Modular IT architecture drives productivity and risk management at Gilbane

Gilbane is one of the largest privately-held real estate development and construction companies in the US. The $6.5 billion company has been family owned from its inception in 1870, with sixth-generation employees currently in the business. Karen Higgins-Carter, previously CIO of Webster Bank, joined Gilbane just over a year ago as CDIO with the responsibility of digitally transforming this 153-year-old business. “We’re in an industry that is ripe for transformation,” says Higgins-Carter, pictured above, center. “When you look at other industries like manufacturing and services, productivity has continually increased, whereas business productivity in construction has remained fairly flat.”

To Higgins-Carter, the construction business presents a great opportunity for digital disruption. The product — a building or bridge — might be physical but it can be represented digitally, through virtual design and construction, she says, with elements of automation that can optimize and streamline entire business processes for how physical products are delivered to clients.

Rather than divide IT, digital, and data into different functional leadership roles, Gilbane’s executive management decided, for the first time, to put all of these transformational teams under one leader. “My position was created to be the single accountable executive for innovation, digital technologies, AI, analytics, cybersecurity and IT,” she says. “In my view, companies that split up these functions are seeing second-order consequences around communication, costs, and conflict, and are bringing these roles back together. We believe this structure is the most effective to bring together our data and technology resources to drive transformation and get a real return on invested capital.”

Streamlining value

To provide a foundation for digital transformation, Higgins-Carter and her team are piloting four value streams across the organization: RFP to project award, pre-construction, construction, and then recruit-to-retire. “The first three are operational value streams, where our customer is the recipient of the value,” she says. “But we’ve also included recruit-to-retire because we’re in a people business. People build buildings.”

For example, in the construction value stream, Gilbane is increasing its investment in virtual design and construction, which creates a digital representation of a building, and can be used throughout the life cycle of a construction job, and even into ongoing facility operations.

Targets for investment

The team is investing in analytics and AI with large language mode experiments to help project teams find relevant information to perform well in their roles. “In construction, our teams are managing the construction of hundreds of projects happening at any one time,” she says. “Our analytics capabilities identify potentially unsafe conditions so we can manage projects more safely and mitigate risks.”