Article written by Rob Preston and appears on Forbes.com

CIOs head into 2019 amid a relatively strong, though volatile, global economy. This volatility will only further unsettle their often-precarious position of having to take on new digital projects and innovate at an accelerating pace while also having to lock down costs. It all makes for a “schizophrenic” state of affairs, notes one CIO.

As in past years, CIOs have to make hard choices. Principal among them: how to shift the investment balance from legacy systems to new, mostly cloud-based applications, capabilities, and technologies (artificial intelligence, blockchain, data analytics) while improving security, reliability, and scalability. Oy.

In this, our seventh annual list of the 10 most important challenges CIOs face and opportunities they must grab in the year ahead, we shine a spotlight on several new priorities, but we also update certain ones from past years. As we noted in past years, real change doesn’t happen in discrete annual steps.

Your priorities may vary—based on the size of your organization, your industry, and/or your management’s appetite for change and ability to invest. But consider these 10 a starting point.

Press release from AGC

Seventy-nine percent of construction firms plan to expand their payrolls in 2019 but an almost equal percentage are worried about their ability to locate and hire qualified workers, according to survey results released today by the Associated General Contractors of America and Sage Construction and Real Estate. The findings are detailed in Contractors Remain Confident About Demand, Worried About Labor Supply: The 2019 Construction Hiring and Business Outlook Report.

“Construction executives appear to remain confident about their market prospects for 2019 and plan to add headcount to cope with the added workload,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, the association's chief executive officer. “Even as they are optimistic about growing demand, contractors are concerned about finding qualified workers to execute projects.”

Article written by Rob Preston and appears on Forbes.com

CIOs across the globe are constantly evaluating a fusillade of emerging technologies, business models, and economic movements being fired at them. Machine Learning. Blockchain. The Internet of Things. Industry 4.0. The Subscription Economy. Autonomous Everything. Digital Transformation.

No question, as we begin 2018 the priorities in front of CIOs are daunting, just as they were last year…and the year before that.

But no CIO can ignore the considerable business opportunities those technology-based advances present: lower costs; more efficient supply chains; more secure networks and data stores; more dynamic and reliable products; more personalized customer service; and—if CIOs and their teams get it right—more abundant, loyal customers.

In this, our sixth annual list of the 10 most important challenges CIOs must take on and opportunities they must seize in the coming year, you’ll notice some priorities return from last year, with important updates. As we said last year, real change doesn’t happen in tidy annual increments.

FMI Corporation, the leading provider of management consulting and investment banking services to engineering and construction, infrastructure and the built environment, recently released its 2017 Talent Development report. The publication reveals emerging trends around talent development in the construction industry and paints a mixed picture of how firms are retaining and developing their people.

Key statistics from the study include:

Article written by Astrid Young and Randi Sherman, and appeared on the Dexter + Chaney blog

When construction companies experience growth, there is a need to streamline business processes, boost efficiency, and make the most of their administrative time. Though the construction industry has significantly ramped up its adoption of new technologies in recent years, there are still some growing pains and learning curves when it comes to pulling the trigger on software.

With many companies today, the need for a solution becomes apparent at a certain level, such as when there is an increase in the volume of work, during times of expansion, or when new hires need to be trained. Alternately, it could be that a costly mistake was made somewhere down the line, or a dispute or lawsuit occurs, highlighting the need to take a more disciplined approach to business and project management.

Smaller construction companies still tend to lag behind in terms of software integration. According to a recent study published by Software Advice, the majority still use a manual system or a spreadsheet as their current method.

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

Article written by Rob Preston and appears on Forbes.com

More so than in any other year in recent history, events in 2017 promise to put business executives under intense pressure, as new political forces, restructured trading coalitions, and more aggressive central bankers and regulators exert their influence on companies and markets worldwide.

Advances in digital technology and business models will also continue to shift the balance of global economic power, putting more pressure on CIOs to stay ahead of existing and emerging competitors. The many tools at the disposal of CIOs include cloud computing, predictive analytics, mobile applications, machine learning, and robotics, feeding broader movements such as the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0. The business opportunities are considerable: lower costs; more precise supply chains; more dynamic, reliable, and personalized products and marketing campaigns; more attentive customer service; and ultimately more abundant, loyal customers.

Original Article on Forbes.com. Article written by Bob Evans, senior vice president, communications for Oracle.

The toughest job in corporate America, says Oracle CEO Mark Hurd, is the CIO’s. While I agree with Hurd’s assessment, I also believe that business-minded, forward-looking CIOs have an incredible opportunity to play leading roles in the digital/physical revolution that is transforming every facet of our lives.

CIOs of the world, it’s time to jump into this revolution fearlessly and joyfully because your backgrounds, your perspectives, your expertise, and your imaginations are needed desperately by your companies as they attempt to engage deeply in this richly blended digital/physical mix—or risk slipping into a nonstop decline marked by unfixable difficulties, growing irrelevance, and, ultimately, oblivion.

Article written by Garrett Harley (Director, Engineering & Construction Strategy, Oracle Primavera) and appeared on the Oracle EPPM Blog.

Don’t be late, be better informed

If nothing else, construction and engineering projects present ample opportunity to fail. Complexity in assets, supply chains, finance, workforce skills and client requirements all present risk that could jeopardise success. A small slippage or error in any of these areas can easily cascade through the project to contribute to catastrophic failure. It’s little wonder construction and engineering project management is such a tough job.

In a survey of 304 senior executives from a variety of asset-intensive industries, more than a third said they miss their budget (39%) and schedule (34%) targets on major projects at least a quarter of the time[1]. The study by the Economist Intelligence Unit also found more than 60 percent blamed unexpected change for at least half of all project overruns.

Capital industries feel pressure on all sides

All industries need to keep pace with changing economies, disruptive technologies and public policy. But for companies building and operating large capital assets – whether in engineering and construction, infrastructure, energy or transportation – the challenge is different. While there is pressure for continuous improvement, projects take time.

In the UK, Crossrail, an east-west London tunnel, was first proposed in 1974. After several different plans and proposals, work finally began in 2009. Passengers will not use the service until 2018. Building extensions and related projects could take until 2026.

In such a world, talk of transformational change and market disruption doesn’t fit the reality on the ground, or in this case, in it. Still, there is a constant pressure on companies in these markets to evolve. And pressure to build capital projects with fewer resources has just notched up a gear or three.