Heathrow wins Digital Team of the Year at the Digital Construction Awards

Additionally, all digital upgrades require full cyber-safety approval before implementation. Siloed project work, unclear information needs and use of unmanaged tools meant there was no single source of truth, risking data duplication and loss of value.

To address this, the Heathrow team developed a four-phase approach: Discover, Design, Build and Deploy. In the Discover phase, the team engaged across the organisation and with the supply chain. They gathered more than 150 user stories to identify major challenges.

During the Design phase, a small expert team grouped these stories into process, organisation and people, technology and information, and created a roadmap to strengthen foundations for data-driven decisions. 

The Build phase updated standards and contracts to industry best practice and ISO 19650. A CDE was implemented across Heathrow SharePoint, Autodesk Construction Cloud and M-Files. Templates and centralised dashboards were introduced, and health and safety design risks were managed according to 19650‐6. Automated asset assurance processes were established, while the team explored AI use for document search and standards mapping.

The Deploy phase rolled out pilots across key projects. Feedback from these was used to create minimum viable products for wider adoption. These initiatives improved progress tracking through systematic reporting and digital workflows, with change management guided by the Prosci ADKAR model with super-users, tailored training and stakeholder engagement.

Behavioural resistance was addressed through simplified messaging and benefits‐led demonstrations.

Around 90 projects have adopted the new approach with a total of £6.7m in productivity benefits, achieving a return of £2.10 for every £1 invested. Project managers save around one hour daily on locating information, while 85% of high-level health and safety design risks have been reduced to medium or low.

The Digital Construction Awards are organised by Digital Construction Week, the Chartered Institute of Building, CM and Digital Construction Plus. Read about the rest of the winners.

To find out more about the Awards and enquire about sponsorship or entering next year’s event, visit digitalconstructionawards.co.uk.