The Autodesk Construction Cloud brings together the most powerful portfolio of construction management software products in the industry , supporting workflows from design to planning , to building to operations .
Now there's a tremendous breadth of supported workflows and there's a ton of capabilities in each of the software products and connectivity of the data between these products . But over the past year or so , autodesk has focused on multiple areas of advancement to deliver more integrations and connectivity between the products .
Welcome to the BEM for All podcast . Here's our host , Mel Wallace .
Now , today , to help us to take a deeper dive into how all this stuff works . Now , today , to help us to take a deeper dive into how all this stuff works , let's welcome my friend Andrew Sosa of Autodesk . Andrew , welcome to BIM for All . How are you doing ? Thanks for having me Appreciate you taking time to chat with the BIM for All audience .
Just a bit of background Andrew is the Customer Success Manager , team Lead for the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform . And just for our listening audience , you know we always strive to have the brightest minds . If you will , our subject matter expert today really is coming directly out of the ADC industry .
One thing , andrew , and again you know , based on just our conversations over the years you've been in the industry 15 plus years you've been a vdc manager , you've been a vdc instructor , you've been a been modeler . Uh , you're a licensed you know uas drone operator . I mean you , you've done it all .
You've done it all my friend you've done it all , my friend . You've done it all . I've done some stuff Educational background , mechanical engineering and I guess the other part that I really think adds a lot of credibility to this discussion today is that you've actually worked with some of the world's largest construction companies .
So , kind of my first question , andrew , is based on your experience , based on everything that you've done over your career how does this help you work with the Autodesk Construction Cloud users ?
Well , I know having a good icebreaker is always important , but when you're able to come into a room with a customer partner and be able to speak the same language , understand the same problems , have gone through the same issues they have , it just makes the whole experience way more relatable .
So I'd say my tenure in the industry has definitely helped ease some early conversations or put people at ease when something comes out of my mouth rather than it being an expected sales pitch or me trying to push something on them . So the credibility really does uh does go a long way .
So you're , you're coming from . You know what you've actually done in the industry yourself . I mean , some of the projects you've been involved in , uh , and even some of the initiatives that you rolled out in your organization . So you're , you're not , you're not coming in as as the sales guy . You know , try to sell them .
You know the next , the latest and greatest technologies , but you are coming from , I guess , a real-world perspective .
I'm a long-term Autodesk user , all the way from AutoCAD R14 up through all the news , so it's been a long journey that I've seen .
No , that's awesome , that's awesome . So our topic today is what is the Autodesk Construction Cloud , right ? I mean , we're trying to frame it up for that and really what I want to understand , andrew , if you can share with us what is the Autodesk Construction Cloud , you know , and how can it be used by project teams .
Sure , sure , the quickest way to explain the ACC or Autodesk Construction Cloud . It's our newest , best integrated breed of solutions that's purpose built for the GC space , subcontractor space and owner space , through all stages of construction , from design to demolition , to boots on the ground , to owner operator .
Okay , you know three things that it's kind of built off of , or three pillars , if you want to think of it right . Number one is going to be ease of use . Second is going to be a modern and updated product stack , okay . And then the third thing is the ability to scale . You know that's kind of the third pillar that the platform does provide , okay .
So does it matter ? I mean , if I'm a large firm , if I'm a small GC , if I'm a subcontractor , can I also use ACC or Autodesk Construction Cloud ?
Absolutely . We have some customers that have five licenses and we have some customers that have 3,000 licenses . Wow , okay , it really is a truly scalable platform .
That's a great segue into the discussion today , because one of the things you want to be able to walk through is really understand what the construction cloud is , which you've given a great kind of description of that , and how it can be used by project teams .
One thing you just alluded to a second ago some of the advancements , right , that the product went back to your , I guess , when you started working , particularly with Autodesk , you know , when you joined . As we say , you've gone to the dark side , right , You've gone from industry . Now you're on the technology development side of things .
What have you seen , I guess , over like the last 12 months , you know , as it relates to some of the product advancements that have occurred . Well , some of the stuff that's really jumped out at me over the last if I say 12 to 18 months , we've had large strides in , I'd say , the stability of the platform .
Right , platform stability and uptime is one thing that's absolutely important for customers , right , they can't have any downtime . You need to have access to their data at all times . So I know our teams have done many strides and making sure that we have a very , very sustainable and good platform that can be available at any time .
And then the second thing I think has really been great is that we've had a lot of advancements in cross-functional collaboration with workflows that you wouldn't standardly see on the Autodesk Not the typical workflow , I got you Not the typical workflows right . Not the typical workflow , I got you Not the typical workflows right .
A lot of advancements in outside integrations . Advancements in our APIs right , which allows for our customers to do a lot of custom things with the platform , but also really thinking about other construction workflows that are not particularly part of the day-in , day-out use of ACC . So , a lot of reality capture work a lot of digital twin .
I know the AI conversation .
That's a real hot topic . Everyone's talking about digital twin right and it's the new shiny object , but there's a lot of substance to it .
I totally agree , absolutely . There's a lot of substance , there's a lot of learning , a lot of maturity , but I think we're at a point where we can sit down and have a good conversation with all parties when we have that digital twin conversation . In the last 18 months , those have been some of the major gaps that at least I get personally excited about .
There's been incremental growth that we always work . We have a good , solid bi-monthly release that we have with our ACC platform , which we've been very consistent on . But again , those large-scale integrations and large-scale movement with the broader construction workflows has been really great .
No , that's awesome . That's awesome . I mean , you kind of set up my next question . So , understanding the hype , that's literally what I have in my notes here .
Understanding the hype , right , without question , autodesk , you are at the top of the sphere , if you will , as it relates to AEC and even O , including owners , now industry , from a technology standpoint , and you've just kind of shared a few of them , but kind of the core objectives , even the value proposition , andrew , in your assessment .
When we talk about NCC , what's the value proposition for this ?
You know I'd say the technology provides a best-in-class way to simplify the things that have to get done . I mean , that's the way . I hate to sum it up in something so elementary . But you know , when we get into specific softwares that only can do points of training so the superintendent can pick it up .
A new project , as you just started , or you know a veteran CM , veteran PM . You know from soup to nuts . Any of those users , any level of experience , can come in here and have the job running for an everyday construction project .
I got you . So , if I'm hearing you correctly , what you're saying is that it's really about helping you work smarter and not harder , right ? I mean , hey , do the cliche . I think we've all heard that .
And then my assumption is as with anything , and particularly in the construction universe , try to compress schedules , try to get projects done , you know , at a quicker rate . But , more importantly , you know , you try to do all this while staying within the actual budgets that have been defined . And , as we both know , budgets are shrinking .
That have been defined and , as we both know , budgets are shrinking . So you know . So it just causes all the players that are involved in the project to be smarter on how they get to the end result .
Yeah , the mantra of doing more with less has really taken over the industry . You know , projects have less and less budget , less and less fluff fat , if you will . So you know the ability to do more with less , be more collaborative , is going to really help and has helped , and that's what we do . I got you . I got you .
So , andrew , we really want to hear again and I appreciate everything that you shared up to this point . But walk us through some of the key benefits based on some of the information that I've read , even before our conversation today . There's things like centralized project management I think you just alluded to that Real-time collaboration and communication .
You just mentioned that a second ago . Can you walk us through at least a couple of these Project management collaboration , even document management and version control ? How does that work within the Autodesk construction ?
Well , we have a couple of ways that we address . I'd say a couple of core things I'd like to touch on . First One is administration . You have a platform . You need to be able to control it in some capacity . So within our admin portal on the tool , we have the ability to rapidly add and remove users .
For those users that we rapidly add and remove , we have the ability to quickly toggle on and off what portions of the platform they're going to need . You have some people that come in that are just going to be on dot control so you can operate that .
You can operate that without any of the project operation functions where you have people that are only focused on cost change part of the platform . You have your PMs that need to be touching everything .
And another thing that we've added in 360 side over at ACC is we have executive level control as well , right , so the persona of a construction executive or executive leadership that doesn't necessarily need to be in the day-in-day but needs to see kind of overall portfolio , see product trends , see a summary of everything you know .
We have the ability again to get those users in the platform and allow them to have that level of visibility across the platform across all the data , which doesn't really seem that big of a deal . But when you start dialing it , get people into the system , make sure they're doing the right thing of a deal .
But when you start dialing it , get people into the system , make sure they're doing the right thing , they're in the right spot . That can be pretty time-consuming at scale .
I got you . Well , what about the guys that are actually in the field ? I mean , we talked about the executives , but the guy that's literally on site in the field , how does this connect with them ?
We do have one of the best in class mobile platform . It was formerly known as PlanGrid Build , which now has just evolved into ACC Gotcha , but for those who have used PlanGrid , it's been 360 . It took the best of both worlds from both of those platforms in the mobile sense and brought that into the ACC app .
With the new ACC app , we have the ability to view all of your in-flight submittals , in-flight RFIs , issues , assets , so really everything that you have at the mobile . The robust mobile platform is at the fingertips of every person that's collaborating on the job , whether it's internal .
So everybody , I guess all stakeholders , everybody that's on the project , everybody that's involved in the project now has access to the same information you know based upon what , as they say a need to know basis , what they actually need to know in real time .
And in real time . Now that's the big thing , Okay .
I mean , obviously you know , andrew , you know one of the things when we talk about construction and how this whole ecosystem works , we got to talk about data . Right , we have to talk about the ability to provide or to receive some type of reporting or analytics . Can you share with us some of the advanced analytics and reporting capabilities of the platform ?
Absolutely so . For those of the legacy BIM 360 users and even new users of ACC , we have the insights module . Our insights module will parse through all the information on your project within all the tools and we can look at that data at a project level again or at a portfolio level at that executive mindset .
And we have some really great pre-built dashboards that come out of the box . Can you customize those at all on your end ? We're going to get there . I mean , you probably read the script on that but we have a couple of things that we could do .
Construction IQ will actually look at keywords at different parts of the tool and give you some predictive analytics on safety items , project control items , submittals are tracking behind or we see issues with certain keywords like water or leak . Our construction IQ will pick up on these items and kind of flag those for you .
But then obviously everyone's not a matter-of-tool . We do have a way to extract all that data in bulk . You can schedule it right so it could be a one-time data extraction .
We can schedule a data extraction and within our actual cards that we have in our insights module we have the ability to connect directly to Power BI Microsoft Power BI with pre-built dashboards for your use . So , right out of the box with a data extraction , open up a Power BI dashboard , filter it in .
You can start parsing through your data and you can have that again in . You can start parsing through your data and you can have that again in a static connection , or you can actually make a real-time connection back to the platform . So share a single Power BI dashboard with your teams .
It refreshes once a week , you know , before everyone gets their coffee on Monday and then everyone can see you know at the beginning of the week at quicksand .
Gotcha . So you do have the ability to customize some of those things that relate to your organization . Okay , for example , any type of risk to be able to make decisions before they occur . How does the ACC platform attack that ?
I mean , the conversation of leading and lagging indicators in the industry is always different between firms .
Again , within the platform we have some ways that we will look at keywords , repeat issues that pop up , root cause analysis based on whether it be on the issue front , on the submittal front or an RFI front , and that carries over both in the design process and on the construction side .
But , more importantly , I think what's great is that the data schema that we provide , which is unique and repetitive when you actually do a data extraction , can really be molded into whatever a company may need . And as that data schema evolves , we keep everyone up to date and we're updating new endpoints and new items that we have available all the time .
Our APIs are always evolving , so we have a really good base or foundation for what teams would need to support , again , whatever leading and lacking indicators you're tracking , to make those good business decisions based on the data that they're capturing .
I got you , I got you . No , that makes that makes total sense . That makes total sense . So I know you don't have a crystal ball , but as you , because you're so close to this application , to this platform , you know the industry . You have , I guess , a great grasp on what Autodesk is planning hopefully to do in the future .
And again , this is just speculative , right . But what do you think the future holds for the Autodesk Construction Cloud , especially now , ai being front and center of everybody's mind ? What are your thoughts on how this will continue to evolve ?
I think the data-first mentality is going to be something that continues for us and for any platform . The driver in the success is going to be understanding what you've done and where you need to go in order to make those educated decisions . So I lead heavily on those conversations with my customers .
I know Autodesk has that as forefront as well , because , again , we're capturing data , we're bringing in data from other sources , we're extracting the data and bringing it into external BI tools , erps , and we're looking at it as well . The data-first mentality , I think , is strong and will continue to be strong for any platform in the industry .
As long as we keep that mindset and keep working hard at that , I think it's going to be a game changer in the industry . So as long as we keep that mindset and keep working hard at that , I think it's going to be a game changer in the future .
No , it definitely is . I mean , obviously , autodesk's commitment to innovation . Literally , the possibilities are endless as this moves forward . So there you have it , folks . The Outer Desk Construction Cloud , in Andrew's words , is a game changer . You know .
It is a solution that empowers construction professionals to overcome the challenges and to achieve greater success in their projects . We talked just for a second about centralized project management . You know real-time collaboration . We talked just for a second about centralized project management . You know real-time collaboration . You talked about that .
We talked about , you know , advanced analytics , and this is a cloud-based platform , right ? So this whole , the whole , you know , start to finish is cloud-based , but it does give a comprehensive and streamlined approach to construction project management , and I think that's the takeaway that we definitely want to leave with the listeners here at BIM for All .
So , andrew , I know we're almost out of time here , but how can people connect with you ? How can they get in touch with you if they have further questions about the Autodesk construction ?
Yeah , I'm very active on LinkedIn . Linkedin is probably the best way to get out to me . I got that LinkedIn mobile app that's always dinging it all , all times of the day , all hours of the night . Understood To reach out to you on LinkedIn . Please make sure you spell my name right . It's U-O , not O-U . I know Mel messed it up in the past .
I won't hold that against you , understood . Yeah , reach out to me on LinkedIn . Glad to talk , glad to help . We can strategize and work together . Change the way we work .
Awesome . Well , andrew , thanks again for stopping by the BIM for All studios and providing your invaluable insight into the Autodesk Construction Cloud Anytime To our listeners . Thanks for joining another episode of BIM for All and until next time , always keep moving forward .
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