Contractors throughout Australia’s construction industry want to have effective control of their own data, the latest survey suggest.

Conducted by ACA Research for construction management software company Procore, the survey of 160 construction firms of different sizes found that companies want greater control over how and when they can use and access their data.

Across those surveyed, 73 percent of respondents said they should have access to their data however and whenever they want to access it.

Moreover, 56 percent of all companies and seven in ten large companies say they would change software providers if need be in order to gain greater control over their data.

Nevertheless, the survey showed that many contractors are experiencing challenges in this area.

All up, 29 percent of respondents overall and 48 percent of large respondents are required to pay a fee in order to export their data whilst almost one-fifth believe that their data is owned by their software company.

In other survey results:

• More than one third of companies surveyed (34 percent) say data capture and analysis improves efficiency and productivity. This increases to 72 percent among large businesses (100+ employees).
• A third of all businesses surveyed (33 percent) and 62 percent of large businesses identified better risk managementas a benefit of leveraging data.
• All businesses recognise operational cost savingsas an advantage in using data to drive decisions. More than a quarter of companies (26 percent) believe they could save between 10-20 percent if they fully utilised all available data to drive better outcomes.

Tom Karemacher, Vice President APAC at Procore Technologies, said the importance of data has been highlighted during the pandemic as contractors have needed to be agile, make difficult decisions and deliver more with less.

“The results of this recent survey confirm that data insights and analysis is a key strategic priority helping construction companies identify quality and safety issues, improve decision making, save time, and reduce costs,” he said.

Matthew Rayment, Chief Operations Officer at PBS Building, said accurate and real-time reporting was critical in order to identify and address issues quickly and decisively and to focus upon strategic priorities and forward planning.

Rayment said PBS did not engage with software providers who charge for data access.

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