Focus on InEight: Product, Strategy and Vision

For organizations that depend on the successful planning and execution of construction projects, the process and systems used for project controls will always be of paramount importance. Get those right and you have a fighting chance to deliver projects in line with expectations. When it comes to systems, many of these organizations find themselves with a multitude of point applications in place, which have done their part to automate individual project controls processes like estimating or scheduling. Now the industry is increasingly looking for an integrated solution that can connect project controls roles and data across those key business processes, a trend often referred to as digital transformation.

As a result of this trend, InEight and its integrated project controls platform have seen a massive uptick in both interest and adoption, whether that be from global construction management firms, general contractors, large EPCs, and even coverage from analysts and reporters from industry publications such as ENR.

Invariably, one thing all of these varied audiences want to understand is the vision and strategy that is driving InEight’s rapid development. The answer is both innovative and practical, and I’d like to share the core aspects of that strategy with you here.

The Two Pillars of Capability and Connectivity with Project Controls

The digital transformation happening in construction, while meaning different things to different people, shares one common theme: the desire for connected workflows and connected data throughout the life cycle of projects and programs. However, most organizations are not in a position where they can do a wholesale replacement of their numerous point systems with an integrated solution like InEight. They can’t afford to take a step back in the system capabilities they provide to their teams, even in the name of achieving better overall integration.

This conundrum is the very premise behind InEight’s product strategy, which boils down to two simple pillars:

• First, provide world-class functional capabilities to support essential project controls business processes, with the flexibility to implement those in a modular fashion.
• Second, connect the data and workflows across those business processes to improve efficiency, reduce risk, and create meaningful project outcomes.

It’s the combination of the two pillars, realized through our innovative cloud platform, that really differentiates InEight from the competition. InEight has made tremendous progress against both of those strategic pillars, with the scope and capability of the InEight solution having more than doubled in the past three years. At the core of this growth remains InEight’s commitment to integration (connected workflows and data) that is really making the difference, and our product teams continue to deliver against that vision each day.

Meaningful Outcomes for Contractors and Owners Alike via InEight Project Controls

What does it mean for our customers to achieve “meaningful outcomes” on their projects and programs?

For contractors, it often means the ability to win more work at the right price and deliver that work in line with their customers’ expectations.

For the owners (and the construction managers they work with), it increasingly means enabling a digital engineering approach that serves as the foundation for operating and maintaining the asset being built long after the completion of construction.

InEight continues to make great strides in advancing the concept of digital engineering, connecting 3D models (and the data inside them) with traditional project controls processes like estimating, work planning, document control and commissioning. It’s a very compelling outcome for companies involved in large capital projects: a common environment for a project’s data and documents, both as-designed and as-built, coupled with the context and visualization that comes from the model.

A Focus Fixed Toward the Future

The digital transformation that is sweeping the construction industry will take different shapes for different organizations. For some it might be a full life cycle, digital engineering approach, for others it might be a cost management or earned value solution, and for others still it might be an advanced work packaging (AWP) solution to increase field productivity. InEight’s unique combination of functional capabilities and integration makes any of those scenarios possible (and dozens more). Coupled with its modern, standards-based technology platform, InEight is appropriately viewed as a future-proofed investment that enables project controls organizations to scale, react to the market, and deliver projects with certainty.

Ready to take a deeper dive? See what InEight can do for you by requesting a personalized demo.