Introduction to Morta

Many have commented on the stagnant productivity and the state of digitalisation in the industry. The challenges we face ranging from increased demand to limited financing, climate change, and Covid-19 makes these problems more prominent than ever. 

Over the last few years, this has led to increased adoption of software in construction to improve performance, and advocates for emerging technologies ranging from AI to digital twins and robotics.

Poor Information flow is at the heart of the problem

When it comes to digital, we strongly believe that getting the fundamentals right is just as important. If we go to any portfolio, project or organisations the following is still all too common.

Information quality is poor: 

  • Information does not have a robust structure: Despite the plethora of applications, over 90% of the information in projects is currently in excel, word and PDFs. This makes it difficult to trace and re-use information. 
  • Information is inconsistent: Master information ranging from employee IDs, to project codes and cost codes are inconsistent between different resources.
  • Information is incomplete: Needed information is often missing and not available. 
  • Information is difficult to access and interrogate: Information available in PDFs is difficult to consume in various ways and in context. Professionals spend approximately 20% of their time a day finding information.  

Information is disconnected and siloed: The average professional currently uses 7 software applications in their work that do not connect to each other. 

Information is handled and processed on an ad-hoc basis manually: Professionals have to perform routine tasks that involve reconciling and processing information for decision making and controls.

This isn’t a problem that is unique to any single function in the lifecycle of an asset/project nor is it unique to any sector. It is a cross-sector problem that is capping the productivity of the industry in many ways - be it through time-consuming labour-intensive processes, costly mistakes, or delays. We’ve seen it manifest itself in processes that range from payment application tracking to cost reconciliation and deliverable validation. 

There are a host of ways that organisations currently go about solving these problems. The journey typically begins by better mapping out processes, KPIs and information requirements usually mapped out in excel or word. Increasingly, governmental initiatives such as the Construction playbook and supporting standards such as ISO 19650 are pointing the industry in a positive direction. 

However, despite the number of tools that exist around BIM and project management, we have found that they typically have the following shortfalls:

  • Hard-coded processes that cannot be customised by professionals - Software is programmed for very specific processes and cannot be customised. This means that different applications have to be used for different sectors/functions. In many cases, the software applications do not meet the specific needs of the user and they have to revert back to excel.
  • Focusing on 3D and visuals rather than information - While the building components can be represented with 3D, many teams only require tabular information such as procurement and financial professionals. 
  • Poor connectivity and interoperability with other systems - Information is often locked in specific systems meaning that other users may have to manually re-enter the data.
  • Do not facilitate automation - The poor quality of information and the lack of access to structured data makes it impossible to automate with confidence.

How Morta can help organisations improve data quality, connect data, and automate processes

To overcome these issues, at Morta we have developed a next-generation spreadsheet (ie. database) for construction, project and asset management. Morta can be used by organisations to improve data quality, connected data, and automate processes. 

Over the last year, we’ve been stress-testing our offering with organisations across the supply chain and projects as large as $1.7Bn. By working with organisations across the supply chain, we have been able to take on a range of processes from information validation to payment application validation and achieve the following:

  • Real-time Governance: Defining rules to automate the governance process and provide corrective feedback in real-time.
  • Reduce process cycle time: Takedown manual review process that takes multiple weeks to < 1 week. 
  • Reduce Overhead: By leveraging automation organisations can complete tasks that would’ve typically had to be completed manually and by several individuals. 
  • Bring information to a single hub: Brought together 10s of data sets ranging from ERP to accounting and model data into a single environment. 

At Morta, we are working hard day in and day out to enable teams and supply chains to deliver successful outcomes. If you want to learn more about how we can help you, contact us here or comment below!

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