In the engineering and construction sector around the world we are seeing projects paused and new opportunities stalled. This temporary pause in activity means you have the capacity to focus your people on rapid business improvements, avoiding layoffs in the process.

If you have the human capital available, now is the time to invest it in the future of your business. Remember that in a cloud environment, you can fund software via opex not capex, deferring most of the cost until after you begin realizing business value.

Challengers can seize market share

As a project-driven business, construction is anecdotal. Market leaders are determined more by the success of multiple projects and the ability to maintain project margin than any enduring intellectual property or superiority in supply chain. A recent study from IFS found that construction is ripe for disruption by challenger companies willing to go to market in innovative ways. Construction and engineering respondents were almost three times as likely to feel they had a chance to unseat the market leaders in their space than, for instance, discrete manufacturers.

According to PWC, 71 percent of contractors are concerned with the financial impacts of the pandemic, including efforts on operations, future periods of liquidity and capital resources, and 64 percent fear a global recession. Very large companies involved in major projects could effectively be hobbled, enabling aggressive technology-enabled construction challengers to move in.

That means that a challenger company in the construction arena, with the right investments in process and technology, is today in an excellent position to move up the ranks of the leading contractors by being able to deliver projects faster, on time, to a higher quality and at a lower cost.
 

How can they do this?

• By improving productivity and reducing costs through streamlining and automating project and subcontractor management processes
• By increasing the control and predictability throughout the enterprise drives better more informed decisions sustaining higher project margins
• By adopting modular or offsite construction delivery methods
• By exploiting new technologies such as BIM, automation, robotics and IoT
• By actively managing risk to avoid surprises and delays
• By becoming the most predictable, innovative and trusted contractor, commanding higher contract values and increasing pipeline and opportunity win rates
• Re-using design elements from one project to the next, collapsing the early stages of the timeline while increasing quality
• Increasing revenue by offering maintenance and facilities management contracts
• Improving brand, pipeline and bid win rate by having a world class proven predictable project delivery model that demonstrates your company is an innovative market leader
• By being a successful, innovative employer, you can attract the best young talent and maintain high staff retention that shields you from impending skills shortages coming due to the aging workforce
   

The right business system is essential to become the successful challenger

IFS can provide solutions you need to emerge from this COVID 19 crisis as an innovative challenger. It is easy to become negative during uncertain times, but smart companies will see this as an opportunity to invest now to make their business more competitive in the future.

The IFS solutions and implementation approach focus on achieving real business value quickly. We are flexible enough to offer anything from point solutions like labor optimization or a completely integrated business system like enterprise resource planning (ERP).

IFS delivers standard functionality to facilitate all the project delivery methods you currently run as well as those you should be adopting right now, including service and facilities management, offsite or modular construction, construction and installation or equipment rental, logistics or a complete ERP solution for your whole global business.

The time is now

Now is when your competitors are as weak as they will ever be. And now is also when you have the capacity and bandwidth to focus on re-engineering your construction or engineering business for the future.

Learn more about how IFS can help you be one of the winners in the post-pandemic construction sector here.