As the global pandemic has made a significant push for most industries to embrace digitization, the Philippine construction industry is not lagging, as the latest report from a leading global provider of construction management software, Procore Technologies, Inc., disclosed that construction firms here are starting in its digital transformation journey.

Procore's benchmark report "How We Build Now 2022 — Tracking technology in Asia Pacific Construction in 2022," said construction firms in the Philippines understand that digital transformation is required to overcome challenges incurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, with 26 percent of construction businesses already being digital-first and 56 percent being 'well on the way' in their digital transformation journey.

The study showed that two in three (65 percent) Filipino construction decision-makers reported an increase in their digital investments during the last 24 months.

Further research from Procore also found that Filipino respondents recognize the benefits of construction technology, in particular the reduced reliance on human labor (55 percent), the ability to handle more projects (54 percent), and resource efficiency through less rework (53 percent).

Though the digital transformation journey is not spared from obstacles, as challenges are still inevitable, identifying the top barriers of digital transformation includes changing established behaviors (44 percent), and overcoming concerns around data security (43 percent).

These are followed by the costs involved to transform digitally, inadequate software solutions, and a lack of support from technology providers and vendors (38 percent each), while more than one in three respondents (36 percent) also cited the challenge of breaking information and people out of 'silos'.

Bruce Wells, vice president of Asia, Procore, said a key issue with construction technology lies with a history of it being built by tech people, not construction people, as it creates a mismatch of expectations between what businesses want technology to do, and what it can actually do.

"As a cloud-based software provider created by construction professionals for construction professionals, Procore is rooted and solely dedicated to the advancement of the industry. Procore understands the pain points that the industry faces, and we build solutions to directly address them," Wells added.