Cloud computing took off in the early 2000s, and since the Covid-19 pandemic it’s been the dominant model for businesses’ implementation of IT. But things are changing.
Increasingly, businesses of all kinds are realizing that there’s no one-cloud-fits-all. The result is the rise of specific cloud platforms for individual sectors — industry cloud platforms (ICPs).
According to Gartner: “These industry solutions are mostly based on public cloud services but offer industry players a more agile way to manage workloads and accelerate change against the particular business, data, compliance or other needs of their segment.”
But what does that actually mean?
Firstly, ICPs retain the attractions of their non-industry specific predecessors:
The first big advantage ICPs offer on top of this is that they integrate all the software services a business uses. Research by multi-cloud management software company Virtana found that 80% of organizations use multiple public cloud providers. This makes it difficult to see and control the costs of cloud usage. Having everything in one cloud solves that problem.
Equally importantly, a single integrated cloud means everyone working from the same source of data. And this data is updated in real-time. This is the real superpower of construction industry ICPs. ICPS break down the organizational silos within companies, as well as improving communication and collaboration across entire project teams.
ICPs are built to address the persistent challenge of integrating thousands of disparate software tools, legacy systems, and data streams across complex value chains. Unlike general-purpose cloud platforms, ICPs are tailored to the workflows, regulations, and data semantics of a specific industry — enabling them to simplify and accelerate large-scale integration.
“ICPS break down the organizational silos within companies, as well as improving communication and collaboration across entire project teams.”
Specialist construction ICP suppliers now offer software integration on a massive scale. Trackunit’s operating data platform IrisX is just one of a number in the construction space offering highly-specialized and tailored data in a specific niche area. In Trackunit’s case, that means the off-highway sector with the ability to build apps on the IrisX platform to enhance project management and increase efficiency.
That might, for example, enable standardized APIs for worksite telemetry, equipment utilization, or rental contracts, making it easier for vendors and partners to plug in without bespoke middleware or translation layers.
ICPs also offer embedded integration frameworks bypassing sometimes brittle point-to-point integrations to enable scalability across hundreds of partners or solutions. ICPs embed low-code/no-code integration layers, event buses, and connector marketplaces that support scalable, many-to-many integrations.
This allows companies to onboard partners, OEMs and independent software vendors rapidly without rearchitecting their environments. That, for example, could allow a fleet manager to subscribe to telematics data from multiple OEMs through a unified message broker within the ICP, enabling cross-brand analytics or service coordination with minimal configuration.
And, because ICPs have governed data sharing and compliance controls, it fosters trust and data sharing across organizational boundaries. ICPs offer policy-based access controls, auditing, and consent management ensuring only the right stakeholders (e.g., contractors, rental partners, manufacturers) access the appropriate data under shared agreements.
That, for example, would enable a contractor to grant a rental partner temporary access to equipment usage data for billing, while revoking it when the contract ends, governed through shared policies on the ICP. This should ease the industry’s long-standing aversion to sharing data, and allow it to start realizing its value.
The scale of the software integrations on offer also points to another benefit ICPs offer.
“ICPs turn a cloud platform into a business platform, enabling an existing technology innovation tool to also serve as a business innovation tool,” says Gregor Petri, VP Analyst at Gartner. “They do so not as predefined, one-off, vertical SaaS solutions, but rather as modular, composable platforms supported by a catalog of industry-specific packaged business capabilities.”
In simple terms, that means ICP users can easily automate individual processes as they need to. They don’t have to worry whether the particular piece of software they need will talk to the rest of their technology infrastructure, or whether they have the IT resource to make it do so. This makes the organization more flexible in deploying new software tools.
It also removes a major problem associated with software-as-a-service. Because monthly fees are low, departments often choose their own software solutions, without IT oversight.
According to Osterman Research, 97% of enterprise cloud apps are not sanctioned by IT. This can create a new generation of technology silos, where the data generated isn’t accessible to the rest of the organization’s systems. An ICP guarantees data compatibility, as long as individual departments choose their point solutions from the list supported.
So far we’ve looked at the direct advantages of ICPs, but there are further benefits beyond these. One is that ICPs can encourage innovation. Project stakeholders can share ideas easily and quickly, while real-time data collection reduces the team’s response time and increases its agility, encouraging an iterative approach.
An early example of this was the innovation portal set up as part of the UK’s Crossrail project.
“ICPs are built to address the persistent challenge of integrating thousands of disparate software tools, legacy systems, and data streams across complex value chains.”
“Crossrail wanted to approach innovation in a new way,” Mike Moseley at InnovateUK, told Trackunit in a phone interview. “They set up a portal called Innovate 18 halfway through the project.
“By sharing information and ideas, they were able to develop new drilling jigs and a new digger bucket for digging vertical shafts,” the Knowledge Transfer Manager – Construction at InnovateUK said.
ICPs can also help construction businesses achieve their sustainability goals. Partly this comes from maximizing resource usage, as discussed earlier. In addition, research by Accenture found that moving to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) means brands can reduce their carbon emissions by up to 84%, and their energy consumption by up to 64%, compared to running their IT systems on-premises.
The ability to automate or digitize individual processes means ICPs also simplify the digital transformation of the business. As Gartner Distinguished VP Analyst Milind Govekar says: “As businesses navigate through digital transformation journeys, movement to the cloud becomes a key decision point.”
Despite the fact that it’s been around for over a decade, digital transformation is still high on the business agenda. That’s not only because it implies greater efficiency and reduced cost. It’s also because it paves the way for a better understanding of the business and its customers. From that springs the ability to respond more quickly to changes in technology, customer behavior and the business environment.
According to Deloitte, “74% of business leaders think digital transformation is the single most important investment now and in the future that organizations can make to drive enterprise value.”
Finally, ICPs can help businesses take advantage of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Firstly, this is because both ICPs and AI need all their source data to be compatible. The work done to make your business’s data usable across your ICP also readies it for implementing AI. Secondly, it’s a function of the plug-and-play nature of ICPs.
“Because ICPs have governed data sharing and compliance controls, it fosters trust and data sharing across organizational boundaries.”
AI isn’t arriving in businesses fully-formed. It’s arriving in stages, sometimes as part of a planned experiment, often as an update to an existing software product. The modular approach to software encouraged by ICPs simplifies this process.
Meanwhile, the ICP suppliers themselves are introducing AI capabilities into their products to deliver what’s called ‘predictive analytics’. These are suggestions of what you should do next to improve workflows, avoid problems and, ultimately, grow your business.
In 2023, a Gartner survey of enterprise businesses in North America and Europe found almost 40% of respondents had begun adopting ICPs, and 14% were working on pilot projects. Another 17% said they were considering deployment by 2026. Gartner itself expects more than 70% of enterprises will use ICPs by 2027.
As with any new technology, there are challenges around the implementation of ICPs. Bringing all the businesses data – and that of its suppliers and partners – together in the appropriate format is far from a trivial task.
The same is true of persuading people to work in new ways, and to accept AI. But as with every disruptive technology, the secret is to start experimenting and learning as soon as possible. As the gap between leaders and laggards grows, it becomes ever more difficult and expensive to narrow it again.
Foundations is our new series focusing on the nitty gritty of construction technology and showing how to make it work for your business day-to-day. Want to find out more? Visit Trackunit today and make sure you’re fully connected.
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