If you step into most contractors’ offices and ask how they decide what technology to buy (or more and more these days with AI and various low/no code platforms), you will get some version of the same answer. Somebody went to a conference, saw a demo, got excited and brought it back. Or a colleague started using a tool, or it was used in a coordination meeting, and word got around that you needed one, too. Or it may be all the rage on LinkedIn, and your tech-savvy staff is starting to make pitches to management for its adoption.

And none of that is wrong. It is how the best technology decisions start in this industry. The problem is not how the idea shows up. The problem is what happens after that, or more often, what does not happen. Starting off right is the best way to avoid having shadow IT: employees working on platforms they’ve engaged in on their own and don’t fit into the company’s process or technology stack.

It’s interesting to me that in an industry built around process and workflows, most contractors don’t have a process for evaluating, piloting, rolling out and maintaining technology. They have a purchase order and a hope. With little or no process, the same mistakes repeat themselves company after company, tool after tool. 

There is great excitement when a new platform is purchased, used hard for six months by one champion, and then fails to gain larger adoption as people continue to use their own systems. It gets abandoned when that person moves on or gets pulled onto a busy project. Data gets siloed across five systems that do not talk to each other. 

Nobody can say with confidence who has access to what, where sensitive information lives or what happens if a laptop gets stolen or when that initial champion leaves for a competitor.

Reading the technology roadmap

This is why a technology playbook matters, and why I think every contractor, regardless of size, needs some version of one.

I recently met with the SMACNA Construction Technology Committee to work on its playbook along these exact lines for the sheet metal and mechanical contracting industry. It got me thinking that a playbook is something I should promote. I feel that this type of roadmap is a great example of what can be implemented in practice. 

A playbook walks a contractor through understanding where his business actually stands today across digital transformation, technology implementation, cybersecurity and data stewardship, then builds toward practical planning tools. The document can include an information discovery spreadsheet, which is a structured inventory of what data your company has, where it lives, who touches it and how it is protected. 

You do not need SMACNA’s specific version to get the value of that idea. This is a concept that will translate to any contractor who puts in the time to review the company’s technology infrastructure. It’s important to note that a playbook is not a list of software nor is it an IT policy document. Yes, it touches on some of the same ground. 

However, its purpose is to give your organization a repeatable way to think through the four things that are usually handled separately, badly or not at all: digital transformation, technology implementation, cybersecurity and data stewardship. Not to mention how it all interacts with AI and how to manage this process and the data to get the most out of AI usage.

Those four areas are treated like different departments’ problems. IT owns cybersecurity. Operations owns implementation. No one seems to own data stewardship until something goes wrong. Having a playbook with a plan forces you to see them as one connected system, which is what they are supposed to be. 

The way you implement a new tool determines what data it touches. The data and departments or areas it touches determine what your cybersecurity exposure looks like. It all adds up to whether your digital transformation efforts actually transform anything or just add another password for users to forget.

Cybersecurity is a critical playbook section

One thing that needs to be highlighted: too many contractors still treat cybersecurity as someone else’s problem. If you have project data, payroll information, banking relationships or client contracts sitting on a server or in the cloud, you are a target for cyberattack, ransomware or hacking. 

It’s not because you are big. It’s because you are reachable, and because construction companies have historically been soft targets compared to industries that got serious about this a decade ago. We are seen as desirable targets because our clients are the kinds of big fish that cyber criminals love to go after — and we provide an easier entrance.

If you have a playbook that includes a cybersecurity section, it will force you to ask difficult or uncomfortable questions before someone else asks them for you. Who has administrative access to your systems? What happens when an employee leaves? Where do your backups live, and has anyone tested restoring from them? 

These are not the sexy questions, but they are critical and keep a ransomware event from turning into a company-ending event. For many contractors getting more and more involved in government or mission-critical work, executing on the cybersecurity end of a playbook is required.

Plan for adoption before purpose

The section we are working on now is implementation. This is the part that gets skipped the most, yet it matters most day to day. Buying the tool is the (relatively) easy part. Getting your shop, field or project teams to use it consistently, after the initial excitement wears off, is the hard part.

A playbook approach to implementation means you plan for adoption before you plan for purchase. Who owns the rollout? What are the potential failure points? There will usually be two or three predictable places where adoption dies, and if you know where to expect them, you can build around them instead of getting surprised.

Another consideration is training. I think one aspect of a technology deployment that many contractors get wrong is not paying for additional support or training. You are making a major investment of time and energy to deploy new technology, and potentially workflow, yet you are going to skimp on getting people the assistance they need to make it successful? I feel this is noticeably short-sighted. Always get the training offered by the vendor. If the vendor doesn’t offer it, seek it out from a third party.

You cannot manage data you cannot see

I’ve often heard that data is the new oil. And with the advent of Large Language Learning modules and other AI systems, data is the foundation and lifeblood of a business. Many contractors will not have a real understanding of their own data as a whole. They may understand project data, and the virtual design and construction department understands the building information modeling data. 

The shop may understand their metrics and work, but the organization’s data is spread across an enterprise resource planning system, a detailing platform, a dozen spreadsheets with secret formulas no one really knows why they work, likely a cloud storage folder nobody fully controls (or understands), and probably several dozen hard drives with essential documents and processes that have never been backed up but no one knows that until the computer crashes. 

A playbook pushes you to document that, to map it out. It isn’t necessarily a fun exercise, but you can’t protect what you can’t see, and you can’t make good technology (or business) decisions without knowing what data you are already generating and where it needs to end up.

The value is in the process

The playbook is useful and should be constantly evaluated and updated as both the business and technology evolve. The real value, though, is in the process of documenting and building one — whether your own or working through someone else’s — section by section, department by department, as a leadership team. It brings to light conversations and insights about the business that otherwise never happen until a crisis occurs. 

It takes your technology decision from a one-off purchase to an actual strategy. One that should be overseen by a chief technology officer or chief information officer if you’ve read my writing before! And it gives your company a shared language for talking about digital transformation instead of everyone using the term to mean something slightly different.

Your system does not need to be perfect right away. The benefit is in the effort and, as I said, this will be ever-evolving. As is said in construction, as well as the military, failure to plan is planning to fail. Have a playbook, a process for your technology, or you’re planning for failed implementations.

Travis Voss is the director of innovative technology and fabrication at the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association. In this role, he aids member contractors in identifying the critical technological trends within the industry and assists them in remaining at the forefront of these developments. Before joining SMACNA, Voss worked for Helm Mechanical as its leader of innovative technology. He serves his local community as a volunteer firefighter.