SHAPOORJI PALLONJI ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION
Connecting Data, Teams, and Workflows: The Role of Autodesk in Shapoorji Pallonji’s Plan-to-Pay Initiative
Autodesk Construction Cloud
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Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering and Construction (SP E&C)
Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering and Construction (SP E&C) is one of India’s oldest construction companies, with a history spanning nearly 160 years. In that time, it has become known for its forward-looking approach to technology.
Most recently, this innovative philosophy has focused on digitalisation. SP E&C’s latest digital initiative – Plan-to-Pay – led by Sagar Gandhi, Head of Strategy and Business Excellence. “Plan-to-Pay represents a bold step forward by establishing a seamless digital thread of model-based project information, where planning, execution, and billing data is interconnected. This initiative ensures that every team member operates with clarity and efficiency, enabling faster, more accurate decision-making and reporting,” he says.
Siddhi Shikhare, associate, operations & technology department, says SP E&C has been using BIM technology for at least 15 years, and started its full digital transformation journey around 10 years ago. Since then, it has continued to expand its digital capabilities, with Autodesk Construction Cloud playing a large role in that journey.
Bharat Mandapam, a world-class convention center and exhibition complex at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, built by SP E&C
Photo courtesy of Shapoorji Pallonji E&C
Shapoorji Pallonji Wanted to Improve the Flow of Data
In its continuous digital transformation and innovation efforts, SP E&C has focused on improving the flow of data between teams, the office, and the construction site. “The construction industry has long faced challenges with disconnected workflows and siloed data,” says Siddhi, with numerous isolated processes split across multiple applications and platforms.
This led to disjointed communication, difficulties in real-time collaboration, and misaligned information. Siddhi describes scenarios in which different departments would have different versions of certain data or one team would be working with outdated information – all of which would lead to slower decision making, leading to project delays and the commercial implications that these delays would bring. “For example, on-site engineers make multiple reports for various departments, and they used to make many different reports with the same data – things like progress, or quantities” she explains. “So the data was there, but a lot of time was spent in generating reports for various departments, and also because of the data silos, each team had a different set of data that was needed. A significant amount of time was being consumed in making these reports and submitting them to the different teams.”
SP E&C identified that this problem could be solved using technology, and Plan-to-Pay was born.
Intel SRR3, the IT office complex of Intel Technology, spread over 6,00,000 sq. ft. with a LEED 'Platinum Rated Green Building' certification
Photo courtesy of Shapoorji Pallonji E&C
The Plan-to-Pay Philosophy
Plan-to-Pay connects the planning, execution, and billing processes at SP E&C in one seamless digital system. “The objective is to make Plan-to-Pay a way of life at SP E&C,” says Siddhi. Autodesk Construction Cloud was central to the Plan-to-Pay philosophy. As part of the rollout, SP E&C used the platform on a pilot project involving more than 50 personnel. Siddhi points out that after the adoption of Autodesk Construction Cloud, the issue of data being in silos was resolved, because the business now had an ISO 19650-compliant common data environment (CDE).
Collaboration was now in real time, with all teams having a single source of truth for construction data and federated models now available to every stakeholder working on the project. The adoption of Autodesk Construction Cloud has eliminated many manual processes. For example, there used to be a lot of back-and-forth between Revit and Excel spreadsheets. “We can use the data directly, so there's no need to convert any data set into Excel, or bring it back to the model. So that process is eliminated, making life easier,” confirms Siddhi.
Overall, the pilot project saw over 100,000 assets, 7,200 forms, 6,500 files, and 1,000 reviews seamlessly created and managed in 18 months, with minimal change management required.
Plan-to-Pay process workflow image
Photo courtesy of Shapoorji Pallonji E&C
The Target? Reducing Admin Time by 30%
At this stage of the pilot, SP E&C is not using return on investment as a metric for evaluating the success of the project. Right now, says Siddhi, the company is more concerned with establishing the Plan-to-Pay process as a way of life, and once the pilot project has been shown to deliver the benefits they are expecting, ROI can be considered when the implementation is scaled up.
Since the adoption of Autodesk Construction Cloud, SP E&C has seen a reduction in the time it takes to share information. For example, in the past, one week out of every month was spent generating reports on progress and quantities for billing, equating to around 200 hours across five project departments, leading to multiple duplications of project data generation and data entry. As part of its implementation of Autodesk Construction Cloud, SP E&C set a target to reduce that time by 30%.
Running a Successful Pilot
While the pilot project is still ongoing, and results have not been quantified, Siddhi is confident that this target will be reached. “We're still refining the processes,” she says, “but we've already seen a decrease in the time that is required. We are well on the way to achieving our objective on our pilot project.” Even before the pilot project is completed, SP E&C has seen the benefits of Autodesk Construction Cloud, and they have rolled out the platform to five more projects. SP E&C has also noted a reduction in rework on these projects. And thanks to the federated model in the CDE, engineers have a comprehensive record of the work done, meaning billing can be processed more efficiently.
In fact, teams working on projects that are not yet being managed on Autodesk Construction Cloud have been paying close attention to the pilot projects, and are very excited about the prospect of using the platform in the future. Site teams have also noticed improvements. For example, paper forms have been eliminated from their daily progress reports, and the process takes place entirely on a mobile application using Autodesk Construction Cloud Forms.
Taking Plan-to-Pay to the Next Level, and the Future With Autodesk
In the future, Plan-to-Pay will become part of the overarching SP E&C Digital Project Management plan, along with safety, quality, and other components of construction project management. Siddhi points out that Autodesk Construction Cloud is always improving, and SP E&C is constantly evolving the way it uses the platform. “Things are rapidly changing with Autodesk Construction Cloud. We recently attended the project controls workshop, where they told us about the new features that are coming. Autodesk is continuously rolling out new features, and we are implementing those new capabilities into our processes right now. Siddhi acknowledges and appreciates that Autodesk understands the needs of the local markets in India and is helping drive the industry forward across the country. Shapoorji Pallonji will be at the vanguard of this wave of digitalisation. “Autodesk has continuously supported us in innovation, and the alignment is there with the industry needs. This will mean a long and mutually beneficial association with Autodesk.”
