The digital transformation of the built environment has accelerated the need for seamless information transfer between construction and operations. As a specialist in market engagement and business transformation, my focus is on facilitating the essential dialogue necessary to bridge critical industry divides.

This commitment to collaborative transformation was exemplified during a pivotal panel discussion I helped put together and participated in, as part of facilitating the Digital Buildings Council’s (DBC) event partnership with Digital Construction Week (DCW). The session, held on 4 June as part of the new Digital Operations Stand sponsored by Glider, was directly aimed at tackling one of the most persistent challenges in our sector: the pervasive ‘project-operations gap’. The panel was masterfully moderated by rugby World Cup legend Matt Dawson MBE.

The Challenges: Navigating a Fragmented Landscape

Our panel brought together a distinguished group of experts including Nohman Awan (Balfour Beatty), Claire Callan (WSP), Hugo Corrie (Turner & Townsend), Sam Pickering (The Instant Group) and myself. Their collective insights illuminated a complex web of challenges hindering the seamless flow from construction to operations:

• Project Duration and Evolving Technology: Long project timelines mean that initial technological requirements can become outdated by the time of construction, leading to client frustration. Claire Callan of WSP noted that “different teams asking similar questions at various phases adds to this frustration,” highlighting systemic inefficiencies.
• Maintaining Client Engagement: As Hugo Corrie of Turner & Townsend highlighted, clients often “lose interest over a process of time” due to the lengthy nature of projects, making sustained engagement a significant challenge without repetitive questioning.
• Diverse Tenant Needs in Flex Spaces: Sam Pickering from The Instant Group underscored the complexities of accommodating numerous businesses and employees within a single building, each with unique operational, integration, and security requirements. This multiplies the challenge of unified smart building management.
• Information Security (Infosec) Concerns: Particularly in the flex market, the “infosec piece” creates a significant barrier, where trust between landlords and their objectives often creates a blocker for data sharing and system integration.
• Siloed Working: The industry traditionally operates in fragmented silos – planning, designing, constructing, and then operating. This separation, especially where “smart is siloed over here, BIM is siloed over here,” actively hinders integrated progress and holistic asset management.
• Handover Challenges: The transition from construction to operations is often problematic, involving the integration of “multiple specialist systems” that are often presented as disparate computers rather than a unified, connected system. There’s a perceived “fear within main contractors of actually having these systems online” early due to increased scrutiny and digital commissioning.
• Vague Contractual Requirements and Data Standards: Contracts are often “too vague,” and simply referring to an “ISO standard or a British standard is great, but it doesn’t go far enough” in specifying data standards. Stephen Boyd, a strategic advisor to Glider, called for “more consistent and end to end structured data standards.”
• CAPEX vs. OPEX Mindset: A significant financial barrier is the prevalent mindset that views CAPEX (capital expenditure) as “good spend” and OPEX (operational expenditure) as an “overhead,” hindering a whole-life perspective and rejecting beneficial long-term OPEX approaches.

Forging Solutions: Progress and Opportunity

Despite these hurdles, our facilitated discussion uncovered numerous promising solutions and areas of progress:

• Post-Occupancy Support: WSP, for instance, implements “post occupancy scope,” providing six months of support to help clients adopt new tools and ensure sustainability goals are met, acknowledging that true handover extends beyond practical completion.
• Early Engagement and Defined Specifications: Panellists agreed that bringing “operational teams into the process at the outset” is crucial to avoid a “complicated mess” at handover, ensuring requests and specifications are well-defined.
• Performance Contracts: My own contribution highlighted the rise of “performance contracts,” which keep main contractors involved longer to deliver on operational performance promises, aligning design and operational outcomes. This “Design for Performance Management” approach ensures buildings can meet specific targets.
• Breaking Down Silos: Speakers emphasized integrating “smart technology and BIM” and viewing “digital as a whole,” noting that “working together as one is where we’ve really seen massive strides.” Balfour Beatty, for example, uses “contract requirements as ‘carrot and stick’ to ensure digital system adoption” within their supply chain.
• Digital Commissioning: This process offers “powerful verification capabilities during handover,” allowing immediate identification and rectification of issues like missing metering data from a specific floor, as noted by Claire Callan.
• Understanding Actual Building Usage: With hybrid work models, it’s vital to “understand actual building usage patterns” to inform system design and ensure efficient operation, including how buildings will be shut down or operated when partially occupied.
• Owner-Operators as Leaders: My insights also pointed to “owner operators” being “at the forefront of smart buildings with well-developed design guidelines” and asset philosophies, leveraging their extensive experience and “hard lessons along the line.”

The Power of Collaborative Dialogue

This panel, which I helped curate and participated in, serves as a powerful example of how strategic engagement can uncover complex industry challenges and forge actionable solutions. By bringing together diverse perspectives from across the construction and operations lifecycle, we facilitated a dialogue that transcends traditional boundaries. Such collaborative conversations are essential for enhancing professional understanding, fostering knowledge sharing, and ultimately driving the adoption of comprehensive digital transformation.
The discussions around digitally bridging this gap are integral to advancing the industry, fostering shared understanding, and developing the actionable insights needed to unlock truly smart and efficient buildings. The insights gleaned from panels like this reinforce the critical need for standardisation, collaboration, and a holistic lifecycle perspective in the digital built environment.