Trimble expands management solutions with e-Builder acquisition

Dive Brief:

Trimble has acquired privately held e-Builder, a construction program management solution for capital program owners and program management firms, according to a statement by the company.
Trimble siad this combination will expedite field operations integration with enterprise needs, thereby enabling productivity gains through results such as on-time, in-budget project delivery.
The $500 million purchase price will be financed through a new $300 million credit facility and cash.

Dive Insight:

Partnerships are becoming more common as companies realize collaboration is necessary to truly chip away at the construction industry's productivity gap. A recent Global Industry Council report, spearheaded by tech company Aconex, identified five challenges to adopting and implementing digital technology, one of them being rationalization and standardization, which requires the industry to come together to streamline processes.

Trimble also recently teamed with Dutch construction company VolkerWessels to hone BIM capabilities and make better use of construction data throughout a project's life. Last year, Trimble partnered with heavy equipment manufacturer Komatsu to transfer 3-D construction project data.

Meanwhile, Komatsu joined forces with tech giant NVIDIA to implement drones on the jobsite to collect and analyze data that will streamline operations and enhance worker safety. NVIDIA’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform will take data drones relay to provide insight about equipment costs and send real-time data about workers' interactions with each other, machinery and objects onsite.

In October, McCarthy Building Companies teamed with Procore to run its operations on Procore's construction-focused software — a shift from McCarthy's previous operations of using a custom-built system. It cited Procore's mobile capabilities as a key driver behind the change.

Other notable partnerships revolve around some recent moves from Autodesk. It last fall invested in software and prefabricated building company Project Frog to create a cloud-based connected system linking architectural design to industrial fabrication. When Autodesk announced its BIM 360 platform only a month later, it simultaneously launched the Connect and Construct Exchange. The exchange is an integration partner program that delivers third-party software applications and data to the workflow. More than 50 partners had signed on at launch date.