Transform your data into actionable information.
In the concrete industry, especially now, you need to be smarter to stay ahead. This is especially true for modern producers with large footprints built largely through acquisition. For these producers, getting smarter means accessing actionable information to make better decisions and automate key business processes. Unfortunately, fragmented operations in geographically diverse areas and legacy systems from too many vendors make actionable information difficult to obtain. To overcome this challenge, producers are working with iCrete to get the necessary data to any person or application in the manner it’s needed, the second it’s needed.
How does your information compare with what iCrete can deliver?
“The future is already here — it’s just not widely distributed.” – William Gibson
It’s a Smarter Industry
Like many industries, the concrete industry is getting smarter. Decisions and processes driven by informed intuition represent a fading status quo, a period we call Concrete version 1.0. Concrete version 2.0 is a growing reality where decision-making is increasingly data driven and fact based. The Concrete 2.0TM reality has new players adjusting to new pressures, new technology, new opportunities and new threats.
New Players
Massive consolidation and vertical integration have reshaped the producer landscape – publicly traded corporations increasingly compete with smaller family-owned enterprises around the world. These companies are changing what it means to be a concrete producer.
These modern producers are looking for a common information backbone to meet their corporate objectives. To build this information backbone, they must overcome a legacy of older plant execution systems from a fragmented vendor environment. Ripping and replacing these systems is extremely expensive and both operationally and politically difficult. In addition, small plants don’t justify the IT expense incurred in other related businesses; the playbook that worked in cement, for example, doesn’t work in concrete.
Concrete 1.0
Concrete 2.0™
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Representative Company
Closely held concerns with
local reach in primarily one businessVertically-integrated corporations with national or global reach
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Incentive
Survive recession and meet personal needs and goals of owner/operators
Develop synergies and grow business for public shareholders
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Systems
Legacy systems that meet local needs
Legacy systems that don’t meet their needs
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Operations
Smaller uniform operations that are easy to manage
Fragmented operations that are difficult to manage
New Pressures
Great social and environmental challenges are creating increased complexity and demands for today’s concrete producers. Increasing urban density means taller buildings made from high performance concrete. Growing per capita resource consumption and carbon emission reduction mandates require more sustainable building practices and materials. Requirements to build new or replace aging infrastructure with limited government resources means more transparency, accountability and regulation.
At the same time, the concrete industry itself is adjusting to a period of great structural change. Consolidation and vertical integration was funded by billions of dollars of debt issuances. The economy is unlikely to help producers generate a return on these investments. For the foreseeable future, enormous pressure on production volumes and profits in the developed world will continue. And while emerging economies offer growth opportunities, the cost of buying into these markets is high, as is the risk and competition.
New Technology
As this new breed of producer continues to execute on its business model in this new reality, unique challenges emerge that the standard community of systems vendors is ill-equipped to resolve. We are living in a Concrete 2.0 world with Concrete 1.0 systems. To remedy this, producers are taking advantage of the increasing ubiquity, reliability and affordability of modern technology.
Smartphone and tablet sales will outpace PC sales for the first time this year. Increased Internet usage, advancements in Web applications and growing use of cloud computing have dramatically lowered technology costs; this has created a “data explosion.” A by-product of this digital world is the collection of business data, which is nearly doubling in volume every year, and this affects every industry. The concrete industry, historically underinvested in technology, is being more impacted by these changes than by any previous technological development.
Quicker, more affordable and easier than ever to…
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Access unlimited processing power and storage with Cloud Infrastructure
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Access and capture information anytime, anywhere with
Mobile Networks and Smartphones -
Analyze, manipulate and share information with Software as a Service
New Opportunities… or Threats
Producers recognize that while modernizing the industry now offers great opportunities, continuing to wait presents real threats. The world needs the concrete industry to deliver more performance and quality while being more productive. The world is also holding producers more accountable. To meet these challenges, producers are acting now to dramatically lower their cost structure and increase the value of their products and services. This is creating the growth opportunity of a lifetime for producers and the communities in which they do business.
