Leveraging technology to meet increasing demand and combat labor scarcity

Architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms face a two-pronged challenge. First, the labor market is experiencing unprecedented shortages of skilled workers, hampering the ability to fill open positions in many industries. At the same time, customers' demand for firms’ services is increasing.

As noted in the 45th Annual Deltek Clarity Architecture and Engineering (A&E) Industry Study, “While high talent turnover has waned, shortages persist. Many firms continue to make do with less, requiring the best-performing A&E firms to seek operational efficiencies and cross-train talent. Despite a positive outlook, growth will continue challenging ill-equipped firms to attack new opportunities.”

In fact, according to a 2024 ACEC report, “firms continue to walk away from opportunities, with the ACEC reporting that 88% indicate being more selective about the projects they accept.”

AEC firms, feeling the impact of labor shortages and increasing demand, are turning to technology as a beacon of hope. The Deltek Industry Study revealed, “More despite the current reliance on manual data entry and spreadsheets, a significant percentage of firms are planning to invest in project management business applications in the next 12 months. This shift in approach promises to help project teams work more effectively and efficiently.

Increasing demand alongside talent shortage

Now, AEC firms are turning to best-in-class, cloud-based technical report management tools to meet demand and solve talent shortages. Technical report management is a process that uses a platform to streamline the creation and delivery of technical deliverables. The goal is to improve the quality of reports, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. The technology enables firms to increase productivity and profitability and meet demand without sacrificing growth due to the efficiencies the platform generates. It also enables firms to handle additional work without additional staff, allowing them to gain a competitive advantage.

A comprehensive approach to technical report management includes six core focus areas:

• Automate and standardize workflow across the platform. Automation and standards can happen across a team or organization.  The platform can guide and automate the workflow to ensure work does not stagnate while waiting for the next person, removing bottlenecks. Multiple collaborators can work on the same document simultaneously, with manager visibility at every stage.
• Offer critical data insights and analytics to make informed decisions. A comprehensive platform provides a combination of high-level, aggregated data and information on editing time, report volume and turnaround time, and more. Equipped with these insights, firms can confidently rely on data to determine how to allocate and optimize resources.
• Features that equip report writers to work faster and more efficiently. Features like word banks allow users to select frequently used content from drop-down menus customized to a project or company to reduce report time. The ability to auto-populate data throughout and across reports or replace lengthy narratives with orderly tables can tell a story at a glance.
• Governance and control features. Flexible user and role-based permissions enable AEC firms to control access to reports and information, which can be especially helpful when using temporary or contractor staff to augment the permanent team.
• Mobile data collection capabilities. Allowing field teams to move content and images straight to the appropriate report without returning to the office saves valuable time and resources that can be redirected.
• Effective Integration with other systems at AEC firms. Comprehensive platforms seamlessly integrate with firms' existing systems, such as mapping tools, ERP systems, and environmental data providers.  

Improving report writing efficiency, productivity, and throughput is critical to managing a labor shortage and demands the ability to measure and analyze these metrics confidently. A modern technical report management platform incorporates analytical tools that help AEC firms gain actionable insights into report writing performance—at the individual or service line level or for the company as a whole. Industry benchmarking features also enable firms to see how they stack up against competitors and where to focus their improvement efforts.

When the right platform is enabled, the results can be impressive. A recent MarketWatch report captured the following data:

• Some AEC companies have reduced report development time by up to 70% and received an increase of up to 50% in report approvals on the first submission, inspiring others to follow suit.
• Technical report deliverable volume surged 32% for the first half of 2024 compared to 2023.
• Efficiency improvements were significant, with average editing time decreasing 15% year-over-year.
• All customer segments saw growth, with the 500-999 employee segment experiencing an astounding 130% increase in report volume.
• Customers generated more than 60 different technical report types during the first half of 2024.
• Contractor activity soared, with 70% more reports generated than last year.

A modern, robust technical report management platform provides a combination of high-level, aggregated data and granular information on editing time, report volume, report turnaround time, and even the time a report spends waiting for the next touchpoint.

Equipped with these insights, AEC firms can avoid making decisions based on anecdotal information and instead rely on data to determine how to allocate and optimize scarce resources to improve the report development function. Those strategic decisions can help firms increase efficiency, productivity, profitability, and client satisfaction, even when talent is in short supply.

Author Biography Kelly Stratton
Kelly L. Stratton is the founder and president of Quire, whose Technical Report Management platform streamlines, automates, and accelerates the technical report and commercial proposal development to delivery process and offers analytics for decisions that improve the bottom line. After working for more than a decade as a civil and environmental engineer, using outdated tools to produce thousands of reports, she leveraged her first-hand experience to pioneer the TRM concept and develop a better way to manage the creation of these mission-critical deliverables. Stratton can be reached at [email protected].