‘Housebuilders are backward when it comes to IT’

This post is in response to a discussion thread within the ‘New Homes Hub UK’ discussion group on LinkedIn as posted by Simon Wilkins.

The discussion addresses an issue that I have a long association with and which has been interesting to re-visit.

The Curate’s Egg
Rather like the curate’s egg, the industry is good in parts and there are certainly some housebuilding companies who are genuinely modernist when it comes to the use of IT and new technology.

However, these are still possibly the exception rather than the rule.Things weren’t helped by the fact that any exposure to hands-on computing until 1991 had involved DOS based software with it’s dull, cryptic interface, keystroke commands and monochrome screens in orange or green.

Real Men Don’t Use Computers
Until the late 1980’s I, like many, had equated technology solely with computing and in turn computing with science and maths – both of which I’d always managed to studiously avoid.

In housebuilding, unless you were an architect, quantity surveyor, accountant or an IT geek, you didn’t get involved hands-on with computers – you just pondered over the results they produced and made ‘he-man’ business decisions based on the output.

Seeing The Light
This was during my phase as development director at Balfour Beatty Specialist Homes where I was responsible for new developing joint venture business and project managing the pre-construction phases of custom urban mixed redevelopment projects and niche high value housing.

I enjoyed my time at Balfour Beatty and was not only involved in the P&L operational aspects of housebuilding but also charged with looking at how my subsidiary might develop in a strategic sense.

This was the era when Balfour Beatty was owned by BICC Plc – which at the time was a major global cable technology business.

BICC was very keen to investigate how the adoption of new technology might be usefully embedded within Balfour Beatty’s construction and spec development businesses.

As a result, I found myself being asked to look at how technological-focused thinking might be applied within the residential development lifecycle – and which ultimately included the use of modular design, factory based prefabrication, Just-In-Time delivery, building materials technologies, joined-up IT using networks to improve the efficiency of data and knowledge transfer and – the one that really caught my imagination – intelligent building systems for automating the quality and efficiency of a building’s internal environment in response to its real-time use and function.

This was also at a time when the Japanese construction giants were poised to develop a foothold in Europe and there was a definite sense that their technology-driven approach could pose a serious threat to the old-style, labour intensive, in-situ wet building methods and claims-driven mentality that so characterised the UK building industry in particular.

However, we all know what then happened – the Japanese economy took a nose-dive, the technology-driven threat disappeared, the UK went into recession and by the time the industry recovered in the mid-late 90’s the good-intentions of pre-recession strategy and change were forgotten and – even despite the attempts by the Latham Report – the industry largely went back to it’s traditional ways of thinking and doing things.

By this time, I had left direct employment within the housebuilding industry and was servicing it from a specialist consultancy viewpoint in relation to technology – partly providing ‘gatekeeping’ type knowledge to an enlightened few as well as project managing various early ICT related projects typically concerned with either data transfer or marketing.

As a result of internet and WWW I began specialising in digital media communication – initially from the perspective of construction sector project team communications but then broadened out to designing and delivering web based multimedia information, marketing and CPD e-learning systems.

Between 1995-1998 I spent 75% of my time engaged as a consultant on two large pan-European R&D projects concerned with identifying new construction sector related broadband products and services and working with a mix of major construction groups, national telecom operators and technology companies. This was a particularly interesting period and led to various related spin-offs including my involvement in construction sector related CPD education with a specific focus on ICT and multimedia.

However by 1999 I had broadened my operational activities to encompass a wider variety of industries including medicine and banking and working with doctors and bankers has provided a useful insight into how other sectors perceive and interact with IT (and technology in a broader sense).

And Finally…..
Looking back at the housebuilding sector with my technologist hard-hat on, the fact that it lags behind in its adoption and appreciation of IT is, I believe, the result of a number of factors including:

– An historical lack of internal R&D

– Old-style corporate culture which is perpetuated by handed-down philosophy and autocratic hierarchical management with only lip-service being paid to e.g. employee feedback and innovative ideas and suggestions.

– Lack of bottom-up / holistic strategic thinking

– An ‘After you Claude’ mentality but which is then direct conflict with the equal mentality of of ‘Not invented here’ syndrome.

– Supposedly customer-led but in reality hates having to adapt its product citing tight margins, overheads, building costs, keeping prices low as the key reasons for resisting change.

– Housing is largely provided by a national based industry mostly immune to non-native competition and the associated different ideas and approaches that might otherwise help to enforce change

– Real change is only often effected as a result of either legislation or market competition

– Technology is not seen as an intrinsic aspect of core operational business

– Rather than having strong degree of internal expertise and knowledge technology is often seen as a specialist function and left to external consultancies and agencies to provide

– Lack of sustained support and promotion of technology by associated professional bodies, trade press and CPD level education.

Educashun
Having to again address the perception that ‘Housebuilders are backward when it comes to IT’ is rather disappointing in the sense that after all these years nothing has seemingly changed very much and that the sector has somehow managed to remain unaffected by all that has happened in relation to technology since the early ‘90’s.

However, it is also encouraging in its implied suggestion that there is still an opportunity to educate and help effect change.