Software giant Trimble recently sat down with Dodge Data & Analytics CEO Dan McCarthy for a conversation about the evolving state of building-industry data. Here are some highlights from the video interview:
Our goals center around identifying and quantifying a project as soon as it’s gone into planning. … If I’m an architect, I want to know what projects are coming on stream and who the owner is so that I can reach out to them and win the business. If I’m a subcontractor or a specialty trade, I want to know which GCs are bidding on what projects, or which GCs got awarded a design-build, and how I can get into that project. If I’m a service provider, a bonding company, I build product, or I offer rental services or financial services, I want to know who to go to influence and get them to select my product.
Historically, Dodge has been the leader in project and product information. But we lacked maturity in firm and contact-specific information. That’s why we were attracted to Blue Book. The combination of Dodge and The Blue Book now creates the largest primary data source of all those different constituents: Including 10+ billion data elements, 14+ million project and document searches, 60+ million annual messages centered around bidding opportunities, and 1.2+ million commercial construction professionals a month seeking growth opportunities.
Our vision is to find all the connections between the project, the person, the firm, and the product so we are a partner across the entire customer data ecosystem.
Our industry is interesting because we are not always comfortable with the idea of transparency. But trying to keep information private feels short-sighted to me. Being able to see relationships within a project creates a lot more efficiency — it doesn’t create the risk that people often worry about.
During the inception of LinkedIn, for example, many employers were worried about their employees’ information being out there. They felt LinkedIn put their employees on the job market. Over time, it’s been demonstrated that no, LinkedIn doesn’t generate more turnover. LinkedIn generates better matches between people and roles. Employers actually have more access to talent and if you’re a good employer, your talent will stay. Accountability generates better performance across the board.