The Construction sector is unique in its ability to bring different teams together to implement its projects, each of which generates a wealth of information. The Finalcad One API hails a genuine revolution for the way Construction professionals work together and use information by connecting up their teams and in-house applications.
The Finalcad One API: interconnection and standardisation
The term API (Application Programming Interface), although technical, is poised to enter the vernacular of Construction companies. APIs are software development tools (standards, protocols and routines) that allow a solution to access other solutions. It is now crucial to fully understand their impacts and the range of possibilities they offer businesses that are committed to digitalisation. One of the main challenges facing a Construction company in the process of digital transformation is the collection and sharing of data internally and with business partners and stakeholders. The Finalcad One API creates a value chain between all these players. It is the glue that interconnects a computer ecosystem and ensures the cohesion of the whole.
The Construction industry does not process large volumes of data from various sources. The challenge therefore for companies is not knowing how to handle big data, but rather to make the most of the "smart data" they produce: low volumes of business data, entered by the right people at the right time (quality control, an identified defect, a physical breakthrough) and disseminated to the right people in the most appropriate formats, channels and conditions. However, on a building site (and "smart data" emanates largely from construction sites), the IT system often consists of solutions that were not designed to communicate with each other. The Finalcad One API provides a solution to this “silo” operation of existing systems. With this API, Finalcad One application data, which aims to capture and organise data collected from the field in the form of observations or forms, may be shared by the different systems within the company. This allows the company to better control its processes and create reliable records on which to ultimately build on its experience. Crossing field and organisational sources gives them value by setting up and sharing cross-analysis.
For example, for the company’s projects, the Finalcad One API can deploy all its repositories as implemented and standardised in the ERP while respecting rights of access and security standards to which all employees are subject. Teams that connect to Finalcad One can therefore automatically find the project created from the ERP in the site tracking application. They therefore only have to configure what is required by the context. The interconnection of tools and therefore of the information entered in Finalcad One or the ERP ensures the uniformity and consistency of data, which simplifies reporting on a given job number.
The Finalcad One API, a productivity booster
Managing a suite of software tools is time-consuming and demands considerable in-house resources. The Finalcad One Developer portal connects different data sources, which means significant time-saving in terms of re-entering information and two-way flows between interfaces. Each source of information is constantly updated and, therefore, provides agility in site management.
Take the example of major projects for which the Main Contractors or Project Management Support companies need to provide implementation plans for the various stakeholders. The Finalcad One API establishes an interface with the EDM specific to a trade working on the project, making available the right plan at the right time in order not to break the digital chain. The Finalcad One API therefore ensures that the whole site has access to the most recent level of information, at all times. As a consequence, works engineers save valuable time previously spent on perpetual summaries of implementation plans and no longer need to print or distribute them to the different contractors.
Improving productivity also depends on Finalcad One API’s ability to mass-process data. When the project contains a large number of implementation plans, Finalcad One automatically manages them to easily create a project. Another example is the organisation of communication on a project as well as the segmentation of the visibility of information shared through the creation of groups in Finalcad One. The API lets you create these groups automatically, invite appropriate members and share with them the necessary plans according to their trade and the tasks assigned to them. Not having to perform these tasks manually saves operational teams considerable time.
Finalcad One, the API that goes with you everywhere
Construction projects today suffer from overly ad hoc approaches that cannot be replicated from one site to another. In most cases, operational players in the field perform manual and redundant data entries in different software that eventually become inconsistent. This operating mode slows down the standardisation process within organisations. When the work is under way, actions carried out on different tools generate data in difficult-to-manage silos and in various formats, thereby complicating their maintenance. Finalcad One, the Field Experience Platform™, offers a public API that optimises workflows between different solutions and provides effective answers to the problems of settings persistence, synergy between stakeholders, data circulation and enhancement experienced by most stakeholders in the Construction sector. The documented, secure and public Finalcad API, open to the market, is the best way to reach out to the future and remain productive in a sector that continues to evolve and accelerate its digital transformation.
