Earned Value Management plays an important role in construction industry.

We add value to every stage of the project lifecycle in delivery of the built environment.

- Lalu Varghese, Director and CEO, LSS Pvt Ltd

LSS is the exclusive provider of CCS solutions in India since 2009. LSS is a team of dedicated professionals of engineers, accounts, and IT background people with years of experience in the construction industry. CCS provide specialised software to the global construction and engineering industry and have done so for over 35 years. Lalu Varghese, Director and CEO, LSS Pvt Ltd shares his views with Construction Times. Excerpts from the interview…

What is your assessment and foresight on the opportunities of transforming the architecture, engineering and construction industry?

Construction is one of the least digitalized industries everywhere and I foresee huge opportunities the way construction projects are designed, managed, and executed. Thanks to the advancement in computer literacy in India with the younger generation getting introduced into construction, the future is bright as far as the Indian construction industry is concerned. One of the major challenges in the construction industry is cost and time overruns. I believe a good estimate is the foundation of a good control mechanism. To have accurate estimate the quantity to be accurate enough and so is the first principle estimate. EVM (Earned Value Management) plays an important role in construction. This is one solution all team members can see the performance of a project throughout the life cycle and take corrective actions sooner than later.

The proliferation of BIM processes made design aspects much simpler and more collaborative.Overall, the outlook is quite good with the latest introduction of artificial intelligence, cloud-native environments, etc.

What do you think are the major pain points for this transition in terms of integration of different solutions?

The nature of construction is different compare to other industries. There is a lack of integration between several streams; for example engineering aspects, financial aspects, time components, etc has to be in sync for a successful outcome. There are myriad solutions to address these individually but what construction industry required is an integrated solution right from quantity take off after design, rates build-ups, programme CPM, cashflow projections, practicing EVM principles etc.

Brief us on the technology solutions offered by CCS with a brief on any prestigious project where your solutions were used?

We at LSS is the exclusive provider of CCS solutions in India since 2009. LSS is a team of dedicated professionals of engineers, accounts, and IT background people with years of experience in the construction industry. CCS is a South African headquartered company owned by RIB Germany is providing software solutions to construction industries for almostthirty five years. The two main products CCS provides are Candy and Buildsmart. Candy will take care of your engineering side and BuildSmart will take care of the ERP functions. Both are specifically designed for construction industry.   There are many projects our solutions used in India and may be difficult to list here. However, I would like to mention one project Cochin metro our client CVCC used both products right from the tendering to the final accounts. The feedback is quite encouraging, and we are proud to be associated with this company. Our client lists in India include many companies in India like Tata, Afcons, ITD cementation, L&T, Patel Engineering, Capacite, NCC  just to name a few.

 How using such tools positively impact the life cycle cost of a project? 

As I mentioned earlier an accurate estimate is the foundation of success and more you do your estimate in fit to purpose software one will perfect their estimate better and better. As a by-product, several reference projects get created can be used again for future projects. The same estimate after reengineering will be the frozen budget as a goal post to measure the perforce of your project. The traditional spreadsheet approach may be cheaper, but one may pay a high price due to chances of human errors.

Used in more than 50 countries, CCS provide specialised software to the global construction and engineering industry and have done so for over 35 years. We add value to every stage of the project lifecycle in delivery of the built environment. From the first estimate to the final account, CCS's complete cost and enterprise management solution comprising of BuildSmart, our construction and engineering cost management and enterprise accounts solution and Candy, our estimating and project control solution, work seamlessly together providing arguably the most powerful and innovative solution to meet your business needs.

Brief us on the measures taken to support your customers during this crisis?

During this Covid period, we are busier than ever. Our software systems are working from home friendly due to cloud computing and most of our clients hugely benefited from adopting this approach. During this time requirements of online training sessions substantially increased to upskill professionals. We also support academic institutions with subsidized rates software for skill developments of construction students.

How do you expect the trends to unfold post Covid 19?

There are no boundaries with technology. While the construction industry has been notoriously slow to adopt technology, the pandemic has compelled it to embrace digitisation to facilitate remote operations. I believe those who adopted technology will have a better chance compared to non-adopters. The construction will surge back which is one of the major industries after this unprecedented times.

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