New Cloud-Based PM Capabilities Introduced by Oracle, Procore

Oracle unveils cloud analytics tool as Procore partners with AWS on digital twins

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Oracle Construction Intelligence Cloud Analytics uses machine learning to predict project outcomes and provides project executives and managers with a dashboard view of how efficient their projects can be.

Screenshot Courtesy of Oracle

Within a week of each other, construction technology vendors Procore and Oracle announced new cloud-based products for contractors and owners build upon the data from their project management platforms.

On July 19, Oracle released Oracle Construction Intelligence Cloud Analytics, a data analytics application that analyzes construction projects in everything from schedule to accounting to material availability using information from its Smart Construction Platform, which includes Oracle applications such as Aconex and Oracle Primavera Cloud.

On July 12, Procore announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services allowing AWS IoT TwinMaker to directly pull data from Procore's construction management platform to generate digital twins for owners and facilities managers.

“We’re very excited about our partnership with AWS. Roughly 80% of the lifecycle cost of a project is in the operations phase,” said Tiffany LaBruno, product director for owners at Procore in a statement. “With this partnership we can leverage Procore’s construction data during that operations phase to help owners reduce costs, optimize performance, and be better prepared for future project needs."

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Oracle's Smart Construction Platform also includes third-party programs with a common data environment and user experience that have partnered with the company, and have worked with Oracle's Deerfield, Ill., construction innovation lab. Data from its innovation partners software will also be incorporated into the analytics recommendations given to project managers and executives via Construction Intelligence Cloud Analytics.

Oracle says platform enhancements announced along with the release of the company's construction analytics offering will allow better collaboration between its own programs, third-party partners and owners and contractors using them for decision-making at every level of their organizations.

"CIC Analytics works alongside CIC Advisor, an application we launched last year," says Roz Buick, senior vice president for strategy, product and development at Oracle's construction and engineering global business. "We believe the Analytics and the Advisor are important tools to have together."

Buick says CIC Analytics is a business intelligence program that pulls data out of other applications in Oracle's construction platform and can track key performance indicators and metrics for continuous improvement, and then analyzes what processes are causing problems in the construction process. CIC Advisor uses that same data and applies an artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive predictive intelligence that can deeply analyze variables across a range of projects to find broader trends.

"Our goal is to have everything in Oracle Cloud Intelligence," Buick says. "If you listen to Larry [Ellison, Oracle CEO and founder] he says we're designing the data to work within the cloud and optimize that for the very large amount of data that we work with."

Buick said both CIC Analytics and CIC Advisor are informed by years of P6 and other customer data from previous projects that Oracle uses to inform the recommendations both applications make.

"We are increasingly focused on finding new and better ways to leverage our data to gain further insights into project performance and risk,” said Brian Neal, a project manager at general contractor Rudolph Libbe Inc and a CIC Analytics tester, in a press statement. “Connecting and blending data for analysis will provide the broadest and deepest view into our operations, helping us to understand trends across our business and identify ways to keep improving how we deliver projects for our customers."

Growth of Digital Twins

For Procore, the AWS IoT Twinmaker partnership promises a faster and less cumbersome transfer of Procore project data to AWS to create digital twins of real-world building and infrastructure systems. AWS IoT TwinMaker developers promise workflows that can build digital twins of devices and equipment as well. Procore said no construction companies have tested out the Procore-to-AWS IoT Twinmaker process yet, but both companies are working on the partnership.

Investment in the construction technology ecosystem reached $4.5 billion in 2021 according to a report by Cemex Ventures, and investments in analytics and digital twins by larger players like Oracle and Procore may reflect a maturing market.

ENR Midwest Editor and Associate Technology Editor Jeff Yoders has been writing about design and construction innovations for 16 years. He is a two-time Jesse H. Neal award winner and multiple ASBPE winner for his tech coverage. Jeff previously launched Building Design + Construction's building information modeling blog and wrote a geographic information systems column at CE News. He also wrote about materials prices, construction procurement and estimation for MetalMiner.com. He lives in Chicago, the birthplace of the skyscraper, where the pace of innovation never leaves him without a story to chase.

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