Use the power of business intelligence for your next construction project with power BI

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USE THE POWER OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FOR YOUR
NEXT CONSTRUCTION PROJECT WITH POWER BI.
Staying agile, effective, and competitive in the
construction industry requires valuable business
intelligence. Dealing with data for construction
projects can be challenging. Numbers show high
failure rates for projects with massive capital.
The overwhelming amount of data can be difficult
to manage with time and cost overruns, poor
project execution. This is where construction
firms can leverage the capabilities of Power BI
to connect, track, and share large data volumes.
Knowing what data needs to be used helps leverage
growth opportunities, improve budget
performance, enhance job site productivity,
reduce risks, bid better, etc.
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This content construct focuses on the use of
Power BI in construction to monitor project
progress, manage schedules, and plan logistics.
Data produced onsite is massive, and observations
show contractors caught in a pool of data
without the right BI tools. Construction
stakeholders constantly face a myriad of
challenges on accurate data usage. These
challenges include Challenges faced by
construction stakeholders to manage
data. Unproductive project reporting Silo data
systems Unorganized inefficient project data
Paper-based processes and reporting Absence of
system compatibility or connectivity Poor
project performance Low productivity Onsite
construction risks These challenges are
compounded by an increase in project complexity.
Thats where Business Intelligence or BI is
adopted. Interactive or dynamic visualization of
business data helps enhance construction
processes, raise profit margins, and create new
growth opportunities.
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Massive infrastructure projects require millions
of emails, documents, and workflows The perks of
adopting Business Intelligence (BI) for
construction projects can be listed as follows
Perks of adopting BI for construction Projects.
Improve job site processes and productivity
Reduce onsite risks and promote safety Influence
better project agility Boost project efficiency
Leverage deeper project insights Derive dynamic
project reporting Win more work with strong
bids Move from mere analytics to actionable
analytics
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Improve job site processes and productivity Contra
ctors can leverage enhanced workflows, automate
tasks, reduce costs, and more by streamlining
data from job sites. This data can be received
through smart wearables or smartphone apps that
help improve equipment and material positioning.
This helps cut down on relocation time. Reduce
onsite risks and promote safety Building
contractors can monitor data relevant to onsite
safety. Recording important onsite information
that includes safety inspections, injuries, etc.
helps contractors prevent onsite risks. A
powerful BI system in place helps reduce business
risks by taking a step further.
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Influence better project agility The construction
sector produces massive amounts of data or
information. The ability to harness this data
helps AEC project stakeholders make improved
decisions on real-time data analytics. Being able
to leverage actionable insights helps augment
project agility. Boost project efficiency As the
construction sector uses various technology
touchpoints to extract and store data, it
requires robust BI systems to access and process
data. Project stakeholders can leverage the most
accurate and up-to-date data as and when
required which helps save money and time. Working
with the most updated information helps
construction project stakeholders like managers,
contractors, etc. stay on course. Before things
get out of hand, course corrections can be put in
place through real-time data reporting.
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Leverage deeper project insights Getting a bigger
picture of your present scenario, or what needs
to be achieved for your construction business to
grow can be achieved through Business
Intelligence. Improvements can be considered in
various areas that include supply chain, labor,
payroll, etc. Actionable insights help derive new
opportunities and help enable corrective
actions. Derive dynamic project reporting Manual
maintenance of reports through spreadsheets is a
time-taking process. The integration of Business
Intelligence (BI) applications helps drive
accuracy, speed, and reliability. This helps
the management team focus on crucial tasks that
can help drive value.
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Win more work with strong bids Robust BI software
helps construction project stakeholders monitor
costs, change orders, equipment, and material
requirements, workforce productivity, etc. Smart
bids can be generated with better project
forecasts, relevant and complete data helps
deliver a bigger picture to visualize project
improvements. Move from mere analytics to
actionable analytics Business Intelligence (BI)
helps construction firms identify and adopt
touchpoints that help them plan better. Better
data analysis helps to derive futuristic insights
for an enhanced model delivery. The use of AI
and other construction management tools
integrated with BI helps build optimized
predictive construction models.
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Moving forward, we look at the capabilities of
Power BI to utilize construction data. Power BI
uses holistic visualization capabilities for
comprehensive data analytics. Construction
project stakeholders can use Power BI to
collaborate, track, and transmit large data
volumes. Tools and features from Power BI help
managers, contractors, and other stakeholders
utilize simplified interfaces and project
reports. With the capability to leverage
information as and when required, Power BI can be
adopted to build construction schedules, monitor
progress, and plan logistics. Working hours of
more than 12 of construction teams are spent
searching for project information.
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Here are the top reasons Power BI is a great tool
for construction. Advantages of adopting Power BI
for construction. Centralize data from various
sources With multiple touchpoints, Power BI has a
compelling connection and collaboration features
with other software like Excel, Sharepoint, etc.
Customized datasets can be built by pulling
information from each data source. As a single
source of information, everyone stays on the same
page and can access updated information. Reports
coming in from different job sites or offices can
be consolidated to mitigate duplication and
reduce time. Store and access large data
volumes Power BI can import large datasets to
leverage extensive visualization and greater
detail. This data is compelling to collate
historic datasets from various projects to
anticipate trends and build accurate estimates.
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Complete report customization with Drag and
Drop Customized dashboards can be generated
through pre-built modules. Various managers can
leverage BI based on their job roles or
responsibilities. For example, project managers
can leverage progress tracking, whilst
commercial managers can build customized cost
reports and budget predictions. Real-time
sharing of Dashboards Project teams can visualize
real-time data through simplified information
sharing. Customized dashboards can help monitor
costs, resources, equipment, materials, etc.
Real-time visualization helps access reports
from any device viz. mobile or laptop.
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Identify project anomalies or trends Monitor
KPIs, predict trends, sort data based on various
attributes or dimensions to measure priorities,
safety requirements, etc. More than 90 of the
captured project data is never used. Using the
Revit Dashboard and Model Checker. To use Power
BI to build a Revit Dashboard or Model Checker
requires Installation of the BIM
interoperability tools for Revit Download the
Power BI desktop application from this link -
https//powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/
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Consequently, proceed to download the templates
for Power BI and Model Checker feature The
dashboard file needs to be unzipped into the
required project folder
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Users also need to create a reports folder for
each project to store the reports The unzipped
folder contains the following files viz. Model
Checker PDF, Readme, Revit Model Dashboard, and
an XML file
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Run a project in Revit with the Model
Checker Using BIM interoperability tools, and use
the setup option to select the Revit Model
Dashboard.xml file
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Click on open
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Check the options in Model Dashboard Checks to
set the Checkout
To generate the report, click the Run button
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Users can export the report individual reports to
Excel
Run the Power BI desktop app, and sign in with
the right credentials
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Click on the Revit model dashboard to generate
the required reports
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Conclusion
In todays construction marketplace, it is key
for project stakeholders to leverage Power BI to
stay agile, effective, and competitive. As data
is generated regularly, construction firms need
to leverage data-driven decisions. Optimized use
of large datasets has the power to disrupt, yet
transform the data landscape to gain valuable
project insights, make informed decisions,
improve efficiencies, and drive business growth.
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