Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1476549
October/November/December 2022 I 45 CHALLENGES FACING THE ICT INDUSTRY The ICT companies are up against an irrefutable fact—a shortage of high-quality talent. It is nearly impos- sible to browse today's headlines without coming across multiple references highlighting the tough talent envi- ronment. This phenomenon has been building for some time. Over the last ten years as baby boomers have begun to retire, younger generations have not shown the same amount of interest to enter the industry. The ICT talent requirements are often specialized and require training. As companies are faced with getting technicians onto job sites as quickly as possible, good practices and training in areas of process and governance are often neglected. ICT professionals and companies are under insur- mountable pressure to deliver infrastructure projects within shorter timelines. This is further exacerbated by schedule compression caused by project delays. Construction project delays are an industry-wide norm. Large construction projects typically take 20 percent longer to finish than scheduled and are up to 80 percent over budget. 1 The construction industry is lagging significantly behind in embracing efficiency improvements. It is estimated that construction labor productivity has grown at only 1 percent over the past two decades, which is less than half of the cross-industry average of 2.8 percent. Inefficiencies are seen as having the biggest impact on project timelines, bringing with them conse- quences such as cost and time overruns. Miscommunication and poor project data account for 48 percent of all rework on US construction jobsites. Workers, on average, spend five and a half hours per day hunting down project data, such as revised drawings, material cut sheets, and other information relevant to the job. Four hours in an average week are spent on rework-related activities, such as managing the mis- takes on a project that resulted in rework, assessing the associated costs, and determining why the mistakes happened in the first place. 2 It is hardly surprising that this has a negative impact on the project's schedule. often delivers unintended consequences, such as frag- mented information handoff between the workforce and systems, loss or misinterpretation of information, lack of project visibility, and data integrity, as well as lengthy post-commissioning and closeout processes. The complexity of project documentation require- ments is relative to the project scope. The larger the project, the more teams and scope requirements there are, and ultimately the more project documents there are to collect, track, and maintain. The more projects in progress, the higher the risk on accuracy, timeliness, and completeness. Owners and contractors often work from different versions of reality. Unless frequent onsite audits are conducted, there is often no real-time visibility into Email is still the prevalent industry-preferred medium of document collection and reporting. The handoff of data is manual and inefficient. Operating with a manual approach in today's fast-paced, complex environment project execution, forcing stakeholders to trust reports from the field and make assumptions. It is difficult to audit and act on things that cannot be seen. It is widely known that historical performance analytics can lead to better outcomes and risk manage- ment. The use of paper and fragmented reporting makes it difficult to capture and analyze data. Incomplete and inaccurate records also regularly incite disagreements between owners and contractors on such matters as project progress, change order reconciliation, and claims management. Receiving payment for goods and services is the lifeblood of any company. With payment timelines often at 90 days or longer, making sure that project payment applications are approved in a timely manner is essential for a company's cash flow. Most ICT con- tractors are quite adept at planning and performing the contracted work, but there is often a gap between work completed and work documented in a manner acceptable to the customer. This approval process is usually completed with a closeout package (COP). The COP must demonstrate that the contractor completed all tasks satisfactorily. Managing, developing, and delivering accurate COPs and gaining quick acceptance is a detailed, costly task often underestimated during the bidding process. Incorrect COPs may result in return visits to the site, rework by project managers and adminis- trators, a strain on business relationships, and concurrent delays in payment.