SOUTHEAST ASIA CONSTRUCTION29 Nov 2020
REDAS and KPMG collaborate on IDD dashboard project for Singapore’s built environment

Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (REDAS) and KPMG in Singapore recently signed a collaboration agreement for the creation of a developer-centric Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD) dashboard. Aligned with the direction and focus of Building and Construction Authority (BCA) IDD Steering Committee and Digitalising Built Environment (BE) Alliance for Action (AfA), this project aims to quicken the pace of digitalising the entire BE sector collectively and effectively.

REDAS has been working closely with BCA to drive Singapore’s Construction Industry Transformation Map (ITM) since 2015, by facilitating many private development projects to adopt Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) to digitalise their operations. The dashboard project, which sees REDAS working closely with BCA, Enterprise Singapore, KPMG in Singapore and industry partners, seeks to provide assistance and support for the small and medium-sized developers to adopt BIM and VDC, thereby hastening transformation of the entire BE sector.

The IDD dashboard - which is planned as a proof of concept project - is expected to extract key relevant data from various digital platforms used across the four stages of design, fabrication, construction and asset management and operations to allow for developers to manage the lifecycle of their project at a single glance. The dashboard intends to incorporate elements of benchmarking against industry norms as well as use of Artificial Intelligence to prompt for a call for action in areas of concern.

KPMG is assisting REDAS to evaluate technology providers that can provide REDAS with the optimal solutions required to develop the dashboard, as well as strategise the initial go-to-market plan.

Once successfully developed and piloted, the dashboard will be made available to all developers by early 2023 at affordable cost, according to Chia Ngiang Hong, president of REDAS. “With a tested and easy to use basic dashboard, we are confident that this will facilitate on-boarding by the mid-size and smaller developers and catalyse wider adoption of collaborative IDD with single source of truth.”

Mr Chia highlighted, “Today, more than 90% of the gross floor area (GFA) of new projects have gone into digitalisation. But as they are mostly larger projects of more than 5,000 sq m, these make up less than 20% of total number of projects and they are largely undertaken by the bigger and more established private developers and the public sector. The smaller and mid-sized developers will need some assistance and support, and the REDAS developer-centric IDD dashboard initiative seeks to achieve that.”

Industry-led bottom-up approach

The IDD dashboard is significant as it employs an industry-led bottom-up approach, with KPMG ensuring strong relevance to its intended users via a survey that gathers the data on challenges faced by stakeholders in the adoption of digitalisation. REDAS, with KPMG, will use the data from this survey as the underlying foundation for the development of key features for the IDD dashboard.

KPMG targets to publish the findings of the perspectives in a publication expected to be completed in early 2021, as part of KPMG’s Thought Leadership series. The publication is also expected to provide an overview of the areas to improve upon and what may be needed to undergo the digital transformation journey to gain a global advantage in the new reality.

“KPMG is delighted to partner with REDAS on this meaningful thought leadership publication, which leads into the IDD dashboard development. This joint project intends to drive digital transformation in and elevate Singapore’s BE sector by closing the gaps that are currently in IDD adoption,” said Ong Pang Thye, managing partner at KPMG in Singapore.

“Covid-19 has accentuated the need for businesses to transform and step up our digitalisation efforts. We need all stakeholders in the built environment sector, public and private, to do so together. And we have a good foundation to build on,” added Singapore’s Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of National Development, Tan Kiat How, who witnessed the MOU signing ceremony.

“Integrated Digital Delivery, or IDD, is a key thrust of the Construction Industry Transformation Map, which was launched in October 2017. It integrates the entire building lifecycle and its various parties to enable better coordination of the design, production, delivery and installation.

“Developers play an essential role in setting upstream requirements to facilitate the adoption of digital technologies downstream, so that the entire value chain can benefit. Through the use of the dashboard, developers can also effectively monitor project performance based on up-to-date information contributed by their value chain partners. This can help to achieve significant productivity gains and cost savings for everyone.”

Professionals in the built environment sector who are interested to be included in the survey may write to KPMG's project lead, Frederick Hoo.