JBKnowledge conducted the fifth annual Construction Technology Survey in partnership with the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA), the Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA), and Texas A&M University’s Department of Construction Science. Over 2,600 industry professionals responded to the survey between June 20, 2016 and August 1, 2016. The final report reveals the comprehensive results from the 2016 survey with commentary and analysis from the perspective of a construction technology consulting and solutions provider.

Some of the key findings include

• 70.8% of respondents have a total annual IT spend of less than $500K, and "IT spend only increased to over $500,000 when the company’s annual sales volume was higher than $200 million."

• "The percentage of companies spending 1% or Less than 1% of annual sales volume on IT continues to grow, from 45% in 2015 to 70% in 2016. These statistics correlate with the data gathered from JBKnowledge consulting clients, in that despite the proliferation and improvement of technology, companies are still not allocating budget to employ it. This also supports the fact that the construction industry underspends cross-industry averages in regards to technology by upwards of 60% to 70%."

• Accounting is still the least likely department to use cloud-based solutions, "due to its highly sensitive financial data and the illogical perception that data on premise is safer than data in the cloud."
  

• 79.3% of respondents say that mobile capabilities are either important or very important, up from 58.9% in 2012.

• Dexter + Chaney saw more than a 50% increase in reported use as accounting software and project management software among respondents (going from 5.0% in 2015 to 7.7% in 2016 in the accounting software category, and 3% to 4.6% in the project management software category), and remains in the top 5 in the accounting software in use category.

• "Unfortunately, the percentage of builders using spreadsheets and manual processes for accounting climbed. This is most likely due to the fear of storing accounting data in the cloud (showed earlier in this report) and the tendency to stick to spreadsheets that are seemingly secure, saved internally, on a desktop. These spreadsheets of sensitive financial data stored without change logs, notifications, error tracking, or other measures are therefore even more vulnerable to costly data errors and omission than information in the cloud."

• Specific to software in use for project management, 30.5% reported using a manual process or spreadsheets in 2015 and that increased to 34.3% in 2016. According to the report, "Since project management revolves around pricing quotes, product submittals, RFI’s andchange orders, less sophisticated trades will opt for a more manual process - fax, mail, courier, etc."

Click here to download the 2016 Construction Technology Survey