Manufacturing and construction software – from documents to data and collaboration

Manufacturing and construction software – from documents to data and collaboration

One of the topics of my interest is to compare between PLM and BIM. Let me put a disclaimer from the beginning – my interest is not in three letter acronyms, but in comparison between software that plays very similar role in two different industries – manufacturing and construction. In the past I published few articles about it in my blog – PLM vs BIM common or different; Cloud data management – common future for PLM and BIM; PLM vs BIM – United or separated.

I had a chance to talk to Nick Carter, CEO of IngeniousIO. I don’t do live discussions at Beyond PLM often, but my attention was caught by a slogan on IngeniousIO website – The power of Connection and I’m a big believer in connection between people, data and pretty much everything else.

The press release  IngeniousIO Announcing Architect and Engineering Module, First Full Lifecycle Project Solution for A&E Industry put a focus on full lifeycle and I wanted to understand what is behind that. This is an official passage from a press release:

“We’ve created the first full life cycle application that allows for an integrated flow of data across every aspect of the business — from RFP to proposal, project budgeting, resource planning, time sheets, project management and even invoicing,” said Nick Carter, founder and CEO of IngeniousIO. “In order to remain strong and competitive, the AECO industry has recognized the need to modernize processes; as well as, consolidate the number of different software applications used to complete a project. IngeniousIO enables all industry stakeholders to benefit from the coming move toward digitization.”

Here are few things I captured from the conversation that convinced me that PLM and BIM (construction industry) are moving on very similar trajectories that eventually can cross their paths in the future.

1- The innovation is about how to move from documents to data

2- Distribution and collaboration is a key

3- A challenge how to extract data from multiple systems (silos)

4- Documents are old fashion envelops, but models of data are really important

5- Transferring information between people can change processes

6- Change is hard, because it is all about people and their habits.

The following “intro” video can give you an idea.

You quickly realize that you can easy put any manufacturing content in the same envelop. I can see IngeniousIO is focusing on construction projects, but many production and contractor manufacturing projects looks very similar.

What is my conclusion? I like the focus on data in cloud software these days. It is different from old fashion document approach. IngeniousIO is one the examples demonstrating how companies are working on solutions to digitally transform different industry and to replace, documents, emails, Excels and many other old-fashion ways to communicate and collaborate into new modern data oriented digital workflows. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Disclaimer. Even I had a chance to interview Nick Carter, IngeniousIO didn’t sponsor and influence in any form the content of this blog post.

Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing cloud based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased

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