Published by isobel.regan@dontpanicprojects.com
Published Date 20.07.2023 
Building digitisation is of paramount importance for the built environment and everything it touches. The construction sector has a far-reaching impact, influencing all aspects of our lives. It plays a fundamental role in our economy by constructing the homes we live in, the schools and hospitals we depend on, and the offices, infrastructure and manufacturing that sustain our progress and drive investments into our future.
At BuildData Group AB (publ) (Parent Company) our subsidiaries (Zutec, Createmaster, and Bond Bryan Digital) provide solutions for the construction and property industries. Primarily focused on the residential segment, our best-in-class software solutions help derive meaningful value from data throughout the entire building lifecycle. Being nominated for the Property Tech Company of the Year award at the UK Business Tech Awards acknowledges our commitment to pushing boundaries, delivering outstanding products and services, and pioneering innovative approaches that revolutionise the property sector.
Maria Hudson, CMO at BuildData Group said: “This prestigious accolade would signify BuildData Group as a leader in the property and construction tech sectors. It would highlight our ability to leverage technology to transform traditional practices, enhance efficiency, remove risk and improve regulatory compliance and drive positive change within the industry.”
What is driving building digitisation?
Industry-disrupting factors like COVID-19, climate change and The Building Safety Act 2022 have changed the landscape and made building digitisation more important than ever. The need to do more offline work online, the legislative drive towards a net-zero future and the aftershock of the Grenfell tragedy, where building data wasn’t available to make fast decisions, is making digitisation and improving the value of data non-negotiable.
We have found that as regulatory change and a focus on building safety gather pace, these factors are at the centre of a drive for building digitisation and getting people on the technology adoption curve to ensure they can improve how buildings are built and operated. With the implementation of building safety reform, which mandates the collation, accessibility, and currency of digital building information, the significance of building digitisation has reached new heights. It will soon become an offence to allow residents to occupy an unregistered high-rise building after September 30, 2023, and new buildings completed after October 1, 2023, must be registered prior to occupancy. Concurrently, Principal Accountable Persons (PAPs) are required and should be assigned to each building block to provide essential information on that building, known as Key Building Information, to the Building Safety Regulator.
These developments have spurred a heightened focus on building information, transparency and accountability in building management, building digitisation, and having information that accessible in one place is the best way to address this focus. This extends not only to the maintenance of buildings but also to the provision and communication of information to tenants.
Createmaster’s fully managed Building Digitisation service turns building information into digital form and consolidates it into one single source of truth structured into industry-proven templates ready for use under the Building Safety Act.
Zutec Golden thread dashboard puts all building information and processes in one place to manage document collation, actions, approvals, gateways and compliance
Making sure all building information is digitised in line with the Building Safety Act framework and readily available to relevant persons will make identifying and addressing potential safety hazards much easier. This will result in improved safety standards and a reduced risk of accidents or incidents.
Additionally, from June 2023, all UK housebuilders with new development starting must provide photographic evidence to the SAP Assessor to evidence that work and materials used in new homes complies with new energy efficiency requirements — outlined in Part L of Building Regulation 40, or Approved Document L, Appendix B.
Uploading Part L photographic evidence in Zutec Field app to a record for inspection
Zutec has developed a single solution to capture, store, share and manage geolocated photographic evidence required for the Buildings Regulations England Part L (BREL) report. Working with industry experts to the Part L Building Regulations framework, it brings building information together and removes the complexity of gathering evidence and submitting for approval. We’re working with housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey who has almost 300 sites across 22 business units. In the case of St Modwen Homes, when it came to implementing our Enterprise Part L Solution, they decided they would also like to take on our Snagging Solution, including an additional 10 extra checklists on top of the Part L Solution. As Zutec provides a full quality management suite of solutions, Part L may be the first solution a housebuilder implements to meet deadlines around regulatory compliance, before rolling out other solutions for snagging, Health & Safety or Quality Assurance.
This emphasis on regulatory compliance and sustainability is evolving building digitisation and driving a transformative shift for the construction industry. We are finding the adoption of solutions in line with regulation and compliance are already making a meaningful impact on the businesses of our customers. As an example, added structure and standardisation to digital handover and asset information has been helping Peabody remove risk and improve compliance by making sure that everything is done the same way across all their owned estates and their portfolio of buildings is digitised.
But to extract the true value of technology within this regulatory framework, collaboration must continue and as an industry we must seek consultation from all stakeholders.
