The Data Wars: How We Screwed Up Construction’s Future (and How to Fix It)
I’ll be super honest with you, for a long time I helped build this siloed data monster. From the moment I stepped into the world of construction tech, I was out there preaching “single source of truth” to contractors like it was the second coming. The idea was noble: one platform, one place, one set of data. What I didn’t realize is that we were building a single source of control, control that we conveniently handed over almost exclusively to contractors.
Owners (you know, the ones paying the bills and inheriting the assets) were left holding a half-empty bag of PDFs on flash drives, wondering where all their valuable project data went. And now, almost 15 years later, we’ve institutionalized the imbalance.
It’s like selling someone a car, but when you hand them the keys you say, “Oh, by the way, the steering wheel and brakes still belong to me.” Congratulations, you may have bought the car, but you’ll never really be able to drive it.
How Did We Get Here?
As I mentioned, I helped create this mess, so let’s rewind. Way back in 2006, Clive Humby coined the phrase “data is the new oil.” The rest of the world seemed to take note and began mining, refining and monetizing data.
Construction - we took the opposite approach. We grabbed our point solutions and spreadsheets, built a “platform”, poured all the data in and let contractors build a giant wall around it.
How did this happen? A few reasons:
Technology was built for contractors. Procore, Autodesk and the like went straight for the GCs first, not owners. “Digitize construction” was the rallying cry so they optimized for jobsite workflows, not lifecycle management. Naturally, this created a silo between stakeholders and immediately the power was handed to those buying the software, not those paying for the project.
Contractors became the gatekeepers. With silos like this, whoever owns the platform owns the data. Period. All the work was done within contractor solutions because they were the only ones bringing a solution to the table. When that project ended, so did the data as access was shut off faster than you can say turnover.
We didn’t stop it. In fact, we promoted it. Not just complacent, but complicit. Owners were told to accept what the GC had because “that’s the industry standard.” And like I said, I was one of the voices preaching that sermon. Mea culpa.
So instead of monetizing this new “data as oil” trend, construction essentially found a way to hold it for ransom. And that gap between the data haves (contractors) and have-nots (owners) keeps widening.
The Problems We’ve Become Comfortable With
Here’s the worst part: we’ve grown numb to this imbalance. Like a bad back that we just live with, we’ve convinced ourselves this is “just how it is.” But the damage doesn’t just hit the owners, it’s actually hurting everyone, everywhere.
1. During Construction
Owners are often working blind. Contractors run their projects in their walled platforms, while owners get filtered reports or limited logins. Transparent? Not at all.
And when owners push to use their systems, contractors cry foul. A Dodge Data study showed 42% of contractors end up double-entering data into both their system and the owner’s. And guess what? 73% of those contractors said that the need for double entry killed productivity. So, even contractors are bleeding out efficiency just to protect their turf.
2. At Asset Handover
Closeout is where the sins of our data hoarding come home to roost. Instead of a clean, digital handoff, most owners get a glorified “data dump.” That’s right, just a giant zip file of PDFs, as-builts and warranties. If they’re lucky, it’s organized alphabetically.
The cost of this inefficiency? Studies show owners spend 2–4% of project cost just to clean up and re-enter missing data after handover. On a $300M project, that’s $6–12M wasted on paperwork archaeology.
3. During Asset Operations
Fast forward a year. The shiny new building needs maintenance. The facilities team goes looking for specs, warranties or as-builts. Surprise! The data isn’t there, or it’s buried in an unsearchable PDF graveyard. One analysis found that poor handovers cause owners to lose significant CapEx value and slash equipment availability. McKinsey even found that only 25% of “wrench time” on a power plant was real work, the rest wasted on hunting down info.
This also plagues the contractors who built the work. Guess who the owner will call first when they can’t find something? You guessed it. The warranty work just got more intense.
Oh, and let’s not forget the big ugly stat: 96% of data collected during construction goes unused. That’s not just waste, that’s malpractice. We’ve normalized throwing away 96% of the very thing AI, analytics and predictive models feed on. And then we scratch our heads about why productivity hasn’t improved in decades.
So, that is the gauntlet in front of us: stop wasting 96% of our data.
Imagine what would happen if we harnessed even 20% more. Predictive scheduling, proactive maintenance, lower costs, higher margins – it’s all sitting there, waiting. But as long as we stay hidden in our walled silos of disparate systems, we’re stuck in neutral.
Because again, here’s the real kicker: it’s not just owners losing. Contractors are bleeding too. That 73% who said double entry hurts productivity? That’s their crews wasting hours every week. Hoarding data might feel like control, but it’s actually costing everyone.
A Foundational Shift to the Way We Collaborate
So, what’s the fix? (Hint: it’s not another “one system to rule them all.”)
We tried that already, it’s how we got here.
No, to solve this challenge we need to fundamentally rethink the way we collaborate on capital projects. We need connected networks.
Imagine a world where every stakeholder (owner, engineer, GC, sub) brings their system of choice, but all those systems are connected through a secure, configurable network. Data flows, permissions are managed and nobody has to double-enter a single RFI again.
Owners get lifecycle continuity.
Contractors keep their workflows.
Subs aren’t forced into one-off logins.
And the data? It finally flows like oil through a pipeline instead of pooling uselessly in silos.
Well guess what, this isn’t a fantasy. This tech already exists. And it enables treating construction not as a single project at a time, but as part of a broader ecosystem where every participant is a node on a network. Owners retain what they need for operations. Contractors keep their project history. Everyone sees what they’re supposed to see, when they’re supposed to see it.
That’s how we solve a problem 20 years in the making.
Our Mess, Our Responsibility
Look, I’ll own it: my generation of ConTech evangelists helped create a real mess. We openly gave contractors a digital crown to rule over data. We told owners to get in line. And we helped the tech providers build empires around contractor-first models.
But now we know better. Data is the new oil and we’re letting 96% of it go to waste. We’ve become complacent, even complicit. And it’s costing the industry billions.
The time is now to demand better.
Owners: stop accepting thumb drives of PDFs as closeout deliverables.
Contractors: stop pretending hoarding data protects your secrets.
And tech providers? You propagated the spread of this imbalance. Now it’s your mission to fix it.
Because if we don’t solve this, AI won’t save us. Analytics won’t save us. The future of construction won’t save us. No, we have to save ourselves by demanding connected, shared, lifecycle data networks that finally put the oil to use.
We created this problem. And we sure as heck better be the ones to solve it.
Construction is cool, tell your friends!