The AEC industry continues to experience unprecedented growth with a strong long-term outlook. The global AEC market is projected to reach $15,842 Million by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 10.7% from 2021 to 2028 (Allied Market Research). Segments with the greatest growth potential include residential building construction, highway, street, and bridge building, building equipment contractors, and residential land planning and development (Global Newswire).
The growing demand for construction and infrastructure services creates new opportunities for the sector. At the same time, many firms are also experiencing growing challenges with higher costs, reduced operating profits, supply chain constraints, and labor shortages.
Forward-thinking AEC leaders are using this period of business growth to streamline and optimize their businesses. Let’s look at five AEC business priorities that are helping to support sustainable growth.
Top AEC Business Priorities to Support Growth
- Protecting Operating Profits
- Attracting and Retaining Talent
- Making Better Informed Decisions
- Communicating/Software Interoperability
- Maximizing technology investments
Strategic technology investments are helping innovative organizations navigate these market challenges, while ensuring sustainable economic growth.
Protecting Operating Profits
For AEC organizations of all sizes, rising costs are a significant concern. Increased material, labor, IT, and project costs are eroding operating profits. AEC professionals are reviewing budgets and looking for opportunities to reduce spending and minimize customer price increases.
Before your design software contract is set to renew, it makes sense to do a little homework and compare 2D CAD products and licensing options to help you find what you need at the best price. Start by identifying what tools and capabilities will be the most beneficial for your team. Would you like network licenses? Do you need 3D design tools and advanced productivity tools?
In the world of CAD, many customers have experienced frustration with some providers discontinuing network licenses. DraftSight continues to offer a choice of licensing. For big companies with casual users, network licenses can make a huge difference in extending team access to CAD without overspending on unused seats.
DraftSight is easy-to-use with comparable, if not greater capabilities than alternative 2D CAD solutions, while giving you more control in how you invest your resources. In addition to network licensing and support for organizations, DraftSight can also help you increase ROI and free up your IT budget for innovation without sacrificing quality or productivity.
Attracting and Retaining Talent
The AEC industry is experiencing heightened competition for the top talent. There is a desire to invest in technology that will improve workflows and make everyone’s jobs easier, which also supports efforts to find and retain staff. The right design solution will help your team spend more energy advancing design and less on non-value-added repetitive tasks that can be automated. One of the biggest requirements in considering a new CAD product is maintaining and even improving current workflows.
Remote and geographically dispersed teams make collaboration tools even more crucial in streamlining workflows. 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight allows AEC teams to experience even greater benefits by connecting DraftSight to the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform for additional project management and data management capabilities.
Making Better Informed Decisions
We know that real-time project information helps business leaders make better-informed decisions and develop alternative strategies as projects evolve. However, synthesizing all of the data has become increasingly challenging as the volume of project data continues to grow. The only way to really understand what project data means is to transform data into information. This is a unique capability of connecting DraftSight to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Real-time dashboards and reports provide stakeholders with critical information to be more responsive and make better informed decisions. All the project data can easily be accessed from the job site, with the ability to make changes and revisions while maintaining digital continuity–all in one single solution and collaborative workflow.
Communicating/Software Interoperability
If you are evaluating a transition from a legacy CAD software, compatibility is a critical concern. You’ll be looking for software that is 100% compatible with DWG files (blocks, dimension styles, layers), as well as time-saving file translation and editing.
DraftSight gives you all the professional tools and functionality you expect, along with full DWG file compatibility. DraftSight is also known for its amazing file opening/saving capabilities and data compatibility, making it easy to work with legacy files. You can import, save, and export drawings in a variety of formats, and in some cases, DraftSight saves back even further than AutoCAD® does. You can save a DWG all the way back to Release 12 – from way back in 1992!
In addition to 2D CAD interoperability, DraftSight integrates seamlessly with other Dassault Systèmes solutions and services, including SOLIDWORKS and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Maximizing Technology Investments
The right software investments can make all the difference in reducing repetitive work, saving time, and allowing AEC professionals to focus on high-value activities. DraftSight has multiple productivity tools and automations that can save your team hours, and even days including the enhanced Sheet Set Manager, Configurable Blocks, PDF Import, and many more.
The right technology investments are streamlining and optimizing AEC and Construction services by connecting people, data, tools, systems, and processes to deliver nimble innovation. Connecting DraftSight to the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform ensures that project data is always available in real-time, secured and saved with the continuity and traceability to move projects from design to build more efficiently and sustainably. All stakeholders are connected in a single, unified, collaborative environment. 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight enables AEC and Construction Management teams to innovate continuously, faster, smarter, and better as one.
DraftSight Helps AEC Organizations Prepare for Growth
AEC teams around the world are growing their businesses with DraftSight’s professional 2D design. DraftSight makes it easy to create, edit, view, and mark up any DWG file with speed and ease. With DraftSight’s familiar user interface and common commands, your team will be acclimated in hours, not days. You can customize your toolbars, ribbon, keyboard shortcuts, and import your AutoLISP® routines and Script files. DraftSight makes getting started intuitive, supporting an easy transition. Your team will also gain some time with DraftSight’s productivity features and automations.
Your team can download DraftSight’s Free-30-day trial to put DraftSight through its paces.
Interested in learning more about DraftSight? Join us for the DraftSight Virtual event October 25-27, 2022. Get tips, tricks, and best practices: the #DraftSight Virtual event features a diverse agenda demonstrating how CAD users of all levels benefit from DraftSights’ power and ease of use. Register today!
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As head of global marketing for the AEC Industry at Dassault Systèmes, Mr. Moriwaki launches and promotes groundbreaking Industry Solution Experiences including "Optimized Construction," "Façade Design for Fabrication," and "Civil Design for Fabrication." He is a member of buildingSMART.