Alconex Infrastructure and Solutions scooped the coveted Digital Contractor of the Year title, sponsored by Construction Management, at the Digital Construction Awards 2025.
Independent connection provider Alconex’s UtiliMate app was commended by the judges for its distinct benefits to the industry and its ingenious ability to enhance data integration across teams.
UtiliMate was born from Alconex’s aim to differentiate the company from its competitors and create growth opportunities across the sector. This led to Alconex setting out a plan in July 2024 to transform teams into a digitised mobile-first workforce for greater efficiency – and thus, UtiliMate was born.
UtiliMate was developed in-house to overcome the challenges affecting the multi-utilities sector by connecting the Alconex workforce to plan, execute, monitor and report on projects in minutes rather than hours. The app was launched on Android and iOS platforms in January this year.
What the judges said
“The solution benefits are clear: improving communication, streamlining workflows, and enhancing data integration across the team. The delivery and adoption of this tool is fantastic and clearly communicated the strong ROI.
“The in-house development of this application is commendable. It demonstrates significant utility and appears to be well-received by teams, yielding optimal outcomes.”
Offering unique functionality for multi-utility services, UtiliMate has transformed traditional business practices and created a paperless workforce, streamlining site documentation, tracking progress and improving client communication in real-time through smartphones.
It is also creating a more environmentally-friendly multi-utilities delivery model by lowering Alconex’s carbon footprint and positively impacting emerging markets such as solar farms and EV charging stations.
Informed by industry challenges and identifying commercial opportunities to retain clients, as well as creating a point of difference across the sector, UtiliMate is digitising multi-utility contractors by delivering time and money savings to the business and its clients in four ways:
- Increasing internal efficiencies by creating a paperless workforce with digitised paperwork for risk assessments, method statements and environmental reports.
- Improving revenue and cashflow by delivering rapid and reliable information directly to the workforce’s smartphones in real time.
- Creating transparent working practices, establishing ‘client comfort’ with allocated access to review project progress in real time, including photographs, and removing the need for lengthy site visits.
- Securing mandatory health and safety procedures, enabling rapid reporting of on-site issues and non-compliance, in two clicks.
Other finalists
BAM UK & Ireland
McLaren Construction
MWH Treatment
The benefits of UtiliMate so far include a 433% ROI from improved business efficiency created by fast work-in-progress communication between site and commercial teams, and saving between 20 and 30 hours every week with centralised document management.
“We are absolutely delighted to win Digital Contractor of the Year,” said Dr Steve Farmer, Alconex’s CEO. “The team has put so much effort into this and we are smashing it. This is amazing.”
The Digital Construction Awards are organised by Digital Construction Week, CIOB, Construction Management and Digital Construction Plus. To find out more about the Awards and enquire about sponsorship or entering next year’s event, visit digitalconstructionawards.co.uk.
