With the increased use of software solutions, collaborative platforms, data and analytics, and now AI, construction firms need a different IT organization to be responsive to the needs of the enterprise. This transition has been underway for nearly ten years now, but some organizations have been slow to adapt. One thing holding back many organizations is the old idea that IT was part of overhead. The new ideas is an IT organization as a value-add.
THE NEW IT TEAM
Years ago, companies—construction and otherwise—began hiring for the position of business analyst, which ended up being a position solely dedicated to technology. This is a person or team focused on business processes and creating efficient streamlined workflows, better reporting, and eliminating spreadsheets and duplicate entry. Software solutions are but one of their tools. This position works with teams in the organization, be it estimating, marketing, project managers or equipment managers to optimize business processes. They map process flows, look for integration opportunities, and develop reports and dashboards with the help of IT. They are a true champion of efficiency. Many organizations have well-chosen software solutions that are either partially or poorly implemented. As software becomes more and more expensive, underutilizing misallocating it is costly.
DIRECTOR OF INNOVATION
A newer position for some mid-sized and larger firms is the director of innovation. This position gets to explore the technology needs of the organization and then explore what is happening and available in the marketplace. They attend industry and technology conferences, bringing back good ideas to the organization and testing them out. Once a solution has been deemed viable, it is turned over to another team to execute selection and implementation. This position is more senior and frequently associated with all of the managers of the business, constantly listening and learning about opportunities for improvement, focusing on creating alignment and finding the best technology solution for any given process or opportunity. They are willing to take measured risk and are not held back by long-standing paradigms in the business. They would report directly to the CEO or COO.
The new positions in IT are still technical but certainly more user-facing than they were in the old days. Today, IT needs to leverage middleware, PowerBI or Tableau, agentic AI and workflow tools to optimize the technology and deliver the information. The vendors of all these products want to stay focused on product development, not working with customers to deploy their product. These new IT positions, if placed within a high-functioning organization, can be tremendously valuable. They would get direction directly from the business analysts and end-users, reducing risk of operation and better arming end users.
SUPER-USER
There is a position which is not new, but could be deployed more consistently in contracting companies, and that is the role of super-user or power-user. All a construction firm’s primary software solutions should have one of these assigned. It does not have to be a full-time role but instead can be handled on a part-time basis by individuals who understand various platforms like a firm’s customer relationship management, project management or human resource information system solutions. These platforms are getting increasingly more complex and powerful. Many software vendors indicate that their average customers use roughly 30% of the capabilities in their applications. The role of a power-user/super-user is to be an advocate for the solution. They are making sure the software is well understood and well used, evaluating necessary integrations, developing better reports and dashboards, attending user conferences and staying abreast of where the product is headed and how it could be better utilized. This is part-time until someone decides there is enough value to the organization to make it full-time.
DATA ANALYST
The next position is less mature in construction today, but certainly growing, and that is a data analyst. Contractors are finally trying to develop out their data warehouses. Historically, they have had anywhere from 6 to 12 disparate solutions on different tech stacks, not integrated and not even a common data framework. IT positions trying to develop reports and dashboards from this sort of environment is a nearly futile—and at the very least grossly inefficient—task. Add to that poor data quality and the result will be marginal. A data analyst’s key function is getting data into a data warehouse and beginning the long task of getting it cleaned up and harmonized for use in dashboards and reports. Imagine having a single large database established with all of the company’s valuable data inside. It has been labeled correctly, harmonized, optimized and contextualized. In simple terms—made usable and efficient. Then when users or IT access the data with tools like Tableau or PowerBI, they can generate reliable and meaningful analytics or reports.
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
Perhaps not new but newly defined, is the chief information officer. Today’s construction CIO must be more aligned with the direction technology is going, including how to manage all of this emerging technology and new service providers. This is not a network manager who gets a promotion. Today’s contractor needs a new breed of CIO that is progressive, strategic and competent in aligning technology and the organization. They will typically manage a team under them that has various roles depending on the size and complexity of the organization. They have a seat at the management table, are comfortable in the field listening to day-to-day managers and, most importantly, understand today’s technology from the cloud and AI to analytics and robotics.
The pace of change in technology is nothing like what was seen two decades ago. Today’s construction enterprises must retool their organizations to leverage this power. These positions can help derive immense value from technology.
SEE ALSO: BUILDING THE FUTURE: CONSTRUCTION AT THE CENTER OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AT CES 2026
