What is the impact to consulting engineering?
How will these changes impact consulting engineering?
- The way we do our work
- The solutions we offer to our clients
- New and enhanced services we provide to the market
Consulting engineering is in the process of reorganizing itself, not just because of technological advancements, but also market pressures, evolving client expectations and generational change.
Firms that embrace technology to improve operations are better able to scale, manage and attract talent, and improve productivity and profitability. We generate a wealth of data for projects – from design specifications, standards, products, materials, schedule, budget, facilities operations and more. Cloud computing, IoT, digital twins and machine learning are some of the technologies capable of automating routine tasks, quickly iterating design options and generally streamlining workflows.
The growing role of technology has blurred the lines between traditional consulting engineering and technology work (i.e. software and application development). With digital and other technologies at the heart of much innovation and how projects are designed and delivered, engineering firms are doing much more technology work – developing custom scripts for computational design, creating digital twins, developing a single plane of glass (dashboard) for BAS and smart buildings solutions. We’re often as likely to be designing and developing apps, prototypes, databases, cloud platforms as we are doing project management, construction admin, load calculations or other ‘traditional engineering’ tasks. The distinction between an engineer and a software solution provider or cloud expert are converging, because the future requires understanding of all these.
Clients’ expectations of engineering consultants are also changing, regarding how we solve their problems, and the types of consultants involved in design and construction. It may mean that non-traditional design consultants become involved – such as management consultants, tech start-ups or cloud computing consultants. Clients are more knowledgeable about artificial intelligence, robotics, automation and the Internet of Things (IoT), and are apt to hire engineering firms using these technologies to deliver better outcomes.