Implementation framework to facilitate digitalization of construction-phase information management by project owners

The use of software applications which have been developed for owner management of large public capital-intensive projects lags that of similar applications made for contractors, resulting in negative implications for the productivity of the construction industry. In response, this paper provides a framework to facilitate the implementation of such digital construction-phase information management (DCIM) systems by project owners. This framework is developed by relating industry assessment of the potential positive impacts with factors that influence DCIM implementation in owner organizations (agencies). Specifically, the identified potential positive impacts were grouped into five improvement aspects and each group was related with a set of potential influencing factors. These were then related to the stakeholder entities that could control the relevant potential influencing factors. Two sets of primary data that were collected through a survey to industry experts were used in this research. The findings showed that 16 potential influencing factors significantly correlated to one or more improvement aspects. The findings further showed that five potential influencing factors are critical for maximizing one or more of the improvement aspects and thus overall system performance. This study shows that plans of technology implementation, selection of software, continuous support (technical capabilities and human efforts), and implementation monitoring and evaluation represent the four main steps for DCIM systems implementation. The presented framework can serve as a practical guide for project owners, especially public agencies, for the successful implementation of DCIM systems and evaluation of the systems’ performance.