After a long time of reflection and research, an interactive platform Building.hr was created. Maja Borovina Frankić, head of development at Spegra, as well as a candidate of the Doctoral Study at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Split, explained how it works, to whom it is intended and why it is needed by the construction sector in the interview for the Coordination.
Coordination: Where did the idea for the platform Building.hr, the first informative interactive platform that brings together construction market participants in one place.
Borovina Frankić: Back in 2013, I was thinking about how to enable simpler and more efficient functioning in the construction market, and I started building a system architecture that would meet this goal. Through working in our family company Spegra and facing all the challenges of doing business in construction, I spent years thinking, reengineering imaginary functionalities, and improving my own ideas. I have continuously implemented new insights that I have acquired through work in the construction sector, as well as through communication with partners, associates and suppliers. The most difficult thing is to make simple yet effective solutions, whatever it is, so over the years it has only been a more crystalline picture of what I want and a stronger potential of the platform itself.
Building.hr
Coordination: How does the Bulding.hr platform work?
Borovina Frankić: The platform is intended exclusively for business users whether they are companies, crafts or independent experts. Regardless of whether they are the primary part of the construction sector (contractors, manufacturers, traders, designers, investors..) or are participants in another direction, but operate in the construction market. The platform is conceived as the largest database of information, contacts and other valuable content for companies related to construction. Our goal is networking, finding partners and subcontractors, and speeding up and simplifying processes.
The platform Bulding.hr digital is the epicenter of construction and all those operating in the construction market can be clients of the platform regardless of whether they registered their activity yesterday or have been operating for decades, as well as whether they are a big or "one man show".
All of them are connected by professionalism, business and business culture at an extremely high level. Those who leave their tails behind have nothing to look for on Building.hr. We say with reason that we are for all those who are the "present and future" of Croatian construction, and those who do not behave in accordance with the high professional requirements to be here tomorrow are not of interest to us and do not belong to this digital base of excellence. On the contrary, we reserve the right to exclude from the platform those who may in any way have a potentially negative impact on the environment.
In practice, the administrator misses users who want to be on the platform Building.hr – all those who want to provide or use the service. The platform saves time for a user who does not need to look for information on social networks or the Internet, it is enough to visit Building.hr. There, all the information is summarized in one place by which the client can find what he is looking for – the service of a ceramicist, a construction worker or the necessary machinery. The platform is regularly updated in order for the user to find accurate and confidential information from the construction sector at any time.
Building.hr
Coordination: How open are companies to presenting their enterprise in the digital world?
Borovina Frankić: It is certain that digital is in front of us and there is no going back. I once read that earlier it was worth "you're either fast or you're gone", and today it's valid "you're either in tune with the times or you're gone". Work smarter, more efficient and better. All those who are aware of this will understand the true advantage of the platform because there is nothing as simple and as effective as a solution offered through Building.hr. All those who operate in the construction market and want to be there tomorrow, will join the platform and provide themselves with the availability of information as well as the placement of their own. Only by being in one place can we have the greatest interest from digital. We have more ideas that we have been developing for some time, and each of them has an integrated interest in the prosperity of the construction sector through the individuals who operate in it.
The companies with whom we contact day by day have the knowledge that there is really no accurate and available information about participants operating in the construction market and that any supply, demand or cooperation is completely inefficient. Croatian construction is better than it looks "on the outside" and it is important that all those who work on it using the platform Building.hr can meet some of their needs in a simpler and more efficient way.
Coordination: Construction is one of the least digitized activities, but by applying different digital solutions and this is changing. Did you notice this when launching the platform as well as collecting data on construction companies?
Borovina Frankić: Construction in terms of professional technologies is one of the most advanced branches. New materials, new machines, solutions and execution technologies are constantly coming. I believe that digital is lagging behind the most because those engaged in the creation and implementation of digital solutions do not have enough knowledge nor do they seriously participate in the construction industry to be able to produce quality solutions. Honor the exceptions! I myself have very often encountered situations that the solutions offered to construction are seemingly very generous, but operationally unusable, not to mention financially unprofitable. It's a reality, it's not an exclusivity of construction, but it's something that inspired me to take action and create a Building.hr platform.
Construction is very complex, it is carried out by synergy of several professions, and it needs to be well known and solutions tailored to real operational functioning that are useful, not freight.
Therefore, in our experience, I can say that it depends very much on the solution. Our experiences are positive because everyone is aware that what we have done is a pressing need in the construction market. When it comes to data collection, we do this with extreme care and dedication because the accuracy and quality of information are important to us.
Coordination: After your own experience with construction companies and cooperation with the Center for Digital Construction Croatia, can you assume how the emergence of artificial intelligence will affect the construction sector? How much can digitalization replace the role of man on a construction site?
Borovina Frankić: Construction is and will remain a branch of the economy in which the human factor will always be crucial. I find that technological advances are positive as long as they contribute to the betterment of man, not his exclusion.
It is the platform Building.hr a step forward towards mutual cooperation, more efficient business, more efficient time and data management. There is no place where everyone is gathered and where you can easily get information that may interest you, without intermediaries, a place where you can present yourself in the way you want (and no one can know it better than the representatives of the company themselves) and simply make ad hoc changes that occur in business, and that you have automatically met the entire potentially interested market.
The ideas of how ai can turn off human cognition are, in my humble opinion, ideologies that will show the extent of harm in the future. In applying solutions, AI should be guided by usefulness to man, not by excluding his thinking, creativity and intelligence. I am very personally inclined to technologies, but never at the expense of the value of man, who must be and remain the center of everything.
The application of new technologies does not bypass the construction sector, so it is important that the profession implements digital solutions that accelerate the course of construction, coordinate all participants in the project and save time and money. See more about the topic of digitalization in construction, which is also discussed by Coordination.