Effort to Reshape Industry Business Model Moves Forward

New Platform CURT’s Peter Dumont says the OS 2.0 manifesto will fix a broken business ecosystem.

Photo courtesy CURT

To combat the ongoing struggle to make construction projects more efficient and profitable, the
Construction Industry Institute and Construction Users Roundtable provided a timeline for action on the Operating System 2.0 manifesto CII announced last year (ENR 11/6-13/17 p. 51).

“Our business ecosystem is broken,” said Peter Dumont, CURT president, addressing nearly 500 attendees at the association’s annual conference in Phoenix on Feb. 12-14. In response, CURT and CII are leading a consortium of associations and private companies “to push development for a new business ecosystem in the industry,” he said.

The manifesto aims to reduce transactional costs on capital projects between siloed entities—owners, contractors, suppliers, professional service providers—by creating a new business model using an open-sourced, cloud-enabled platform to flatten the supply chain and enable more collaboration and innovation. The effort will focus on reducing the large initial cost of capital projects, leveling it out over multiple years. If firms “even out their cash flow,” economic analysis “shows that we are going to have 250% more projects, and make a lot more money,” says Stephen Mulva, CII director.

On March 20, OS 2.0 organizers plan to incorporate a separate joint venture and start raising at least $16 million for research and development. Participating companies will be asked to invest $750,000 to $1.5 million over three years. Some will also provide pilot projects for beta testing. While direct investors will receive intellectual property rights and other benefits, organizers say they anticipate the platform will benefit the entire construction industry.

So far, 15 associations and 46 owners, contractors and other private companies have expressed interest, Mulva says.

Blair leads day-to-day operations of the ENR editorial team to ensure brand quality and further best practices. He spearheads ENR's various competitions, including Best Projects and the Award of Excellence, and organizes editorial content at events including the Top Young Professionals conference. A Jesse H. Neal, Construction Media Alliance and AZBEES-award-winning writer and videographer, Blair frequently contributes to ENR’s burgeoning video channel with project tour videos and interviews with industry leaders. He is also a frequent speaker and moderator on topics such as diversity and inclusion, design and jobsite technology, construction means and methods and marketing.