Architecture & Engineering in APAC: Key Findings from the Latest Deltek Clarity Research

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For over 40 years, the Deltek Clarity report has explored key trends and offered benchmarks for Architecture & Engineering (A&E) firms in the United States and Canada. Now, that survey has expanded to include A&E firms in APAC and EMEA.

We asked 200 A&E professionals across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore about the challenges they face, the impact of new technologies, and how they’re performing against key industry benchmarks.

In this blog, we’ll look at some of the key findings from the report.

Digital impact: firms see IoT, big data and geolocation as most impactful

When asked about which technologies would have the greatest impact on their businesses, many firms report geolocation (88%), Internet of Things (86%) and big data (67%) as being the most significant.

Yet, respondents from the region see some trends differently to peers in EMEA. While 68% in EMEA see AI as one of the most impactful technologies, only 47% in APAC say the same.

The digital operating model: finding partners and prospects remains a challenge

The survey asked respondents about their top project management challenges over the next three years, and what initiatives are planned to address them.

APAC respondents see ‘staff shortages’ (21%) and ‘competing priorities, including project management, design, business development, etc.’ (20%) as their top challenges now and in the near future. To solve these challenges, the majority of APAC respondents are planning to ‘develop a PM discipline or centre of excellence/develop internal PM best practices’ (19%) or ‘develop and track formal KPIs and project status’ (16%).

Business influence: collaboration is strong, but with room to grow

Compared to other regions, APAC ranks well for collaboration. When discussing the levels of collaboration in their firm, many APAC respondents report their business as ‘connected’ (with some collaboration between departments for larger projects) or ‘somewhat integrated’ (lots of collaboration and visibility across departments).

However, very few report themselves at the extremes of collaboration and no one reports their firm as ‘completely siloed’. The results are more varied at the country level. Of our Singapore respondents, 4% say their business is ‘completely integrated’. This makes Singapore firms the most collaborative in APAC, and means the country ranks joint second for collaboration across all countries surveyed.

Benchmarking and KPIs: variations across the APAC region

In the full report, we examine what KPIs firms track, and how they compare on key metrics like utilisation rate, employee turnover, and percentage of project delivered on time and on budget.

As a region, APAC reports similar results as peers in EMEA. However, within the region there are stark variations in how successfully firms meet KPIs. For instance, 9% of Australian respondents say nine out of 10 projects are on or ahead of schedule, while 8% in New Zealand report less than a third of projects are on track.

Explore the full survey results

While we’ve covered some of the key findings from the survey, you’ll find many more insights in the full report. We also asked:

• How digitally mature firms are, and how perception matches to reality
• What initiatives firms are pursuing to improve their digital maturity
• What challenges project managers and finance leaders face – and what approaches they’re adopting to tackle these obstacles
• How much data is entered manually across different departments
• What are the priorities when starting a project, and when looking back on a project’s success

To explore these insights and learn more about how your peers are navigating the challenges of today and tomorrow, download the Deltek Clarity A&E Industry Report for APAC.

Architecture & Engineering Industry Report

Trends and Benchmarks in the APAC Region

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