In an ideal world, companies would be able to purchase a single enterprise solution that scales with their growth and supports their strategy from a single vendor. The technology would run on a single database platform and support all critical process workflows in an efficient and seamless manner.

In the real world, many companies are unable (or feel they are unable) to shoulder the expense. Or, they may have started out believing they didn’t need an extensive technological solution and, therefore, didn’t plan for growth that would necessitate the need for such a solution. In most cases, companies also fall in love with specific products, even if they do not address all of their needs. Perhaps the reason is simply that a single enterprise solution does not exist. The strategy of purchasing from a single vendor is an ideal one, but when it cannot be met, the potential that integrations offer may be the answer to limited functionality.

The move toward integrations is not a new one, but it is becoming more of an option and more widely being deployed in production solutions because of the ability of software to exchange data consistently. The use of application programming interfaces (API) shared between software allows systems to be interoperable. Secure APIs implemented as web services allow skilled users to build agile and nimble interfaces to connect to trusted sources, as well as read and use data for other systems as part of real-time business workflows.

Integrations provide advanced data management between multiple systems sharing information. A proper integration can reduce duplicate data entry and still share objects. Integrations will typically retrieve data from a source, translate the data and then transmit the data in a standard format to the receiving system in near real time. The ability to synchronize data is the basis for this new style of integration. Central to the success of these new style integrations are:

1. Data liquidity, which means making the information ready and usable for the target system; and
2. The ability to marshal and send communications in a standardized format understood by both systems based on business events.

Data liquidity is important to understand because it is the genuine ability to enter data once and then use it later and/or in some other location. Sometimes, data can be used to populate fields in other systems or forms (for example, in generating reports). On its own, interoperability is limited. If a system cannot accept individual points of data, the best that can be done is to import static forms such as a PDF. Thus, data can be viewed, but not accessed or used. Data liquidity, which relies on interoperability to share information, expands this process and allows data to be accessed to its full potential.

To understand integrations in action, real life examples in the field range from opportunity management to project closeout. For instance, in construction, timekeeping is at the heart of productivity tracking—a metric that drives the delivery and profitability of most projects. Attendance and time are captured and entered into a system that processes payroll and generates paychecks for the entire project team. In another system, cutting edge time-capture solutions apply AI, along with cameras and sensors to produce automated time cards by determining what craft workers are doing as they go about their daily work plans, which are then made available for their supervisors to review.

Each of these parts may be a significant portion of the integration, or a company may have a system that does everything but time capture. The combination of AI-based timekeeping data exchanges with payroll systems is one of the many ways a best in class solution can be incorporated into the enterprise system of execution to eliminate data entry. Vertical and horizontal integrations can strengthen and address a project’s needs.

Integrations not only provide technological solutions but may also benefit organizational development. Systems of execution perform core and critical business processes efficiently and flawlessly. This allows project stakeholders to enter the data, set it and forget it because the system will take care of it. It frees up resources to engage in higher order tasks such as building relationships, executing strategy and planning further development, instead of having to deal with rote activities. Moreover, managers are able to focus on leadership tasks.

Efficiencies gained through integrations facilitate growth without increasing spend. Integrated systems allow stakeholders and managers to realize their innovations through enterprise software architecture. As software continues to evolve, being able to partner and create integrations will enable synergistic advancement of technology to the construction industry, coming closer to the ideal.