Construction Intelligence

Adopting ConXn platform has helped us get multiple options for each specialisation and has allowed our project management team to focus more on execution rather than spending time on finding alternatives and verifying contractor credentials.

Technology adoption is increasing productivity of construction professionals in all aspects – document management systems to simplify coordination, building information modelling to streamline design workflows, formwork systems for faster construction, marketplaces to discover/buy products and companies – the list goes on. This is critical for India because we are extremely short of skilled construction professionals. Consider this – we have an unprecedented urbanisation wave where on an average 31,000 people are migrating from rural to urban areas on a daily basis in search of opportunities. This is expected continue till 2030. To cater to this demand of delivering homes, offices, social infrastructure requires at least 2.5 million architects, over 4 million civil engineers but what we have is less than 100,000 architects and probably 500,000 civil engineers. Hence it is clear that the existing and upcoming construction professionals have a major responsibility to deliver projects at a 5x scale. This is only achievable using technological intervention in all processes of a project lifecycle.

The ‘real’ breakthrough technology
One of the most innovative breakthroughs which I have noticed is ConXn, an intelligence platform for building construction industry based on data and analytics, said Architect Ajay Nahar, Chairman and Managing Director, Nahar Projects while talking about the greatest breakthrough technology of 2016. The platform tracks projects and service providers’ activity throughout India. They have already mapped over 3,200 companies and 7,000 projects, majority of which are in Mumbai. ConXn is a product by Across & Beyond, a niche development management company which understands the industry challenges both from the client as well as the consultant’s or contractor’s perspective.

How ConXn adds value
Traditionally most evolved developers run an extensive prequalification process for their various projects or geographies which lasts anywhere between 4 to 12 weeks. It is usually a major responsibility of contracts or procurement teams to keep infusing new consultants and contractors into their system in compliance with project management teams. This activity and investigation take substantial time, effort and focus and it is usually carried out by very senior professionals.

In this aspect, Architect Nahar observes, “ConXn has automated the credential based discovery of consultants and contractors and saved lot of time for these teams. The introduction meetings with vendors have become more productive as we already have detailed information about these vendors and have an in-depth understanding of their strengths and limitations. We are also quickly able to understand which vendors are doing high-end sophisticated work for which clients in a specific geography. So the 4 – 12 weeks time period is comfortably compressed to 2 weeks or less for most vendors.”

This is an example of a much needed intervention in a process which unnecessarily drags on and eventually results in delaying the award of contracts and thereby the construction process.

He further urges, “Vendors should look at this platform for their business development and visibility needs and share their prequalification information (projects, turnover, safety, quality policies and statistics, client recommendations and testimonials, project completion certificates, etc) with them because more and more developer teams are signing up on ConXn for their needs. This is definitely a better way to reach
out to prospective clients and more than that it allows clients to discover and contact you based on your past work.”

A practical solution
Ajay Nahar’s firm Nahar Projects has adopted ConXn technology in its landmark luxury project ‘Excalibur – By Nahar’ at Mahalaxmi, South Mumbai. “Adopting ConXn platform has helped us get multiple options for each specialisation (example waterproofing contractors) and has allowed our project management team to focus more on execution rather than spending time on finding alternatives and verifying contractor credentials,” he said.

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