SPEAKER INTERVIEW: PRAKASH SENGHANI

Prakash Senghani will be speaking at The Big 5 Show next November. He shared with us some insight on the technological advancements in the construction industry. He is the Digital Project Delivery Lead at AECOM and will be talking on Going beyond Traditions: Identifying the Challenges Faced Around Knowledge, Know-How, Mindset and Regulations at the Future Tech Construction Summit.

What are the challenges facing innovation and technological advancements in the construction industry?

The biggest challenge is the attraction and retention of talent. The industry has a reputation for not being glamorous or innovative and this leads to difficulty in attracting the right people, this is going to become increasingly more challenging as the industry seeks to recruit from outside of the traditional talent pool, talent who are used to working in more flexible organisations with fluid start times and more relaxed working environments. Other challenges include adoption of new technologies, this is linked to the first point in that you need the right people to drive adoption, but it is more about leadership and communication. Business leaders need to understand the benefits that digitisation can bring and support adoptions with resources, these benefits need to be clearly communicated so people understand why changes are being made and the impacts they may have. Finally in an industry which is becoming highly commoditised, pressure is being put on costs justifying returns on digital investments, spends becomes a pre-requisite, sometimes the benefits are difficult to define as they are either intangible or unknown until after adoption, understanding this can help make more informed decisions about what initiatives to invest in.

What technological solutions would you propose to involve all project teams from the initiation stage?

This is a difficult one as it depends on the projects, their location, their types and the size amongst many other factors. As a basic principle digital document management and collaboration platforms are a must; generating, transporting and storing paper is wasteful on so many levels.

What are the top 3 methods to encourage technological innovations with still achieving safety and environmental standards?

 1. Saving the creation of paper leads environmental benefits.

2. The use of mobile technology to both create and consume information at the point where it is most effective to do so, whether that is in an office or on a project site.

3. Automation, we need to get better at letting machines do repetitive and low value add tasks, these will improve both the safety of our people and reduce the amounts of material we use.

What will be the key take away by the audience attending your talk?

I am hoping to hear different points of view from the panel on where they feel the digitisation of our industry is and where they think it is heading.

 About Prakash Senghani -

Prakash is leading the Digital Project Delivery team in Project Management and Construction Services business line for AECOM Middle East. A keen innovator and digital thought leader, his passion is for improving existing processes in the construction industry by leveraging the power of technology. With a breadth of experience on multi-disciplinary projects in various parts of the world from both a contracting and consulting viewpoint Prakash brings a unique perspective of the challenges the industry faces as the world around us digitally transforms.

You can hear more from Prakash Senghani on Going beyond Traditions: Identifying the Challenges Faced Around Knowledge, Know-How, Mindset and Regulations at the Future Tech Construction Summit on 26th November, 17:00 - 17:40.