The government has to play a major role in pushing technology adoption in the AEC domain.

Vijay Gupta, Founder & CEO, SoftTech Engineers Limited

What is your assessment on the critical role, construction software can play in transforming the AEC domain - the way we plan, design, manage and construct a project and also maintaining the asset?

Things have changed a lot for the AEC domain from the technology perspective and I would call them progressive trends. Globally, the adoption of internet, mobile applications and cloud technology is helping the AEC industry to manage and monitor construction projects from remote locations. In India, the trend is catching up fast both in public and private enterprises.

The technology world, today, is moving towards the cloud. The data mining and big data analytics are gaining momentum. Irrespective of business size, cloud-based ERP enables significant benefits. Apart from being cost-effective, it also reduces the need for an in-house IT system.

When we speak of blockchain and ERP, this combination highly relies on the need for data management, security, and segregation. Today, almost, every organization needs to have streamlined and structured data, and the integration of ERP and blockchain delivers the same.

What has been the impact of the pandemic on the AEC space and on the adoption of various tech-enabled solutions? 

I must say, there is a challenge for all of us to come out of this current turbulent situation. However, there is always an opportunity accompanied with every challenge. If you look at the current situation, businesses have started transforming the ways the businesses were being conducted traditionally. Hence, I would say, the growth rebound shall be huge.

I believe that online software and systems to digitally manage construction projects now onwards will be considered imperative by business owners for monitoring and decision making for their projects. The building information modeling (BIM) to virtualize the construction project, and monitoring through Virtual and Augmented reality (AR/VR) technologies without moving on to the site will be a boon to address the industry challenges brought by Covid-19. I believe the industry has started learning and adopting this for the survival and growth of the business.

Post gradual opening up, what do you think the major pain points in faster adoption of such tools and what is your suggestion to iron out those issues?

If we look at past six months, there has been a paradigm shift in the mindset of the people in the AEC domain. Considering the challenges in cash flow, supply chain and labor management, the domain leaders have become more positive towards technology adoption. However, it will take some time for complete transformation.

Coming to the pain points, I would say three major areas need to be highlighted.

The first and foremost is the factor of time. Due to this pandemic, we all have lost a considerable time. Hence, it would be a humongous challenge for business owners to overcome this gap. However, we have to start somewhere, and this is the right time to start.

The other important factor is the cash flow and to overcome this challenge, I think the government has to play a major role in pushing technology adoption in the AEC domain. With government support, the larger projects will be digitized and such expenditure on infra will boost the cash flow in the market.

And last but not the least is the workforce. Here, technology players like us have a bigger role to play, allowing optimization of resources and efficiencies through machine learning and artificial intelligence enabled software tools. Now, the focus has to be on automation and business intelligence driven decision making.

With the advent of disruptive technologies like IoT, Big Data Analytics, AI & AR etc, how do you envision the future trends to unfold in AEC domain?

As you see, things have changed positively for AEC domain from the technology perspective. Now, the decision-makers have started understanding the concepts like Big Data, Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and their progressive impact on the business.

We already are seeing an increased adoption of online building plan approval system, moving ahead we will see the trend of designing of 'ready-to-approve' building plans. Generally, the approval time is largely influenced by the time taken for the scrutiny of 2D/3D drawings. Despite the availability of the digital plans or models of buildings, most of the builders and developers are still facing time delays in plan approvals. The delay caused results in an increase in interest costs for developers and leads to higher buying price for end customers.

Hence, there will be a sustained demand for the facility to review building plan beforehand and map it according to the compliance of development control regulations (DCR). Such a facility will enable architects and developers to save time and money on unwanted drawing reiterations and re-submissions.

What contributory role your firm is playing in the rebuilding processes?

SoftTech has been relentlessly working towards the technology innovation for the last 24 years. We firmly believe that in such challenging times technology can help a lot to ease various pressures on the businesses.

In such difficult times, we understand the need for collaboration between public agencies and private players to achieve ease of doing the business. Hence, we have been working with both government and private players in this industry to design and develop relevant technology solutions.

I have always believed that the role of any technology company should not be limited to product development; it should be bigger than that. My vision is to bring convenience, improve efficiency and bring transparency in the process correlated to the AEC domain.

In this post-Covid-19 period, we are standing firmly with all the stakeholders of the AEC domain. True to our tagline, SoftTech will constantly keep working towards empowering transformation in the AEC industry through continuous innovation.

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