Laminar Projects has revealed how it developed a bespoke solution to help the Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial and BAM Nuttall joint venture (EKFB JV) overcome its data management challenges on HS2.
Construction project planning company Laminar has been collaborating with the EKFB JV working on the HS2 Phase 1 since 2021 to develop a tailored solution to the JV’s specific data management needs.
In a webinar delivered in association with Ideagen Mail Manager as part of the recent Digital Construction Summit, Will Needham MCIOB, lead data strategist at Laminar, and Lampros Arvanitis, Laminar associate director, revealed the challenges they faced were multiple. These challenges include siloed systems across multiple organisations, traditional processes (rather than digital processes), and establishing and maintaining high standards of data quality and control.
The information management team at EKFB JV relied on several datasets and systems to achieve its functional goals, which were siloed and without reliable reporting tools in place.
Additionally, the EKFB JV team needed a new system infrastructure to handle the high volumes of data generated: although they had been using SharePoint Lists, it was not suitable for the HS2 project.
Multiple information systems and fragmented workflows prevented EKFB JV from having a consistent view of the bigger picture of the design process. Reports also relied heavily on offline Excel files that people didn’t regularly update.
The solution
The project began by identifying priorities and the subsequent phases of work. The key areas identified included migrating data from SharePoint to Azure and rebuilding the Power BI data model and reports across deliverable management, asset management and work packaging.
Laminar carried out a detailed review of architecture requirements, data and requirements to provide a deep understanding of the scope and ensure EKFB JV’s continual involvement at each step.
The creation of user personas (e.g. information manager and design manager) helped tailor the requirements and understand the challenges of different stakeholders across the teams.
Laminar’s approach was to centralise data from over 10 project systems, creating a single source of truth where project teams can have instant access to structured data through reporting tools. It also improved requirements compliance through quality data and future-proofing for handover.
The resulting tool allowed for easy access to reliable and up-to-date information that significantly improved decision-making.
Partners for the Digital Construction Summit 2023 were the Chartered Institute of Building, Cohesive, Elecosoft, Ideagen Mail Manager and NavVis. The Summit was organised by BIMplus and Construction Management.
