By Chris Peppler, Vice President of Platform and Product, Trimble
Like it or not, every construction company is also in the data business, and this is driving expanded adoption of common data environments (CDEs).
Information in every conceivable format – from notes, photos, drawings and models, to reports and point clouds – is increasing exponentially. The ability to organize, access and share it is having an equally expanding impact on performance and profitability.
According to research from Deloitte Access Economics, construction managers and executives average 11.5 hours each week searching for and analyzing data, but more than 60% of it isn’t used to make business decisions. Companies that use data more effectively, identified in this research as “data leaders,” can expect a 50% increase in annual profit growth rate compared with “beginners.”
Increasingly, these leaders leverage a CDE like Trimble Connect to move from siloed data and fragmented workflows to a streamlined flow of reliable information that can be utilized and actioned upon throughout a project’s lifecycle. This starts by collecting the information that’s critical for design, engineering, fabrication, construction and maintenance in a secured, accessible environment.
Accessing all this data in one place provides stakeholders with accurate, real-time information, ensuring that everyone is working off of the same playbook for smoother and more efficient collaboration. Alignment is essential for keeping projects on schedule and within budget because it gives teams the right information exactly when they need it. To-date, Trimble Connect has been used in the design and construction of 24 million projects, making it a strategic advantage in today’s data-driven industry.
The power of CDEs
The true strength of Trimble Connect lies in its ability to unify teams around a single source of truth and enable real-time collaboration, while simultaneously integrating data from multiple sources, enhancing project visibility and supporting faster, more informed decision-making. Trimble Connect also connects the gap between physical and digital construction data, creating a digital twin that allows for better planning, design, construction and maintenance.
Collaboration furthers team alignment
A CDE brings everyone together around a common goal, fostering clear communication and shared accountability. By providing a single source of truth for data from design through execution, it unifies teams with clarity and purpose, enabling seamless collaboration from anywhere.
Stakeholders with Trimble Connect licenses can easily access and collaborate on the same project information. They can even share links, providing non-licensed stakeholders with visibility of specified data and documents. This flexibility makes it easy to share information and gather feedback, regardless of a collaborator’s technical expertise or access to licensed software. Permissions can also be customized to ensure that only authorized users can view or interact with sensitive or confidential data.
Canam Group, a steel component designer and manufacturer – regularly uses Trimble Connect to facilitate communication between internal departments and external stakeholders for each project it takes on. If a stakeholder or customer doesn't have a platform of their own, Canam provides them access to Trimble Connect.
Canam uses the publication and availability of internal and external IFCs so that at any time during the workflow, continuous collaboration with customers and other trades is easily facilitated. Iterative collaboration from the beginning stages of a project has proven especially helpful when coordinating joist geometry and bridging positions with HVAC systems and sprinkler lines.
Turn integrated data into action
Another one of the key features of Trimble Connect is its ability to integrate with 40+ Trimble solutions and with data from other software systems like Autodesk and Solibri. This allows it to effortlessly integrate technology stacks, enabling federated data to be easily exchanged, interpreted and applied without manual workarounds or risk of data loss.
Trimble Connect supports more than 45 2D and 3D file types across devices, enabling better coordination, faster issue resolution and smarter team decision-making. Interoperability across other construction technology data formats is another critical differentiator. Custom metadata can be added in, with dedicated viewers able to provide markups and annotations, enhancing communication and facilitating feedback so that design changes and approvals can be made more efficiently to prevent costly rework onsite.
It also incorporates building collaboration format (BCF) topics to streamline communication and issue management. BCF topics provide a standardized way to share notes, comments, and identify issues, helping ensure that everyone is working off of the same information towards a common resolution when problems arise.
By supporting BCF topics, Trimble Connect centralizes issue management workflows between both Trimble and non-Trimble applications. Issues can be created using data fields such as Description, Status, Priority, Assignees, Comments and Document References. Another key feature is the ability to link an issue directly to the Building Information Model (BIM). You can attach a BCF topic to a specific 3D view or even to individual model objects, providing the context stakeholders need to make a critical decision.
Finally, Trimble Connect also allows teams to track the progress of a project in real-time. By comparing the 3D model with on-site reality capture data, project managers can quickly identify if work is falling behind schedule or if there are discrepancies between the design and the as-built conditions. This allows for prompt decision-making to address delays or errors.
For example, in a tunnelling construction project, a survey team used Trimble Connect to compare as-built cross-sections with the design model. This allowed them to quickly identify areas that were out of tolerance and had errors, such as using the wrong target model on their total station. This process shortened the time to make decisions and increased confidence that the work was meeting specifications.
Connect the digital with the physical via digital twins
Trimble Connect bridges the physical and digital aspects of construction, forming virtual digital twin models of physical buildings and infrastructure, allowing for better planning, design and maintenance. A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical object or asset that is updated in real-time with data. For example, a contractor can combine physical, on-site data — like point clouds from laser scans — with detailed 3D models, forming a virtual representation of a physical asset, which can be updated in real time using live data from sensors, models and operational systems.
Digital twins can improve design and construction quality by identifying design conflicts, material inefficiencies or safety risks early in the process, reducing change orders and rework. For instance, steel fabricators commonly use Trimble Connect to overlay steel data on a model to detect potential clashes before they happen in the field, shortening the approval timeline and reducing rework due to miscommunication. In contrast, a civil contractor can use Trimble Connect to overlay survey and machine control data to validate that excavation and grading match design specifications.
Digital twins also become valuable long-term assets that can be seamlessly handed over to the project owner at completion, serving as a powerful foundation for predictive maintenance and performance optimization. With a digital twin in place, owners gain a comprehensive, real-time view of their asset — leading to long-term savings through improved energy efficiency, reduced downtime and fewer equipment failures.
Unify your data. Empower your team
By centralizing information and ensuring all stakeholders are working from the same accurate, up-to-date data, a CDE like Trimble Connect eliminates silos, improves communication and accelerates decision-making. The result is a more efficient project workflow and higher-quality outcomes delivered more confidently.
The ROI potential of real-time collaboration and data sharing with a CDE applies to companies of all sizes, as the benefits are not just accessible for organizations with sophisticated IT capabilities and deep pockets. While its features are powerful, Trimble Connect is easy to use and intuitive. Flexible subscriptions, including a free trial option, make it easy for almost any company to get started with CDE capacity customized to its needs — or to test the results on a limited basis — and then scale up as needed. Learn more here.
