce business risk at every stage of a project.
JON HORDEN is the CEO and founder of iKVA, which develops AI-enabled knowledge management software for organizations.
Telematics + Transportation: How to Make Sure You are Ready for the 3G to 4G transition of your telematics devices?
Cellular providers began sunsetting their 3G networks in favor of 4G LTE networks in February 2022. This means that communication devices using 3G will not work, so fleets using the legacy network will need to upgrade their devices. Upgrading to 4G LTE services allows for higher bandwidth and data speeds, wider coverage range, improved network reliability, etc. Most major carriers will shut down their 3G networks by the end of 2022. Some cellular providers are making the switch sooner than others: • AT&T had its 3G network sunset in February of 2022 • Verizon 3G sunset for commercial and government fleet cus - tomers will come at the end of 2022
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August 2022 csengineermag.com
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