By centralizing data across the building lifecycle, we can drive constant improvement
Architects design buildings. General contractors build them. In between those two stages of the building lifecycle are preconstruction professionals, whose importance often goes unrecognized. These are the people that take a building design and make it buildable. They do the structural and electrical engineering. They create the estimates, the quantity takeoffs, and the schedules. In the past, 95% of data generated during preconstruction was lost, according to Zac Hays of Autodesk Construction Solutions. That meant it was hard to improve processes on future projects. With Autodesk Construction Cloud, that’s changing. With all project data going into a Common Data Environment (CDE)—no matter whether it was generated by an architect, a structural engineer, a contractor, or subcontractor—your estimates can get more intelligent with each new project. And you can use advanced tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze, visualize, and automate important steps, such as quantity takeoff. By creating connections between teams across the entire building lifecycle and accumulating deeper insights, Hays says, we can constantly improve and ultimately create better outcomes for our built world.
About the speaker
Zac Hays is director of product development for Autodesk Construction Solutions, where he leads product design and development for Autodesk’s construction bidding, risk, and intelligence products. Hays came to Autodesk through the 2019 acquisition of BuildingConnected, where he spent four years as VP of Product. Zac has over 15 years of experience in product development at startups and large tech companies including Microsoft, Nokia, and TiVo. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UC San Diego.
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