Indian Construction Companies Fail To Build ‘Digital India’ Vision: Report

The market intelligence firm IDC in collaboration with Autodesk revealed in its report that only 35 per cent of the Indian construction companies are planning to establish a digital transformation roadmap in next one year, while 24 per cent still have no plans.

Outlook Bureau

Updated on: 30 July 2020 4:46 pm

At the time when construction companies across the world are adopting digital technologies, India’s construction companies across different sectors like rail, road and housing projects are spending just 1-3 per cent of their annual turnover on technologies according to latest survey by International Data Corporation (IDC).

According to the report Europe and the Americas score higher than the Asia Pacific region in terms of digital maturity. In Asia Pacific, Japan is the most digitally mature country, while China and India are the least mature.

Sunil MK, Head of Architecture, Engineering and Construction business at Autodesk India says, “Completing projects on time and on budget remains one of the biggest challenges of the Indian construction sector. Digitisation of construction can not only help in efficient project management, but in the process also boost profits and lead to more sustainable outcomes.” He added that post Covid-era the demand for technology will shoot even in construction industry.

The report said that almost one-fifth of India’s construction companies cited completing projects on time and on budget as a top industry concern, followed by workforce safety and effectively managing risk. As a result, project management, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and client relationship management (CRM) have been identified as the top planned software investments.

The report said IDC defines digital transformation as the application of third platform technologies such as cloud, mobile, big data and social, coupled with organizational, operational and business model innovation to create new ways of operation and growing businesses.

Daniel-Zoe Jimenez of IDC while releasing the report said that unlocking “Digital Deadlocks” can help achieve competitive advantage. “While many organizations worldwide have embraced digital transformation and are bringing new innovations into their businesses, the construction industry has yet to fully reap the benefits of digitalization due to the unique challenges it faces.”