Top construction technology trends

7/26/2018
New tech tools are playing an increasingly important role in construction — and drones are one of the biggest trends.

That’s one of the findings of Software Connect’s “Construction Technology Trends—2018” report, which surveyed 158 construction industry professionals from small to midsize (SMB) businesses in North America, including retail.

“Drones emerged as the leading trend,” stated David Budiac, a managing partner at Software Connect. “For instance, while a traditional surveyor would spend up to a month to survey a construction job site in detail, a construction company called Identified Technologies uses self-flying drones to complete the same work within minutes, greatly expediting project time-frames and reducing physical labor costs.”

Here are the key findings from the report:

• Expect drones to be commonplace. 26% of small-to mid-size business (SMB) construction professionals are already using or plan to use by 2020.

• Expect larger tech budgets. 81% of respondents plan to spend more on technology over the coming year compared to last.

• Project tracking, estimating, and job costing are the most commonly required software functions.

• Software ease-of-use is king. Cited as the most important factor when purchasing new software; even over software functionality and cost.

• Construction software buyers are more willing to review cloud-hosted software. 5% more than all other industries.

Interestingly, 3D printing had the lowest adoption rate in the survey. Only 4% of contractors use the technology today, and an additional 7% plan to adopt it by 2020.

To see the complete survey, click here.
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