Going digital can mean many things, particularly for construction! Fundamentally, it’s transforming the way that we work from old paper-based methods to a more asynchronous and virtual experience.
Our newest Senior DevOps Engineer, Jim Speir, talks us through the importance of digital transformation and his journey with Glider so far.
What does digital transformation mean to you?
Digital transformation means moving from the old paper-based, physical meeting style of planning to a more asynchronous and virtual one. It represents a move from a method which was previously slow and with a high potential for errors to a faster and more robust one.
How is the construction industry modernising, and where do you see Glider in this movement?
With the higher building standards being brought into play paired with the recent pandemic, digital collaboration has become increasingly important. Glider’s tools facilitate this style of collaboration more. Additionally, we take away a lot of the work that might otherwise have been done manually allowing businesses to focus more on the project at hand rather than the paperwork alongside it.
If someone asked you, what would be the core reasons to go digital?
Going digital provides a way to speed up collaboration on various aspects of your projects. Through this ease of collaboration, your projects can be completed quicker. Some tasks might not even require collaboration at all with the applications driving them taking some of the necessary brain power – and thus the implied human error – away. As a Senior DevOps Engineer, the benefits of automation are all too real. With the increased reliance on digital, it’s also more feasible to involve parties from further away than was previously possible which opens up a world of opportunities for everyone in the industry.
Digital transformation can be complex. How can we simplify the process?
As a Senior DevOps Engineer, it is part of my role to break people out of their previous rhythm. Sometimes this can be more difficult than others. The easiest way to do it is to make it convenient. Where a procedure was manual in the past, automate it as much as you can. By taking advantage of the processes Glider offers, you can encourage widespread appeal within your organisation. People also feel less anxious when their responsibility is removed. The tools we have can remove some of that weight, which further encourages trust in the tool.
What stage in the transformation journey would you find most businesses today?
Many businesses outside of the building industry are quickly seeing the impact of digital services with monolithic, yet easy to use, applications becoming the norm for even the most mundane task. Ordering a taxi, having food delivered, budgeting and banking are some of those tasks and for a long time people were scared that their taxi would arrive at the wrong place or their food might have onions. Over time this has changed as people saw the convenience on offer and the widespread trust.
The building industry is going to go through the same change – undoubtedly so. The benefits for a well managed project aren’t just convenient, they stand to represent a huge financial saving and a reduction in human error. On the ground, your clients stand to benefit from better maintained, quicker delivered and more robust projects. The advantages on offer are staggering.
What is your favourite part of your role at Glider?
Glider is making people rethink how they build their projects and the impact we have on them is already being felt in the industry, with some really interesting clients coming to us, preferentially, for similarly interesting projects. It’s a great time to be here to see Glider rise up amongst our competitors, some of whom have simply been the go to for many years. There are many interesting ideas we can implement, and not just from the infrastructure perspective that I deal with!
Working with the team to allow us to deliver releases to our users quicker is rewarding enough never mind seeing our own infrastructure grow as new problems need solving as we go. It shows no sign of stopping and that’s the beauty of it!
To learn more about Glider and how to join our team of digital experts visit our dedicated careers page now.
