Product Updates:
Why Digital Soft Landings are key to bridging the construction–operations gap

Despite decades of industry focus on improving information capture and handover, too many clients still receive incomplete, disorganised or unusable building information at practical completion. This often stems from a disconnect between what project teams deliver and what operational teams actually need.

One key lesson reinforced at DCW was that this isn’t just a technical issue. It’s a cultural and contractual one. Without clear information requirements, accountability and early engagement from both sides, the operational team is often left scrambling post-handover.

What is a Digital Soft Landing?

Digital Soft Landings builds on the traditional Soft Landings methodology by aligning digital deliverables with operational needs from day one. Digital Soft Landings ensures structured, usable digital information is delivered and validated throughout the project lifecycle. Most importantly, the data is onboarded to the operational teams to ensure the value and effort in capturing it is realised.

It’s about aligning data with purpose by ensuring that what gets handed over can be used immediately to run, maintain and optimise the building.

Key takeaways from the panel session

During our panel, several insights resonated strongly with attendees:

• Start with the end in mind
  Clients need to define their asset information requirements at the earliest stage of a project, ideally during procurement. Waiting until construction is underway is too late. The digital soft landing approach helps frame these requirements early and maintain them throughout delivery.
• Make the data live, not static
  A key failure point in many handovers is the delivery of static PDFs or unstructured file dumps. It’s important to deliver dynamic, structured asset data that can integrate directly into CAFM, IWMS or digital twin systems.
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration is essential
  A successful Digital Soft Landing requires cooperation between project managers, Information Managers, vendors, facilities teams and contractors. It cannot be the responsibility of a single party. Embedding someone whose job is to manage the transition is increasingly critical.
• Focus on the asset
  Current practices in information capture focus around activities like design, construction, FM etc. In reality the one thing that is continuous through the lifecycle is the asset itself. At all stages and activities, information that is captured should serve the asset as a whole as well as the activity.

Reflections from the show floor

DCW 2025 marked a palpable shift in the industry’s focus towards the entire lifecycle of built assets. The conference floor and session halls buzzed with conversations that extended far beyond the traditional design and construction phases, signalling a notable increase in attendance from the ‘asset owner’ community.

This year, the presence of major clients, public sector estate managers like the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, and real estate professionals was more pronounced than ever. Sessions focused on the “project-to-operations journey” and “digital soft landings,” demonstrated a clear recognition that operational data needs must inform a project from its inception to ensure long-term value.

The convergence of ConTech and PropTech was no longer a theoretical concept but a tangible reality on the exhibition floor. Technologies showcased how a single, structured data thread could be woven from the earliest designs to daily facility management. Digital twins, AI-powered predictive maintenance and sophisticated information management platforms illustrated a seamless ecosystem where construction data directly empowers property operations.

This integration is crucial; getting asset owners actively involved in the construction technology dialogue ensures that the digital tools being developed solve real-world operational challenges, ultimately leading to more efficient, sustainable, and profitable buildings.

To learn more about this, watch our on-demand webinar, ‘Bridging the Operations gap with Digital Soft Landings’, which was recorded on 24 June 2025 .

About the Author

Lucas Cusack is the Strategic Lead for Asset Management at Glider Technology, where he creates solutions for asset owners to procure, manage and exploit structured, validated asset information supporting operational excellence and building intelligence. Glider provides asset information management solutions to some of the UK’s leading asset owners, enabling better building performance, compliance and digital innovation.