Innovative Ways to Manage Risky Business

December 13, 2022

Companies often look to innovative practices to increase productivity but overlook innovation’s impact on risk management. In fact, using forward-thinking technologies like sensor data collection and construction-specific software applications have a greater impact on managing the five overarching risks in building—safety, financial, legal, project, and environmental—than one might think.

Making It Count

One way an organization can track the efficacy of their innovation program’s effect on risk management is global insurance company AXA XL’s Technology Adoption Maturity Index, or TAMI. This unique benchmarking service evaluates a contractor’s technology adoption against that company’s peers and the industry overall, providing a score and suggestions to help reduce and manage their risk.

This year, Brasfield & Gorrie received an overall score of 7.1 out of 10 against an industry average of 5.1, placing us in the top three of all TAMI scores for 2022. We eagerly anticipate the opportunity to improve our score using AXA XL’s tailored recommendations. Staying in touch with the innovation market requires a deep investment of time and energy but finding tech that makes a difference and adopting it to the fullest can have measurable results that pay off in dividends.

Saving Water, Time, and Money

There are direct benefits to risk management that one might expect from adopting, say, a leak prevention solution. We implemented the WINT AI-powered water intelligence system on several recent projects to help reduce costs and time lost due to water leaks on construction projects, drawing a clear line to minimizing risks in project budget and timeline. But the advantages don’t end there.

“Something like WINT is also capable of integration with the facility’s building management system once the owner takes control of the building after construction,” said Katie Voss, Brasfield & Gorrie’s vice president of risk management. “In addition to monitoring for leaks, the owner can utilize the system’s information to find ways to operate more efficiently and reduce consumption, offering our clients the value-added services of risk management and sustainable operation across the lifespan of the building.”

Shifting Gears to Proactivity

Construction-specific software applications also offer savings. They can help minimize the challenge of a shrinking workforce by developing operational tools that make workloads more manageable for existing teams. With time-consuming paperwork a constant challenge for project managers, software that manages or reduces this workload is a gamechanger. Minimizing paperwork enables project managers to focus more of their time and energy on project quality and safe building practices.

Systems that help track our projects’ financial health using analytics built for quicker, more responsive reporting allow us to predict where risks may appear. This enables us to be proactive in preventing risks rather than reacting to them—another straight line to time and money savings.

Brasfield & Gorrie Chief Strategy Officer Chris Kramer said, “As an organization, investing in technology to minimize risk results in increased profitability that can be reinvested into the workforce and additional technologies, creating a cycle of continuous improvement.”