IT for Joint Ventures

The construction industry isn’t exactly well-known for innovation and technology, certainly the formative years of my career were spent fighting getting technology into my employers. These days’ things have changed and even the most modest of site cabins have server rooms, IP telephony and fully-fledged networks which has been fuelled in part by the rise of the strategic Joint Venture.

Joint Ventures

A joint venture (JV) is generally formed as a commercial alliance between two or more separate businesses that allows shared risk and reward. Usually a new business is formed which each party contributes resources. In the UK the Private Finance Initiative and the John Egan report ‘Rethinking Construction’ fuelled partnering which in turn has led to the rise of the JV in the industry.

What we’ve seen is largely consortiums that come together for specific projects with expertise required, for example – civil engineers, designers, mechanical and other contractors all coming together and committing resources to the client’s project.

The Practicalities of Joint Ventures

In my career, this has largely meant working in site cabins with employees of several businesses on the same project. However, for the IT department there is a particular nightmare. The JV quite often has its own IT budget and requirements, that on some occasions the commercial people can forget to adequately allow for at the start of the project!

Ultimately there could be a large mix of seconded, agency, direct and even client and stakeholder workforces all working out of the JV facilities. For IT this can be a complete nightmare, ensuring that everyone has access to the correct systems where the data is held. Not to mention the headache of connectivity on construction sites!

How Unleashed Help Joint Ventures

We are well positioned to take on as little or as much of your JV requirements as you require. Our staff have over 20 years working in IT within the construction and infrastructure industry and know how to overcome many of the barriers of working in such arrangements.

We work tirelessly to ensure that the management information and data sharing is facilitated to JV partners and clients.

Here at Unleashed we’re also backed-up by a supply chain that can deliver connectivity solutions for remote sites, short term telephony and broadband contracts as-well-as remote working. Having implemented programmes such as ISO 27001 for Information Security for some of our construction clients we can also improve your offering to your clients and ensure your JV is amongst the most compliant working in the UK.

We are extremely keen to work with you from the proposal stage of your particular project and can assist in developing the appropriate level of preliminary costs in your contract as well as the design of your site offices.

About the Author: Chris Rogan

Chris is our lead Digital Transformation and Cyber Security Consultant, he is a trusted advisor to many high growth businesses. He has a wealth of industry experience being particularly close to the construction, manufacturing, and nuclear industries. He is also a lead auditor in a number of ISO Standards including 27001. Chris holds the CISSP certification in cyber/information security, an Executive MBA from Manchester Business School, MSc in Technology and Innovation Policy and a BSc in Computer Science. He produced some of the UK’s first research into Shared Services of large business and has a keen interest in bringing big business technology into the reach of mid-market companies. He has worked in various technical and business management roles, as a company director and non-executive director. He has a dislike for bureaucracy and inefficient processes (and people!). Much of the technologies he implements are designed to improve processes, responsiveness to customers and management information. The views and comments in this blog however are his own and do not always reflect those of Unleashed, its suppliers, customers or affiliates.

IT for Joint Ventures