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Data-driven decision-making or data-based decision-making is something most of us do in our daily lives. When we go online shopping for something, we compare prices from different websites and make our shopping decisions based on how much we can save or based on which website can deliver faster.

When you apply this into your project and facilities management, data-driven decision-making can save you lots of money. Every activity on your worksite and in your office, generates usable data. The ability to use all your generated data wisely can help you make better decisions.

Additionally, utilising all your data will help you future-proof your business. All your activities today create data and everything you will be doing in the coming years will create more. Tech experts refer to this data deluge as Industry 4.0 and this is the next evolution your business has to be ready for!

Becoming data-driven

Stepping up to be data-driven is not an instant transition. It鈥檚 definitely not an easy task to collect data from multiple activity sources and sharing that information among different teams. That鈥檚 why you would need a project management software to help you manage your data and turn them into invaluable assets.

For construction and facilities management, converting pen-and-paper methods. spreadsheets and other manual methods of inspection and data aggregation into digital forms allows for data to be collected directly into the cloud. The ability to have your data in one place enables a universal source for the progress of all your activities that can be updated, accessed and shared in real-time.

Related reading: Learn how spreadsheets make you make bad decisions and how it鈥檚 putting your construction projects at risk.

With necessary information always available for everyone in your team, your workers can focus their energy on more important tasks rather than on meaningless but necessary tasks of collecting data. Your workers become more focused on valuable work that gains you efficiency and productivity.

Examples of useful data for the construction and facilities management industries include the tracking of:

• Amount paid and hours worked (especially with overtimes)
• Productivity metrics and KPIs
• Compensation of workers by injury types (for accidents)
• Employee absences and corresponding reasons

Data-based decision-making is all about your culture and software

Project management software only helps with data-driven decision-making. However, it鈥檚 not the be-all and end-all of data-driven decisions. Cultural mindset is the most crucial in getting your business to start thinking and working the data-driven way.

If your company鈥檚 mindset still operates in the traditional construction and facilities management mindset, any project management software will be rendered useless. Think exercise equipment: if you buy a treadmill and just forget about it in the basement, then nothing will happen.

We actually wrote about this topic in-depth so head on over to read about how you can get your employees involved in your digitalisation initiatives.

Start and encourage a culture of data-driven thinking. Start being data-driven yourself. When someone asks for your opinion, offer your opinion and back it up with data. When your workers suggest something, ask them what data they have that led them to that opinion. Set an example that you want everyone to start thinking critically. If possible, reward successful data-driven thinking.

Know what data-driven decisions you want to make. Before going into data-based decision making, know what processes you want to improve and what problems you want to solve. Then, look for the data that would help you improve your processes and solve your problems. Remember, data-driven decision making just changing the way you think and not replacing any of your processes – just improving them with a new way of thinking.

Work with data-driven people. For initial implementation of your data-driven project management, find workers who are already comfortable working with data or who can easily adapt to using software.

Prepare yourself and your workers with soft skills. Keep in mind that interpreting data cannot be passed on to software. You and your people have to equip yourselves with soft and analytical skills.

How are you, as a company, embracing the data-driven decision-making culture. Is your company using data-driven decision making to be more productive? Are you using project management software to be more efficient to save time and money in your projects?

Are you in the middle of transitioning to the new data-based work culture? If you are, maybe you want to learn more about data-driven decision-making and digitalisation in our ebook that we have made available for you to download. You can get it for free today.