April 14th marked the announcement of OpenBuilt and the response has been extraordinarily encouraging. Some of the worlds largest news outlets have covered the launch resulting in an audience reach measured in the millions. The conversation is building and we’ve been hugely gratified with the response from the built environment community via our Get Involved page.
Perhaps a reason for the level of interest is the unusual coalition that has been assembled to drive this initiative. Our partners comprise small, medium and large companies from various geographies and their specialisms range from software development to construction contracting. This provides the initiative with a diversity in expertise and insight that is quite unique. We will talk more about the consortium, why we took this approach and why we selected the partners that we did, in a future post.
OpenBuilt is a complex solution to a deeply complex problem. We wanted to tell the world as soon as we felt comfortable with our direction and get the community involved in cementing us as an open space to collaborate, even before we have launched our first major product. We have so much to tell you about our roadmap for the platform and apps in the near future, but that is not what we are here to talk about today. We are nearing the beta release of OpenBuilt Products, our first application, so why didn’t we wait until this milestone has been reached before going public?
We will soon be explaining our point of view around why the built environment is a fragmented and disconnected place, and our strategy for overcoming this. But we want to engage early with the industry to ensure that we are helping people solve real pain points, with business models that encourage adoption.
Whilst OpenBuilt Products will address a particular pain point suffered by manufacturers, this is just one pillar stone of OpenBuilt. The rest of the platform will be applicable across the entire industry, so we need to carefully prioritise where to focus. Your help is crucial in shaping OpenBuilt’s future. We respect the complexity of the industry and recognise that it’s only with a broad range of experience and your guidance that we will succeed.
One of our core beliefs is to keep an open mind, to not make assumptions and to build what users of the platform truly need.
We have created an engagement programme to mine the knowledge and experience of people in the industry and then refine these insights into features that we can build into the platform. Any level of input will be greatly appreciated – from filling out a 5-minute survey to leading a work stream and sitting on an advisory committee to help steer the direction of the platform. And you can opt out at any time.
It might be uncomfortable at times as we will be uniting different factions of the industry to solve problems, so we’ll be looking for pioneers and pragmatists rather than glad-handers and grandstanders. There will be room for people who want to show leadership and initiative as well as those who are happy to support and there will be fantastic networking opportunities.
But we all need to have the improvement of the industry as our core objective.
In return, you will get early access to new features and help your business be at the forefront of the industry’s transformation. Ultimately, you will be part of a unique movement to transform our industry, one which will have the financial backing and delivery expertise to actually implement the initiatives that you identify.
We see new roles emerging as part of this new ecosystem; roles that design new workflows, that interface between different stakeholder groups and manage change. We will describe our vision for these new vital roles in the very near future.
Hopefully this starts to explain our approach to the OpenBuilt initiative. You will hear a lot more from us across the coming weeks and months – it’s a very exciting time for the construction industry and the built environment.
If you feel the same way about moving the industry forward, then we want to hear from you!
We’re not sensitive. No idea or opinion is a bad one, both negative and positive feedback is welcomed, so long as you are constructive and respectful towards your fellow contributors.
Register with us to Get Involved and we will be in touch with next steps.
