Facing the end of the "paper-only" era: why digitalization is becoming a matter of survival

This system worked for a long time.

Today, it has reached its limits.

Because behind the question of the digitalization of the construction industry lies a much deeper change: in a sector subject to increasing pressure on margins, deadlines and cash flow, continuing to operate with fragmented and largely manual processes becomes an economic risk.

Digital transformation is therefore no longer a subject reserved for large companies in the sector. It is gradually becoming a condition for remaining competitive.

The paper isn't the problem. The loss of information, however, is.

It would be easy to contrast a "traditional" construction industry with a "modern" construction industry and to present digital technology as the miracle solution.

The reality is obviously more complex.

Construction companies didn't wait for software to build, manage their teams, or oversee their projects. And paper sometimes remains perfectly suited to certain on-site uses.

The real problem arises when the information is fragmented.

A quote is saved in one place. A change decided on the job site remains in an email exchange. A photo is sent by text message or instant messaging. A work order is waiting to be sent to the office. A supplier invoice has to be re-entered. Information known to the site manager is not immediately accessible to accounting.

Individually, these situations seem innocuous.

Added up across dozens of construction sites, hundreds of suppliers and thousands of documents, they become a real hidden cost.

The danger of “all paper” is ultimately not paper itself: it is the impossibility of having reliable, accessible and usable information at the right time.

In the construction industry, a few hours of delay can have a considerable cost.

The sector has a particularity: the field and the headquarters often operate at two different paces.

However, a company can no longer afford to wait several days to know precisely the progress of a construction site, identify a budget overrun or find out that an invoice has not been processed.

When margins are tight, every transmission delay counts.

An order placed but incorrectly recorded, an additional service not invoiced, a data entry error, a missing document, or a delayed validation may seem insignificant. However, their accumulation ultimately has a direct impact on profitability.

This is precisely where digitalization changes in nature.

It no longer simply consists of replacing a sheet of paper with a screen.

It consists of reducing the time between what actually happens on the construction site and what the company is able to know about it.

And this time has become strategic.

Electronic invoicing will accelerate an already inevitable transformation.

The gradual generalization of electronic invoicing is, in this respect, a powerful indicator.

Some stakeholders might be tempted to view this development as an additional regulatory constraint to absorb.

That would be a mistake.

Because the bill is just the end of a much longer chain.

To produce reliable financial information, it is still necessary that quotes, orders, purchases, interventions, work statuses and validations are properly tracked upstream.

In other words, digitizing only the invoice without rethinking the flow of information within the company amounts to digitizing the last step of a process that remains, itself, deeply fragmented.

The reform therefore acts as an accelerator.

It forces companies to question their tools, but above all their processes.

How does information enter the company? Who validates it? Where is it stored? Is it re-entered? Can it be easily retrieved? Do field and administrative teams have access to the same data?

These questions will become unavoidable.

The construction site must finally speak the same language as the office

This is probably one of the main digital challenges in the construction industry.

For too long, digital transformation has been conceived from the perspective of administrative functions.

But the heart of the activity remains the construction site.

A tool that works perfectly at headquarters but is not used by field teams does not change anything.

The real revolution, therefore, consists of creating a continuity of information between those who build, those who pilot, and those who administer.

This requires simple, mobile solutions adapted to operational realities.

Because digitalization will not succeed against professionals in the field. It will succeed with them.

The best tool is not the one with the most features. It's the one that allows information to flow without adding complexity for those who have to produce it.

Digitizing to save time… but above all to make better decisions

Digitalization is still too often presented from the perspective of productivity gains.

It's real, but insufficient.

Its main interest may lie elsewhere: in the ability to transform a mass of operational information into decision-making tools.

Which construction project is drifting?

Which activity is actually profitable?

Which purchases are increasing?

Where are the delays deteriorating?

What is the actual cash flow situation?

What workload can the company absorb in the coming weeks?

When data is scattered, leaders are partly steering in the rearview mirror.

When they rise quickly and are properly structured, they can anticipate.

And in an uncertain economic environment, moving from reaction to anticipation constitutes a major competitive advantage.

The next divide in the construction industry will be digital.

Not all companies in the sector will digitize at the same pace.

And they don't necessarily need to.

A family-run SME, a craftsman, and a large group do not have the same resources or the same constraints.

But a fracture is beginning to appear.

It will not simply separate "digitalized" companies from the others.

It will primarily separate those who are able to quickly exploit their information from those who will continue to waste time searching for it, re-entering it, verifying it and transmitting it.

In a sector facing pressures on costs, recruitment, deadlines and margins, this difference could become considerable.

The end of "all paper" is therefore not a technological revolution.

It's an organizational revolution.

And the companies that understand this will not necessarily be those that have adopted the most tools.

These will be the ones that have succeeded in eliminating unnecessary friction, reconnecting the construction site to the office, and circulating the right information at the right time.

In the construction industry of tomorrow, digital technology will obviously not build the buildings themselves. But it could very well determine which companies will still be strong enough to build them.

Opinion piece by Cyril Perrin, Executive Managing Director and CSO of Orisha Construction ( LinkedIn ).