The Digital Buildings Council (DBC) was proud to partner with Digital Construction Week (DCW) on their new Digital Operations Stage, a key platform for advancing discussions around the digital transformation of the built environment. One of the most critical topics explored was “Digital Soft Landings,” a concept central to addressing the pervasive ‘project-operations gap’ – a driving force behind many of the DBC’s planned working group initiatives.
The session, moderated by Lucas Cusack at Glider Technology (who sponsored the Digital Operations Stage), delved into how to ensure seamless information transfer from construction to building operations. A central theme highlighted by the panel was the “information paradox”—the enormous amount of valuable data generated during design and construction that is often lost or not effectively transferred to the operational phase, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs. Ed Riby from JLL, with 20 years of soft landings experience, specifically pointed to the lack of alignment between the “actual physical asset and the documentation and data” at handover.
While the existing “soft landings” framework (pioneered by BSRIA/RIBA) provides a structure for smoother transitions, the panel argued that it “lacks a digital, like a robust digital layer to truly capture and verify the information in a usable format that we need”. This underscored the need for Digital Soft Landings, which aims to ensure information is explicitly defined at its point of creation and delivered seamlessly. This approach advocates for “proactive information management, not just a reactive handover”, ultimately seeking to “blur the line of CAPEX OPEX and continue to grow this wedge of information and capability in actually managing the asset”.
The panel, which included DBC founding member Alan Williamson, Senior Services Manager at Multiplex, along with Edward Riby, Real Estate Director at JLL, Andrew Victory, Global Digital Transformation Leader at Arcadis, and Steven Boyd MBE, strategic advisor to Glider (who kindly stood in at the last moment for Natalie Green at Sodexo, discussed several key challenges and barriers to a smooth handover:
- Lack of Linked Information and Progressive Handover: Information often arrives weeks after practical completion, rather than progressively with the completion of work elements.
- Insufficient Commissioning Period: Alan Williamson stressed the need for adequate and respected commissioning periods, rather than a frantic scramble at the project’s end.
- Varying Client Digital Maturity: Andrew Victory noted the wide variations in digital maturity across clients, sectors, and countries.
- Cultural Focus on Activities vs. Assets: Stephen Boyd emphasized that the focus should be on continuous “assets rather than activities”.
- Vague Contractual Requirements and Data Standards: Contracts are often “too vague” and that referring to an “ISO standard or a British standard is great, but it doesn’t go far enough” in specifying data standards17. There is a need for “more consistent and end to end structured data standards”.
- CAPEX vs. OPEX Mindset: A significant financial barrier is the prevalent mindset that views CAPEX (capital expenditure) as “good spend” and OPEX (operational expenditure) as an “overhead”, hindering a whole-life perspective and rejecting beneficial long-term OPEX approaches.
While there was unanimous agreement that the client is ultimately responsible for ensuring usable operational information, this was qualified by acknowledging that clients often “doesn’t have the expertise generally” and need specific guidance from designers and contractors. Stephen Boyd suggested targeting the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) to help them understand the long-term savings from a whole-life perspective. Alan Williamson emphasized that the client must establish a consistent digital culture from the very beginning of the project, with all teams using consistent naming conventions. Ed Ribey challenged the exclusion of operations and maintenance teams from the delivery team from day one, advocating for their competence to be integrated early, focusing on delivering “capability, not just an asset”. Stephen Boyd also saw a “real opportunity” for Tier One contractors to offer additional value by providing “good-to-go” asset registers and staying involved for the first two years of operation.
A recurring and vital theme was the importance of knowledge transfer over mere data transfer. As Ed Ribey stated, “It’s not about transferring documentation, data, all this stuff. It’s about transferring knowledge to the team. You can have all the data in the world. If you don’t understand it’s pointless”. He estimated that “in most new builds, 80% of the information that’s given to an end user is useless, about 20% of actual value”. To build this crucial knowledge, Ed advocated for “live documentation transfer from day one”
The panel universally agreed that a cultural shift is paramount for successful digital soft landings. This requires clients to set a clear vision and culture from the project’s inception, demanding specific data standards and integrating operational teams early with clear accountability. For contractors and designers, it presents an opportunity to provide added value by focusing on asset-centric information and offering post-completion support. Ultimately, the goal is not just to hand over data, but to transfer crucial knowledge, ensuring that the true operational potential and value of “smart buildings” can be unlocked.
A detailed briefing of the panel is included below. You can also listen to an AI-generated podcast discussion about this session that our Executive Officer Justin Kirby who helped faciliate the panel has posted over on LinkedIn.
More sessions summaries to follow soon.
Detailed Briefing: Bridging Construction and Operations with Digital Soft Landings
Executive Summary:
The sources offer an exploration of “digital soft landings,” a proposed method to bridge the information gap between construction and building operations. A central theme is the paradox of information, where vast amounts of data generated during design and construction are often lost or not effectively transferred to the operational phase, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs. Speakers discuss the cultural, commercial, and financial barriers preventing a smooth handover, emphasising the need for earlier client involvement and a shift in focus from sequential activities to the continuous asset. The discussion highlights the importance of structured data standards and the crucial role of knowledge transfer, rather than just data, to ensure buildings perform as designed and reach their full operational potential.
Overview:
This briefing summarises key themes and ideas from the panel discussion “Bridging Construction and Operations: Digital Soft Landings”, focusing on the challenges and proposed solutions for a smoother transition from building construction to operational phases.
Core Problem: The Paradox of Information and the “Information Gap”
The central challenge identified by the panel is the significant disconnect between the vast amounts of information generated during design and construction and what is effectively transferred to operations. As Speaker 5 highlights, there’s a “paradox of information right now. We generate an enormous amount in design and construction… A huge amount of this is lost or not transferred to operations effectively.” This “information gap” leads to substantial costs, including “inefficiencies, increased operational costs, extended defect resolution times, etc.” Ed Ribey from JLL, with 20 years of soft landings experience, specifically points to the lack of alignment between the “actual physical asset and the documentation and data,” noting that they are “not linked to each other when it comes to kind of completions and handover.” He questions, “how am I meant to maintain a building at PC? Four weeks later my information arrives?”
The Soft Landings Promise and the Digital Imperative
The existing “soft landings” framework, pioneered by BSRIA, offers a structure to address these issues, advocating for a “smoother transition from construction to operation, ensuring that the buildings perform as they were designed.” However, the panel argues that this framework “lacks a digital, like a robust digital layer to truly capture and verify the information in a usable format that we need.”
This gives rise to the concept of Digital Soft Landings. As Speaker 5 defines it, it’s about “taking the tasks responsibilities within the soft landings framework to ensure information is explicitly defined at its point of creation and delivered seamlessly.” This involves “proactive information management, not just a reactive handover,” aiming for “seamless data transfer, you knowledge transfer to engage teams from both sides at critical decision points.” The ultimate goal is to “blur the line of CAPEX OPEX and continue to grow this wedge of information and capability in actually managing the asset,” thereby “unlocking the full operational potential and value… especially in the context of achieving a truly smart building.”
Key Challenges and Barriers to Smooth Handover
The panellists identified several critical challenges:
- Lack of Linked Information and Progressive Handover: Ed Ribey (JLL) stresses that information should be “linked progressively. If you finish something, why can’t you hand over the information with it at the time you finished it? Not at PC or not for weeks after PC?”
- Insufficient Commissioning Period and Time at Project End: Alan from Multiplex highlights that the “commissioning period is sacrosanct and it’s allowed and it’s viable, whereas we’re all trying to scramble undignifiedly at the end of the project to try and hand something over.”
- Client Digital Maturity and Industry Standardisation: Andrew Victory from Arcadis notes the varying “digital maturity of the client themselves” and whether “the market and the industry… is actually mature and able to work in that way.” This includes getting everyone “to help each other move forward around that. Do we have the right skills, the right people in place?”
- Cultural Focus on Activities vs. Assets: Stephen Boyd, a consultant and strategic advisor, identifies a “cultural one” as the major challenge, stating, “I’m less interested in the activities and more interested in the assets. The one thing that’s continuous from end to end of the whole life cycle is the assets.” He advocates for focusing on the “assets rather than activity.”
- Vague Contractual Requirements and Data Standards: Stephen Boyd points out that contracts are “too vague” and that referring to an “ISO standard or a British standard is great, but it doesn’t go far enough.” He calls for “more consistent and end to end structured data standards.”
- CAPEX vs. OPEX Mindset: A significant financial barrier is the distinction between CAPEX (capital expenditure) and OPEX (operational expenditure). Stephen Boyd highlights that “CapEx tends to be seen as good spend because you’re getting a new shiny thing. OPEX tends to be seen as overhead. We don’t want that.” Alan from Multiplex strongly agrees, stating, “the OPEX version is the right way to go and you’re turned over by a group of individuals that have a different agenda.” This shortsightedness “dies right there on the vine that all that innovation and actually in the long run they will save money.”
Responsibility: The Client, but with Crucial Support
While there was a unanimous agreement that the client is ultimately responsible for ensuring usable operational information, the panel quickly qualified this, acknowledging the complexities:
- Client Expertise Gap: Stephen Boyd clarifies, “yes, technically it’s the client, but actually the client doesn’t have the expertise generally.” Therefore, “it needs to be the other players in delivery and maintenance that can support the client.”
- Empowering the Client (CFO focus): Stephen Boyd suggests targeting the Chief Finance Officer (CFO). “The CFO, if she or he can be brought to the light, can see how they can save a lot of money by taking a whole life perspective.”
- Culture Setting from the Outset: Alan from Multiplex argues that the client needs to “deliver that view right from the beginning, before I’m even appointed, and installing that culture, that’s really important.” This involves setting a culture where “everyone calls that door the same thing and everyone says that door locks the same and that’s when we start to move forward and then we can manage that data together.”
- Incorporating Operational Competence Early: Ed Ribey challenges, “Why is an operation and maintenance part of that delivery team? Why is our competence not bought at day one?” He argues for a focus on “capability, not an asset,” meaning the delivery team should consider “the maintenance and operational team and business as usual.”
- Accountability for Input: Ed also stresses that if operational teams are involved early, they must be “accountable for what they’re doing,” with their decisions “recorded properly in that system.”
- Opportunity for Tier One Contractors: Stephen Boyd sees a “real opportunity for the construction and fit out contractors, the tier one contractors” to offer “additional value to the client.” This could include handing over a “good to go asset register that your FM supplier can use from day one,” and “stay[ing] around not just for the warranty period, but for the first two years of operation” to ensure the building delivers what it promised.
The Critical Role of Knowledge Transfer
A recurring theme was the importance of knowledge transfer over mere data transfer. As Ed Ribey eloquently states, “It’s not about transferring documentation, data, all this stuff. It’s about transferring knowledge to the team. You can have all the data in the world. If you don’t understand it’s pointless.” He estimates that “in most new builds, 80% of the information that’s given to an end user is useless, about 20% of actual value.”
To address this, Ed advocates for “a live kind of documentation transfer,” allowing the delivery team to have “an end user who’s part of the team, is accountable and can see that information constantly. Not at PC at day one, day two, day three, day four. So that knowledge can build.”
Conclusion
The panel universally agreed that a cultural shift is paramount for successful digital soft landings. This shift requires clients to set a clear vision and culture from the project’s inception, demanding specific data standards and integrating operational teams early with clear accountability. For contractors and designers, it presents an opportunity to provide added value by focusing on asset-centric information and offering post-completion support. Ultimately, the goal is not just to hand over data, but to transfer crucial knowledge, ensuring that the true operational potential and value of “smart buildings” can be unlocked.
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