The future is connected

The new normal must be better than the old

The world is changing around us on a daily basis, and many share the view that after the immediate health crisis is over, the world of infrastructure will not go back to precisely the way it was before. The pressure for change had been building for some time, driven by the need to deliver enhanced social, economic and environmental outcomes in the face of constrained resources and carbon reduction. The enablers are the abundance of data and the digital transformation that can convert that data into value.

The current shock has led to a breakthrough moment for digital. Organisations that have had plans for digital transformation moving through their management systems for years have suddenly faced the need to rearrange themselves in weeks.

Individuals who may have been slow to change their behaviours have had to rapidly adopt new ways of working. Never has it been more important for business leaders to put digital at the heart of their enterprise.

Organisations need to focus quickly on how to convert data into value, both for themselves and for their customers. Mott MacDonald has developed and implemented a unique methodology to help to make this potential new normal into a reality.

Six steps to success

For an infrastructure owner, operator or provider, a city authority or department of state, the path to realising the true value of information can be set out in six steps:

1. Understand the challenges and frame the immediate problems that the organisation is facing in pursuit of its goals. Our pan-industry and cross-sector viewpoint helps our clients to do this.
2. Articulate the additional information that would deliver improved decision-making in solving those problems. Our opportunity workshops bring the stakeholders together and reveal how information is currently managed within organisations.
3. Determine what data sets are available now, both from within the organisation and elsewhere, that could be connected to provide that additional information. Data sets include direct feedback from operational assets through IoT devices. By starting with what we can get now, the benefits flow through sooner while wider programmes to improve data are implemented.
4. Adopt an open, secure, scalable platform that can connect diverse data sets and provide the basis for integrated solutions. Our digital solutions platform Moata meets all of the criteria, as set out in the UK Gemini principles for digital twins, developed by CDBB under the leadership of our experts.
5. Combine experienced practitioners in the relevant domain with digital expertise to create insightful analytics and present solutions. We bring both together in a unique blend that includes our digital partner ecosystem as well as our own leading technologies.
6. Measure the impact of the decisions and generate data that can be fed back into the system for continuous improvement and machine learning through Moata.

Enterprise Digital Transformation

In order to deliver on those six steps organisations must change to become information-centric. This implies a fully integrated and collaborative way of working both across internal departmental boundaries and with supply chain partners. A new balance must be found between human and machine working together, using automation to liberate people to do what they do best across design, construction and operational stages of the life-cycle.

Our long-established digital transformation advisory services provide assessment of where an organisation is currently in terms of maturity in the transition to smart infrastructure and augmented delivery, to identify priority areas for improvement, and to measure progress in a systematic way. The Mott MacDonald Smart Infrastructure Index provides both a benchmark and a transformation methodology and is the adopted standard methodology across the UK’s leading Infrastructure Client Group.

Opening opportunities through connected thinking

Whether it is connecting data together to bring insights, connecting across information silos both within organisations and with external partners, or connecting innovation to outcomes, it is clear a connected future is essential as we move beyond the immediate crisis to address the persistent challenges that we all face. The answers will be found through the combination of deep domain experience and digital expertise, with a permanent focus on enabling happy, healthy and fulfilled lives for all.