Gartner forecasts worldwide IT spending will grow 3% in 2022. The post Fact of the Day – 8/16/2022 appeared first on Connected World. from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/fact-of-the-day-8-16-2022/ via IFTTT Via https://theartofallen.blogspot.com/2022/08/fact-of-day-8162022.html
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Every couple of years there is a burst of M&A (merger and acquisition) activity among construction technology providers. Companies like Autodesk and Trimble have long had an M&A strategy that we have covered in depth here at Constructech. Now, it seems Bentley Systems is also making many big moves, some of which includes acquisitions. Last week, Cohesive, an independently operated, digital integrator business unit of Bentley Systems, announced the acquisition of MaximoCon, a Brazil-based consultancy specializing in technical services for IBM Maximo, which is IBM’s enterprise asset management solution. This is a big move for the construction industry. MaximoCon has worked with Cohesive on a variety of global Maximo systems integration projects, offering both technical and functional senior-level expertise to Maximo implementations. MaximoCon will operate as an integral part of Cohesive in the future. Through the 2020 and 2021 combination of several acquisitions of industry leading advisory and consultancy businesses, Bentley Systems formed the digital integrator business, now newly branded as Cohesive, to advise and support infrastructure owner-operators in their digital transformations. Cohesive partners with clients to develop their digital strategies spanning the full infrastructure asset lifecycle, upgrade their enterprise environments, leverage digitalization, and drive better ESG (environmental, social, and governance) outcomes around efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. The new addition of MaximoCon will enable Cohesive to expand its technical and functional delivery of resources, activating more teams and increasing depth in skill for enterprise asset management projects. Also, last week, Bentley Acceleration Initiatives announced the acquisition of eagle.io, which is a provider of cloud-based environmental IoT (Internet of Things) platform. This will help Bentley augment its infrastructure IoT offerings and expand its footprint in the Australia, New Zealand, and Asia Pacific regions. It will also add to its capabilities of providing evergreen infrastructure digital twins globally. This is much needed today. We need to find ways to digitize critical infrastructure and environments if we want to create a more resilient and sustainable world. Bentley Systems recognizes this need. The acquisition of eagle.io complements the IoT technologies Bentley previously acquired, including sensemetrics and Vista Data Vision. The combination of eagle.io’s customizable monitoring platform with sensemetrics’ end-user-focused applications and Vista Data Vision’s self-hosted solutions will help create a more holistic infrastructure IoT offering. The complementary features will accelerate the creation of vertical monitoring apps for targeted asset types, as well as enable systems integrators and consultants to build practices around the IoT. This acquisition marks one of Bentley’s first step into the environmental monitoring market and positions Bentley to serve in this area. These aren’t the first acquisitions for Bentley this year either. Earlier this year, Bentley Systems additionally completed an acquisition of Power Line Systems, as another example. Compare this to Trimble, as simply one case. Looking back more than 15 years ago, Trimble was primarily a provider of hardware. In 2006, it acquired Meridian Systems, Trimble’s first venture into construction software. Next came a number of acquisitions including Tekla, SketchUp, Vico Software, e-Builder, and Gehry Technologies, just to name a few. Today, there seems to be a race for being the technology leader in the construction space. Who will really own the space? Who has the knowledge about what comes next—both in terms of innovation and needs of the construction industry? While the race to the finish line has a way to go, so far, I like what I am seeing with Bentley Systems. But as I said, the race is long, and it’s still anyone’s to win. So let’s see who has the stamina to pull it out in the end. If you think about it there are really no losers, just all winners since there are really three great companies vying for your business. Whoever wins is surely up against some very stiff competition all the way to the finish line with a leader that has a very steady eye focusing on digital twin, ESG, and so much more, which makes it one of the leaders in the space. If you believe your company provides the most innovation technology for the construction industry, consider entering it for this year’s Constructech Top Products. The ballot is now up, with an early bird discount available. Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #infrastructure #ESG #acquisition The post M&A Shake Up appeared first on Connected World. from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/ma-shake-up/ via IFTTT Via https://theartofallen.blogspot.com/2022/08/m-shake-up.html Collaboration is a buzzword that has been used in the construction industry for more than a decade, but what exactly does it mean for project teams—particularly as it relates to technology? We have some thoughts. The dictionary defines collaboration as the action of working with someone to produce or create something. At its core, collaboration isn’t new. It has been part of the construction industry since the dawn of time. However, when applied in the context of technology, it means tools and systems designed to better facilitate that group work. In the first half of this blog series, we looked at hot, emerging construction technologies. Think robots, 5G, AI (artificial intelligence), digital twins, wearables, AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), MR (mixed reality), and the metaverse. For the second half of this series, let’s look at how technology can enable process, procedures, and business practices. Things like collaboration, project management, scheduling, accounting, estimating, and more. All of these have existed in construction before the dawn of technology but are now being enabled by technology in new and interesting ways. Let’s start by talking more about collaboration this week. At its core, collaboration technology shares data between project team members. In its 2020 State of Construction Technology report, JLL suggests the technology categories that recorded the most growth due to the pandemic were digital collaboration platforms, virtual scanning tools, and safety focused wearables. JLL considers digital collaboration platforms a foundational technology—a building block for many construction companies. The report suggests, “Digital collaboration tools have become a near requirement during the pandemic, to keep projects moving forward even as teams are not able to meet in person. And second, these tools have developed, by growth and acquisitions, into unified platform hubs designed to be the core tool to enable all other technologies to connect.” Typically built on a cloud-based system, this technology enables construction professionals to access design drawings, punch lists, schedules, and any other critical project documents from any location. A good system will both collect data and share it with project teams working either onsite or offsite. In 2021, Gartner conducted a study that shows nearly 80% of workers are using collaboration tools for work, up from just over half of workers in 2019, which is a 44% increase since the pandemic began. Certainly, the pandemic has spurred this on, but here at Constructech we have been talking about collaboration technology long before that. What are your thoughts? Do you use collaboration technology? How does it help? Do you offer collaboration technology? Consider entering it for the Constructech Top Products award. The construction industry is looking for solutions. Now is the time to offer it to them. The post Hot Construction Technology: Collaboration appeared first on Connected World. from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/hot-construction-technology-collaboration/ via IFTTT Via https://theartofallen.blogspot.com/2022/08/hot-construction-technology.html Here at the Living Lab blog, we have been talking about the benefits of technology, the pricing, and value of choosing sustainable products and technologies for our homes. Now, I want to talk a bit about the realities of building and living in a smart home—and what happens when technology doesn’t work the way it is intended to work. As many of you know, I am on a journey with my husband Dave to build a Living Lab—one where we have partnered with several industry players to encourage ecofriendly, energy-efficient, and green living for all. The intention is to demonstrate the most advanced connected products and systems from leading manufacturers and technology companies that are interoperable from across the globe. The objective was to build a house that would be an example for energy efficiency and connectivity. More importantly, the aim was to build a home that was done using green materials and products that are cost effective. The reality—if you have been following along—is many of the technologies are expensive. Truthfully, as of late, I have been disappointed by several vendors that have failed to live up to their promise in the preliminary stages of the build. Let me say, this is not to say I have given up on the project. I do have great hope based on some of the technology companies we have been working with side by side that we will see great solutions come to life, but so far, it’s been a real struggle. Up until the framing of the house, there has yet to be a vendor that has truly delivered on what they promised. There has not been one vendor that has made sure their solution has been installed properly as they pitched. That so-called all hands-on approach they promised when we originally discussed the program disappeared as fast as the words came out of their mouths. In fact, to be very frank, I am not convinced by any stretch of the imagination the average homeowner would want to do some of these things, nor would they care about some of this overall, because the service of these products/solutions is so reprehensible. Or to be clearer, it is not readily available in certain regions of the country. This is a problem we need to solve as an industry. For instance, even knowing we were a media company, one sales rep told Dave, ‘’I don’t give a damn. I am not making any commission on this.” Ouch! Well, that says it all. If that is the attitude of sales in our country, no wonder service in the U.S. is considered so poor. Another point to ponder is an even bigger problem, which is who is responsible when these new tech systems falter. In fact, when they break down the cost to repair proves to be significant and if you do not iron that issue from the beginning, the sticker price might just take a bite right out of your pocketbook. While the installation of these energy-efficient technologies seems wonderful out of the gate, the challenge is when something inside them fails. These high-tech machines are built with computer chips and require a certain programming skillset to install and repair. Thus, when the cost to repair outweighs the cost of the solution, simply it is too high. What’s the point of having the product in the first place? The sales pitch tends to be you will recoup the cost over the lifetime of the product. You might be dead, but someone will recoup it. The other sales pitch is they are not supposed to break down. Well guess what, when they do repeatedly, you are stuck with the repairs and the headache of something not working. And in many cases these same vendors run for the hills and expect you to pick up the tab. Simply, if you do not think through some of these things early in the buying cycle you will regret it later, trust me. Again, you might have more costs that create even bigger headaches because, in the end, your system or product that seemed so impressive is caveat emptor for sure. Let me share one example. We had a program with a construction camera company for the Living Lab. The camera has had some issues for a month, so as a result, we were asked to pay an exorbitant amount of money to repair the system, or have it removed. We didn’t want to pay the additional money to fix something we believed was their problem from the beginning. The company thought their partnership wasn’t worth it so they elected to discontinue the program since we would not pay the costs of the repairs for a camera that was delivering very spotty service for the past month. As much as we enjoyed the camera on the jobsite, we had issues from the early days of its installation. From our perspective, it was obvious the company really wanted to focus on the commercial sector rather than residential, and they did not have the staff in the U.S. to support this effort. Let’s be clear, while this camera company is a nice enough company, their decision to pull the plug is indicative of a much larger corporate problem. Terms and conditions need to be spelled out with all trades and technical companies and service contracts. Unless you get your service agreement spelled out exactly the way you want it, sadly you are going to get stiffed. Simply, these companies renege on these deals. Again. my objective here is not to pick on one company. We had a similar, but a slightly different issue with a lighting company that was looking to make a big score with a popular publishing company. They wanted to charge hundreds of dollars for basic can (recessed) lights. These were the same can lights you can get at Loews for as little as $15 a light. Many companies are so worried about the economy they do not recognize they cannot get blood from a turnip, or they are simply just greedy. At the end of the day, no average homeowner would agree to this, let alone a publisher. This is the point; business is so good they do not care. I am simply struggling that corporate America is willing to flip the bird to everyone and risk the bad publicity just for a few bucks. As an industry, we need to stop and take stock of what is happening and focus on getting our reputation back. Contractors are not showing up to work. When they do, they are rude and messy. They show up one day and miss three others. I can’t imagine what our clients would think if we acted like this. However, we are hearing story after story, and now I can attest to experiencing contractors performing in a manner that matches everything other GCs have been reporting to us. Simply, trades are ignoring repeated calls and even just quitting projects to take the bigger paying jobs, even after they are in the middle of a job. If it doesn’t fit into their goals, a company/individual picks up his/her/their bat and ball and goes home saying it is not worth the investment. Remove the bad actors Sustainability is worth it. We must take the time to educate. We need to continue to educate all of you to remove the bad actors and to work to make a better place for all of us. We need to educate all of us. We are trying to change hearts and minds about climate, weather patterns, heat mapping, you name it. While some vendors just want your money, and they want it fast, not all. Don’t get me wrong there are some formidable vendors, and we will be sharing those great stories as I have already noted. But for now, be very wary of the bad actors. While this vendor removed its camera, other vendors just outright lied about their capabilities. They pitched energy reductions/saving they simply could not deliver. We all pledged to work to educate the industry—you the reader—about the benefits of being more energy efficient, sustainable, and tech savvy, but it seems when push came to shove, it came to making a quick buck, and doesn’t matter at whose expense. We need to focus on the bigger picture. To date, even as I am reporting this, for the first time in 25 years, it is dreadful. And I am not alone. From a bigger standpoint, we are all talking about connecting a lot more devices. If I am having problems already, what is going to happen when I close the walls of this Living Lab? How will the smart home ever take off if the technology is costly, it does not work, and the technology providers are not willing to come alongside the homeowner to find the solution? Respectively, as an industry we need to work together to solve these problems as contractors, tech providers, and prove these solutions are cost effective, or what’s the point? Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #digitaltransformation #green #ecosystem #environmental #circularworld The post The Hard Realities of a Smart Home appeared first on Connected World. from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/the-hard-realities-of-a-smart-home/ via IFTTT Via https://theartofallen.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-hard-realities-of-smart-home.html The construction of this house might look like all the others but look a little bit closer and the home serves as a case study for the future of sustainable living, leveraging leading edge construction technology. Tech expert Peggy Smedley and her husband David are embarking on a journey to build a home that will be a model for sustainable, resilient, and efficient residential homebuilding practices. Letâs take a look under the roof and behind the walls today. From the Ground Up: Project Sustainability Living Lab home leverages the best building materials and innovative solutionsâand construction is well underway. Case in point: Vycor enV-S from GCP Applied Technologies, (recently acquired by Saint-Gobain), which is self-adhering weather resistive barrier that provides an advanced alternative to house wraps. This is a highly durable membrane that directly adheres to the sheathing, avoiding the tears and costly reworks commonly associated with traditional house wraps. The benefits here are clear. The wall is protected from water damage and the jobsite looks neat, sealed, and attractive even during construction. Whatâs more, it offers an air-tight, breathable home that is able to achieve high performance. The goal is to help the Living Lab ultimately build a more energy-efficient and better house. It does not require taping of seams or other special joint treatments along the OSB (oriented-strand board) panels. The result is an energy efficient, comfortable, and an as air-tight as possible house coupled with all the proper ventilation properties along the building process. It is important to keep in mind that while it does not require mechanical fasteners for its installation, the membrane does form a water and air-tight seal around the fasteners used to install siding and exterior sheathing materials, thus avoiding the numerous leak points typical for traditional house wraps. At the end of the day, this membrane helps ensure peace of mind both during and after installation, ultimately reducing costly callbacks and helping provide labor savings. Building on this, VYCOR Plus high performance self-adhered flashing membrane provides premium protection against water and air infiltration in all critical non-roof detail areas. This is just the beginning of the innovative solutions being leveraged on the Living Lab project. Companies are invited to participate in this Living Lab home. All participation and collaboration from suppliers will help determine the success of this construction project. The Living Lab demonstrates and educates how we can create a sustainable, clean, and green future for all homes and future communities. Stay tuned. More is set to come as this project continues to unfold. Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #infrastructure The post A Look Under the Roof of the Living Lab appeared first on Connected World. from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/a-look-under-the-roof-of-the-living-lab/ via IFTTT Via https://theartofallen.blogspot.com/2022/08/a-look-under-roof-of-living-lab.html ABI Research says streaming video, social, gaming, and digital advertising will clear $2 trillion by 2030. The post Fact of the Day – 8/15/2022 appeared first on Connected World. from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/fact-of-the-day-8-15-2022/ via IFTTT Via https://theartofallen.blogspot.com/2022/08/fact-of-day-8152022.html If the saying is correct, “Follow the money.” Money, in turn, follows the easiest path. Have a solution to a problem? Money will flow to you once the concept is proven. This is illustrated every day by following the funds from venture capital firms and investors. In the construction industry, money all too often flows “out the door.” Legacy tools and processes used for designing complex building systems like electrical, plumbing, and HVAC make it difficult and time consuming to ensure designs are feasible for construction. Combined with time and resource pressures, this leads to errors that require significant rework, slowing down both design and construction, and substantially increasing risk, uncertainty, and costs for contractors and engineers – and in turn real estate developers and owners. The ideal, then, would be to find a way to reuse proven designs and implement them quickly. When the industry faces talent and material shortages and pressure mounts due to the inherent complexity of building design, an innovative new technology to solve these challenges is welcomed. Based on early customer trials, Augmenta is delivering the time and cost savings sought by contractors and owners. A fully automated building design platform in the cloud, Augmenta should save costs, labor, and time, and create energy efficient designs that are fully code compliant, error-free, and constructible. It enables a fundamentally new design process that empowers the construction industry to design and build sustainable housing, cities, and infrastructure at scale. By bringing generative design to the construction industry through its ACP (Augmenta Construction Platform) technology, Augmenta is automating the entire design process for contractors and engineers, ensuring the designs they create are optimized according to client needs. This new cloud-based platform, which uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and mathematical optimization, will enable contractors and engineers to create designs of buildings and systems in hours instead of weeks. Building designs produced using ACP are also sustainable since they are fully detailed, coordinated, and optimized. Contractors can use less material in their designs, order only what they need, and significantly reduce wasteful errors and rework. Additionally, ACP optimizes building systems designs to ensure they use less energy and resources, thereby reducing environmental impact over the building’s life cycle. In what is to be the first of several design modules, Augmenta has developed an automated design tool for electrical engineers and contractors that generates fully constructible, code-compliant designs of electrical raceway routing. The platform will reduce turn-around times, costs and risks while ensuring materials are not wasted. Augmenta’s approach has drawn interest from investors, led by Hazelview Ventures, that have funded a seed round at $4.1 million. Hazelview Investments manages CAD$11.6 billion in real estate assets and has a $4 billion development pipeline. Augmenta will use the funds to accelerate development of ACP and pilot their Electrical Systems Design module. Augmenta has partnered with Interstates, an electrical contractor based in the U.S. Interstates has helped co-design and test the electrical module over a period of several months in collaboration with Augmenta. Hazelview Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary and venture arm of Hazelview Investments Inc., focuses exclusively on partnering with innovative, early-stage PropTech, BuildTech, and CleanTech companies. Along with the seed investment, Hazelview Ventures is a strategic partner that will be incorporating the Augmenta platform in construction projects. This partnership will enable Augmenta to test, refine, and scale its platform at an enterprise level and bring efficiencies to Hazelview’s design and construction processes. Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #sustainability #infrastructure #IoT #AI #cloud #futureofwork The post Design Modules Speed Construction appeared first on Connected World. from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/design-modules-speed-construction/ via IFTTT Via https://theartofallen.blogspot.com/2022/08/design-modules-speed-construction.html In order to avoid becoming one of these statistics, it is important to be aware of the most common construction accidents and take steps to prevent them. The post What Are the Most Common Construction Accidents and How Can They Be Prevented? appeared first on At Home in the Future. from At Home in the Future https://athomeinthefuture.com/2022/08/common-construction-accidents-can-prevented/ via IFTTT Via https://theartofallen.blogspot.com/2022/08/what-are-most-common-construction.html There are many ways to save money on your renovation while still achieving the look and feel you want. The post 8 Ways to Save Money on Your Small Bathroom Renovation appeared first on At Home in the Future. from At Home in the Future https://athomeinthefuture.com/2022/08/8-ways-save-money-small-bathroom-renovation/ via IFTTT Via https://theartofallen.blogspot.com/2022/08/8-ways-to-save-money-on-your-small.html Wood has been used for buildings from time immemorial. Timbers have been found, intact, dating thousands of years in the past. Mass timber construction, therefore, has history on its side as well as environmentalists. Wood construction supports sustainability of forests and buildings both. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the awarding of more than $32 million to fund 2022 wood innovations and community wood grants to expand the use of wood products, strengthen emerging wood markets, and support active management to improve forest health and resilience, especially in light of the ongoing nationwide wildfire crisis. The SLB (Softwood Lumber Board) also supports the WIG (Wood Innovation Grants) program, adding over $272K in matching funds for six ambitious projects that will explore and elevate the use of mass timber and mass timber products in commercial and residential construction. Waechter Architecture and KPFF Consulting Engineers received a $40,000 match from the SLB to help identify the barriers to the competitive construction of all-wood buildings. It’s common for new mass timber projects to assume hybrid construction methods in the pursuit of tall-wood buildings. Waechter Architecture is working to construct all-wood buildings and to remove barriers for more of the industry to do the same. Karagozian & Case, Inc. and SmartLam received a $50,000 match from the SLB to build upon a previous WIG grant to construct full-scale CLT (cross-laminated timber) panels with steel reinforcement. This year, the organizations will test the effectiveness of reinforced CLT panels under extreme conditions through blast testing and hygrothermal testing. Equilibrium Consulting received a $40,000 match from the SLB for its CLT Design Tools project. With this funding, Equilibrium will make significant improvements to preliminary tools designed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of CLT floor, roof, and wall design and will also begin to distribute the tools to the engineering community. The Georgia Forestry Foundation received a $22,500 matching grant to develop a mass timber demonstration project in partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology. The project will seek to position mass timber as a solution for sustainable development while building awareness of Georgia’s working forests. Sustainable Northwest received a $50,000 match for its Building Projects with Positive Impact project, which will support intentional wood procurement for five pilot projects across multiple scales, ownerships, and construction types. It will also measure the positive impacts associated with wood sourcing. The Neutral Project received a $70,000 match from the SLB to complete the necessary architecture, engineering, fire safety, building code analysis, sustainability quantification, and preconstruction cost analysis for the completion of two high-rise, mass timber, mixed-used, multifamily developments in Wisconsin. The SLB and USDA Forest Service also recently announced the winners of the 2022 Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-Zero Carbon. Six winning projects were chosen for their ability to demonstrate mass timber’s innovative, scalable applications in architectural design and to highlight its significant role in reducing the built environment’s carbon footprint. The winning projects, which will share $2 million in total funding, are:
Each project will use wood sourced from sustainably managed forests, and many prioritize mass timber that is both domestically harvested and manufactured. Lessons from these projects will be shared with the broader design and construction communities to support project development and replication, including research on cost analyses and life-cycle assessments. Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #sustainability The post Wood Makes Noise appeared first on Connected World. from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/wood-makes-noise/ via IFTTT Via https://theartofallen.blogspot.com/2022/08/wood-makes-noise.html |
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