Building a digital built environment with low-code tools

Day in and day out, I work with many of you driven by a mission to digitise the built environment and leverage connected information to drive better outcomes.

Some are BIM managers, others are digital managers, digital engineers, virtual design & construction specialists, innovation managers, or even sometimes have more traditional role titles but share the same mission.

They are doing everything from supporting the implementation of the latest information management standards, such as ISO 19650, to piloting promising emerging technologies, such as AI, and IoT, to Robotics. Some even built the visualisation mechanisms they want in solutions like PowerBI, 3D models or GIS in the cloud.?

But, the reality is, that there is still a big chasm between where we are and where we all want to be. A new generation of tools enables professionals to build customised solutions to fill their gaps, connect data and streamline their processes.? To understand why and how these solutions can help, we first need to understand how we got here.?

The evolution of digital in construction

Digitisation in construction has been through multiple phases. We started with digitising key processes such as cost and communications management. Specific software solutions were designed for the individuals responsible for these processes. Terms like BIM and Virtual design and construction then emerged to mark a new era, where different processes and information are more connected. The concept of 4D, 5D and nD BIM took flight to represent using modelled geometry and scope information as a basis for analysis related to cost, time and other dimensions. More recently, we’ve had technologies such as AI, Digital Twins, Robotics, and drones emerge with the promise of ushering the industry into a new era.?Yet, when we look at a macro level, is digital the norm?

The 90% gap

When you look at digitisation in the built environment, it's historically been limited to the 10%. Software vendors focused on delivering solutions that could manage a few processes that were highly repeated across companies and the commonalities between them. The solutions only became warranted for the most complex projects and critical processes.? Quite crucially, these applications were designed with the specific teams or roles they focused on in mind, and did not account for processes that sit in between teams, leaving 90% of the built environment behind.

And every time a new process came out, new solutions were needed. But rigid point solutions cannot keep up, and there are many gaps for organisations to fill.

The magic of Excel is in its flexibility

If rigid solutions couldn’t keep up, professionals needed a way to respond to their problems.? That's where Excel would come in. They could open a blank sheet, add the columns and rows they wanted, and design a solution to a problem that is fit for purpose.?

Professionals in the industry are problem solvers who respond to new challenges daily. And every time, the solution may need to be slightly different. Yesterday we needed to start defining our requirements, planning and tracking deliverables. Today we need to track health and safety-related issues in response to the building safety bill. Tomorrow we’ll need to come up with approaches to track our carbon. Excel allows professionals to quickly and affordably build solutions, at least until they find a better way.?

The opportunity cost of using Excel

That flexibility comes at a cost, though, compared to software solutions. Professionals have to deal with data quality issues and have to spend hours aggregating, cross-checking and sometimes reproducing the same data. Beyond the wasted time and effort administering excel files and data, this introduces risk and makes it difficult for organisations to leverage their data to identify opportunities. The opportunity cost of using Excel is real, but what is the alternative? Professionals need a way to respond to problems and build solutions. (The opportunity cost of using Excel will probably be the subject of a post in the future).

No/low code tools: The new category giving Excel a run for it’s money

In the last few years, a new category of tools has begun giving Excel a run for its money. These cloud-based tools have the agility of Excel but allow professionals to create even more powerful digital solutions fit for their needs. Unlike Excel, they tend to facilitate collaboration and connected data. They have different views to allow richer interfaces that are fit for purpose. They maintain detailed audit trails that record who did what and when. They can be extended and powered up with custom code and have APIs that enable them to be connected to other solutions.?

These tools give professionals the equivalent of superpowers, enabling them to quickly and affordably turn their knowledge of processes into rich, connected web-based applications. Is a deliverables tracker needed? A tracker for Scope 3 emissions? Or a tracker for responsibilities set in the building safety bill? No problem; these professionals can now turn their knowledge into digital applications. ?

Building a digital built environment with low and no-code tools

From digital managers to architects to designers and information managers, they are innovating with these tools and digitising the most niche of processes using tools like Airtable, Notion, MS PowerApps and, of course, our platform Morta.

No-code and low-code solutions are democratising digitisation in the built environment, allowing organisations, big or small, to fill digital gaps quickly and affordably without needing advanced technical capabilities. These tools are being leveraged by professionals to consolidate data using a modular and agile approach to drive data-driven decision-making and increase productivity.

There is no limit to what you or your organisation can digitise with these tools. The only limitation will be your creativity and problem-solving abilities - and if the last 10 years in the industry have shown me one thing, it's that the industry isn’t short on creative problem-solvers. They just haven’t had the tools that allow them to create and build the digital built environment they dream of until recently.?

This article is based on a webinar I provided earlier this week, titled "Building with data: lessons from 30+ implementations", that you can re-watch here. I’ll be posting about our lessons learnt from implementing low-code solutions with over 30 organisations in the built environment my next post.?