We’ve spoken alot about how paper based workflows are a bottleneck to your process. McKinsey suggests that there is up to a 25% productivity gain to be had by decreasing the burden of information and data transfer. Anecdotally, I’d agree that a good chunk of my time (probably 20-30% of my day personally) is taken up simply searching for and sharing information.
My title is mis-leading. I have one more post next week to tie a bow on alot of the themes I’ve been blogging about since we launched Voyansi. Before even diving into dashboards, I wanted to bring in one last key concept: Storing your BIM data relationally in a database.
Databases?
Your data is important, but what is your strategy for storage, access, and reporting? Think for a minute about how you store anything. Clothes, spices, bills. It doesn’t really matter what we are talking about. In a way, it doesn’t even matter what system you actually use for this storage. You could throw all your laundry in a pile, and if you can find the shirt you need quickly, it works. But what if you throw others into the equation? While I may be able to find my shirts in the morning easily, my wife insists that this is not a system that works for her.
I can’t really argue with that. With more than one person storing clothing in the same closet, our strategy for our laundry workflow needs to be aligned, or it creates internal conflict. I don’t know about you, but I dislike conflict, especially over laundry, so I hang my shirts up where I’m asked.
The way you organize your data ecosystem is similar. Even if you and your colleagues can easily find what you need, what happens when someone else comes on board? What if you are collaborating with other companies or teams on the same project? You may or may not talk to them every day. And that’s where the bottleneck occurs. Once again, you’re spending lots of time searching for and sharing information.
It’s not just the paper that’s an issue. Thinking about a solid strategy for how your newly digitized assets are stored is essential before we talk about the holy grail of dashboards next week.
