'In construction, the digital breakthrough is yet to come'

The built environment is not an easy sector to digitize, believes business architect Martijn van Glabbeek. With digiGO, a leading platform for digital collaboration in the built environment, he aims to enable 200,000 parties to collaborate optimally. "We see opportunities in accelerating housing construction," he says.

For a few years now, business architect Martijn van Glabbeek has been practicing his profession in the building sector. Pretty soon he discovered great opportunities for working with "architecture. Many parties were inventing the digital wheel for themselves. In his opinion, they were not yet thinking from the chain they are part of.

"Everyone created their own island. Logical, because there is constant pressure on costs in the building sector and margins are often low. In addition, it is a very physical and project-oriented world. As a result, people work in silos, and that's how they handle their information and data. That makes it difficult to rise above those projects, collaborate and share. Whether that's a bad thing? It's understandable, but it does hinder developments in the industry."

According to him, construction can learn from the hotel and cab world, where digital platforms such as Booking and Uber are making a big dent when it comes to smart data sharing in the chain and developing new business models with it. "In the Netherlands, retailers and the banks, with, for example, Bol.com, mobile payment apps and iDeal, have completely changed the game in that way."

Construction, Van Glabbeek says there are hardly any such disruptive examples yet. "There is enormous potential for digital twins, parametric design and AI, but the big breakthrough is yet to come."

He wants to indicate that there is still a world to be won in the construction sector with digitization and digital collaboration in the chain, by sharing data effectively and efficiently.

Let’s take a step back: What does a business architect actually do?
“A business architect translates a company’s—or, in this case, an entire sector’s—strategy into working solutions, using information as the starting point. What does a more digital strategy require of organizations in the built environment? What information do companies need from one another, and what IT systems will enable them to achieve that? Essentially, you’re shaping a company or industry in an organizational way.”

How do you do that?
“It usually starts with an event. That could be new laws or regulations, the arrival of new players in a particular market, or, for example, following an acquisition. You don’t start with the IT systems, but rather with the people, processes, and information flows. Then you look at how everything fits together.”

You’ve been with digiGO for three years now. What exactly do you do?
“We’re committed to helping the Dutch built environment get started with the digital infrastructure and frameworks described in ‘GEBORA.’ Those letters stand for Built Environment Reference Architecture. This architecture provides a coherent overview of how people, processes, and technology in the sector can collaborate digitally within a supply chain. It is based on standards and real-world examples from the sector.”

How do you go about that?
“With digiGO and GEBORA, we’re taking a close look at the entire supply chain. That’s not easy, because the built environment is incredibly complex and fragmented. In the ecosystems of the telecom, energy, and banking sectors, there are far fewer players, and you could, so to speak, map them out on a single sheet of A4 paper. In the built environment, however, there are as many as 200,000 organizations active in all kinds of roles, from clients to suppliers. And we want to maximize their collaboration.”

Innovation champion and systems thinker Jan Willem van de Groep wrote an opinion piece last week about digitization. He argues that the sector isn’t helped by yet another set of new standards.
“I see it differently. Reaching agreements on digital collaboration—and therefore also on the standards you use—is precisely what matters most. How do we tackle this together? How do we remove barriers between organizations? How do we create a basic digital infrastructure that everyone can join and operate within? Standardization helps enormously in this regard, because then we’re at least speaking the same digital language. I also know full well that there’s no silver bullet. But it’s precisely by making and formalizing agreements that you create room for companies to operate.”

Which processes are best suited for digitization?
“We still need to determine that. We’ve now, so to speak, put together the puzzle that includes all the processes (from inception to completion, from use to decommissioning, etc.) in the construction industry that create ‘value.’ Which parties play a role in this, and what information needs to flow between those parties?”

What does that puzzle look like?
“You can best compare it to a ‘blank coloring page.’ The next step is to fill it in, together with the frontrunners in the field. We’re doing this, for example, through the Administrative Agreement, policy measures, and our digiDeals. In digiDeals, companies from different parts of the supply chain work together to demonstrate, using a specific issue as an example, that the digital supply chain solution really works and delivers value.”

Housing construction could certainly use a boost. It sometimes takes as long as ten years before a shovel hits the ground. Can you cut that processing time in half?
“I can’t say that with absolute certainty, but it’s good to articulate bold ambitions. When will the first results of our work become more concrete? That point is getting closer and closer. One example is accelerating housing construction by simplifying the permitting process. There are also significant opportunities for digital building and product passports, which will make data available for, for example, the smart maintenance of buildings and infrastructure.”

Do you have any tips for companies that want to get started with digitization or raise their ambitions?
“You often see that companies looking todigitize talk about a ‘digital strategy’ and turn it into a separate project or department. Learn from banks and telecom companies that view IT and digitization as an integral part of their business operations. It also helps to have someone on the executive team who understands digitization.”

Want to learn more about this topic? Visit DigiBouw
DigiBouw, the event focused on digitization in the construction industry, will take place on Wednesday, November 19, and Thursday, November 20. DigiBouw 2025 features inspiring sessions led by top speakers and executives from the construction sector. Attend keynotes by industry leaders discussing the latest developments in digitization, sustainability, and technology. Curious about the program or planning to attend? Register for free here.