Digitalization of construction in Russia: market trends and key IT suppliers. TAdviser 2023 review

We saw a significant increase in demand for software products for managing the construction and operation of buildings with support for BIM technology, "confirms Andrey Shakhramanian, General Director of SODIS Lab Group.

All this, of course, affected the activities of organizations and forced them to take certain steps related to ensuring the security and protection of intellectual property, "says Dmitry Demin, director of the BIM division of the ASCON company. - First of all, it affected industrial holdings possessing an impressive patent base requiring enhanced protection. But civil builders did not lag behind, taking measures to, in particular, avoid losing all documentation on current and archival projects.

In addition, the development of the digital solutions market for construction was influenced by measures taken by the state. So, after the departure of foreign vendors, such measures as Decree of the President of Russia No. 166 on the ban on the purchase by government agencies and state customers of foreign software for use in critical infrastructure, as well as a ban on its use from January 1, 2025, were published.

As a result, several committees have been created and are actively working, for example, the Committee for the Digitalization of Urban Planning, Design and Spatial Development of the National Association of Organizations in the Field of Information Modeling Technologies (NOTIM), engaged in the "docking" of current legislation with the developing direction of TIM information modeling technologies in real projects. Large developers in regions such as Moscow, Moscow Region, St. Petersburg, Sverdlovsk Region, Krasnodar Territory, Republic of Tatarstan use TIM not only at the design stage, but also for control at the construction stage, said Igor Orelyana Ursua, executive and technical director of CSoft Development (JSC "SeaSoft Development").

The state also made decisions to accelerate the processes of transition to digital construction. The issue of mandatory introduction of information modeling in the most extensive segment - housing construction - has been revised several times. According to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 2357 "On Amendments to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 331," which will enter into force on September 1, 2023, developers in capital equity construction should switch to digital models from 1 July 2024, and in the field of low-rise construction - from January 1, 2025.

On January 1, 2022, Resolution No. 331 of the Government of the Russian Federation entered into force: for developers and technical customers, the use of information modeling technology (TIM) became mandatory if the agreement on the preparation of project documentation for the construction and reconstruction of a capital construction facility was financed with the involvement of funds from the budget of the Russian Federation.

We noted an increase in the number of customers among municipal departments of capital construction (UKS) and regional examinations in 2021, but it was in 2022 that interaction with such organizations acquired a systematic character for us, "Dmitry Demin emphasized. - It is also important to note that large commercial players, developers from the Top 30, have long used various TIM tools to solve current problems. But legislative measures and the intensified digitalization of the municipal construction sector prompted medium and small commercial developers to pay attention to TIM. As for the IT sector, government initiatives have led to the rapid development of software products, especially for the pig segment and construction management solutions.

The surveyed TAdviser participants in the construction informatization market are unanimous in their estimates: in the wake of import substitution, the demand for domestic software is growing rapidly. The company ASCON shared the results of the main areas for 2022. Thus, Renga Software (a joint venture of ASCON and) 1C with a design system Renga showed an increase of 84% in revenue compared to 2021, sales licenses Pilot-BIM increased 2.6 times. In general, revenue from ASCON IT projects construction in 2022 increased by 85%.

{{quote 'Demand is increasing, more companies are paying attention to the benefits of TIM. On the one hand, this will increase the share of our customers, on the other, it will increase competition among market solutions, - Dmitry Demin commented on the results of the year.}}

The new TAdviser rating for revenue from IT projects in construction for 2022 was attended by 14 companies, including vendors and integrators. The leader in the overall rating was the company I-Teco. Its revenue from digitalization projects in the construction industry reached 7.4 billion rubles.

Separately, TAdviser has formed a rating of vendors whose solutions are used in the construction industry. This rating includes 5 companies. The largest revenue was recorded at BARS Group - 812.5 million rubles.

In 2023, the trend for import substitution continues. Construction companies are looking for domestic solutions without sanctions risks. There is a demand for products that provide a unified data environment, the organization of technical document management during the construction process.

We see an increase in interest in construction management solutions by regional developers and developers, as well as organizations in the industrial sector, "says Andrei Shakhramanian.

According to Dmitry Demin, the domestic development software has proven that it allows solving problems related to the development of documentation (supporting, design, construction and as-built), as well as the tasks of managing and organizing construction, operation of construction facilities.

Thus, the use of the General Data Environment (GDS) allows to solve the problems of exceeding the planned deadlines and cost of construction caused by the low level of interaction between the participants in the construction project.

According to our practice, the speed of release and approval of documentation when using pigs increases by 5-7 times. The introduction of QR codes on the working documentation allows you to prevent work on outdated or inconsistent versions and significantly reduce the amount of additional work, - notes Oleg Kukushkin, General Director Vitro Software.

In parallel with the growth in demand for high-quality domestic solutions, the demand for specialists increases, both from developers and from companies that use TIM. Regions that can provide themselves with operators in the TIM direction - project managers, implementation specialists, coordinators, etc. - will provide themselves with leadership in construction in the future, Igor Orelyana Ursua is sure.

Igor Afanasyev recalls that in 2023 several legislative acts will begin to operate at once. On September 1, the Order of the Ministry of Construction RUSSIAN FEDERATION on the approval of the form and procedure for maintaining a general work log (OZHR) No. 1026/pr dated 22.12.2022 comes into force. Maintenance of LLE is still allowed in paper form, but the electronic LLE, which is maintained in specialized software, by default will comply with the Order. Changes occur not only at the federal level, but also in the regions. From July 1, 2023, a Moscow resolution of the Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin No. 399-PP of 15.03.2023, regulating the maintenance of executive documentation exclusively in electronic form, will be in effect for state customers and organizations working at the expense of the city budget. By the beginning of 2024, documentation is planned translate into electronic form at all facilities where the customer of the work is the Moscow Construction Department. Following the capital, the regions are actively digitalized: during 2022, measures to develop the digital vertical of the construction complex were implemented in 15 pilot regions. Among the priority plans of the Ministry of Construction in 2023 to join 25 more regions of the Russian Federation to work in this area. A new decree on the procedure for formation and management is expected The digital model of the OKS instead of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1431 that has ended its action: its project is already ready and is being actively discussed in the Ministry of Construction.

Digitalization of the construction sector faces a number of problems. Firstly, these are the difficulties of adapting to the improving legislation. Many of the current regulations defining the procedure of application and the criteria for information models, contain contradictory requirements and wording.

It is necessary to come to terms and basic definitions that will help establish interaction between all participants in the process - the state, designers, developers, operators and software developers. Representatives of SiSoft JSC Development, "as active members of the Committee for Standardization in the Field of Industrial and Civil Engineering in the Association of Software Developers" Domestic Software, "promptly respond to various new situations in the field of Russian TIMs and make proposals aimed at optimizing the process of development and implementation of these technologies, Igor Orellana Ursua said. Second, it's funding. Developers and developers who have more and more new obligations related to the introduction of domestic information technologies have a large financial burden. Appropriate specialized support and incentive measures are needed, for example, the introduction of corrective factors at the cost of preparing design estimates in the format of information models.

Given the rapidly changing conditions, it is rather difficult to estimate the total volume of the construction digitalization market. Igor Orellana Ursua, as an example, cited one of the Western vendors, the turnover of Russian business in 2021 amounted to about 17 billion rubles. Under the influence of the factors mentioned above, there was a paradigm shift. According to an expert at CSoft Development, presumably the volume of this business in 2022 was significantly lower. But with the state's support for the processes of becoming a market for domestic solutions (but not returning to the system of licenses for imported software), in 2023, as well as in 2024, the market volume may amount to significantly more than 100 billion rubles, Igor Orelyana Ursua predicts.

Construction is a pretty conservative industry. In matters of digital transformation, it traditionally lags behind the financial sector, trade, education. In the index of digitalization of sectors of the economy and social sphere, which was calculated by the Higher School of Economics at the end of 2022, the construction industry occupies the penultimate place. At the same time, the industry is system-forming, and the state is interested in its accelerated development. Without digital transformation, this is impossible, therefore, legislative initiatives are actively being formed that regulate the processes of digitalization.

The introduction of digital technologies at the legislative level is a certain stress for such a conservative industry as construction. And we, as developers and integrators of specialized software, see our global task in making the implementation of digital solutions as convenient as possible, "says Igor Afanasyev, head of Gaskar Group.

If we take the experience of our company, we see that the most promising is the software market for managing the construction and operation of buildings, there is a steady demand for such solutions from developers, design and management companies. This is a global trend, and Russia follows the general trend here, - said Andrei Shakhramanian.

BIM technology is no longer innovative, but in the coming years many companies have yet to master it and assess its advantages in the construction and operation of facilities, participants in the construction digitalization market believe. The same applies to the technology of the digital twin of buildings, which allows the owner to receive reliable information online about the state of engineering equipment, building structures and automatically form the tasks of the operating organization for timely repair and maintenance, to solve predictive analytics problems.

The formation of an operational BIM model of the building and the creation of a digital twin on its basis is only gaining momentum, but is already actively beginning to be used for the operation of large construction facilities in Russia, comments Andrei Shakhramanian.

To one degree or another, we work with all these technologies, supplementing the digital information model (CIM) or transmitting data from the CIM further along the life cycle of the capital construction facility, says Dmitry Demin.

For construction companies, the introduction of paperless document management is a very important task. The head of the Gaskar Group Igor Afanasyev cites the following figures: the amount of as-built documentation required for the construction of a 23-storey four-section residential building is almost 400 thousand sheets of A4 format. At the same time, as a rule, during the construction process, the certificates are repeatedly amended - on average, 2 times in the as-built and 5 times in the working documentation - due to the design features of the facility, the replacement of materials, etc. Each new version of the document must be printed in at least four copies. The resulting volume of document management is impressive - about 3 million sheets.

The transition to paperless document management in construction has huge advantages. The time for the formation of acts is reduced by 2 times, and the speed of verification - by 5 times. The documents are correctly executed and comply with the law. There is no risk of loss or damage, because the acts are stored electronically with instant access online, which simplifies the further operation of the facility, "says Igor Afanasyev.

Among the innovative technologies that should become widespread in the near future, Russian IT specialists and managers distinguish:

• 3D printing technologies for buildings. The development and widespread use of appropriate solutions will contribute to improving the standard of living and reducing social inequality in many regions of the planet, Dmitry Demin is sure.
• Applications for collecting data from construction sites, converting this data into the necessary formats and transmitting it to information systems.
• Software robots are solutions that replace the simplest "bumagogenerating" human functions.
• Drones and unmanned robots First of all, drones capable of aerial photography, recording processes on the site and transferring them to the central base of the CADLib project will be in demand. According to Igor Afanasyev, an important aspect of the use of drones is the safety of employees. UAVs in construction take on work that can be associated with risks for people, for example, to conduct bird's eye view surveys, protecting personnel from climbing high-rise objects or overcoming dangerous terrain.
• Mobile work control applications. These are a kind of portable BPM systems that all construction participants can enter - from a developer to a plasterer painter. The easier the solution will be arranged and the more affordable it will be, the more chances it has to conquer the market, Igor Orelyana Ursua believes.

The specificity of the current situation lies in the fact that the state is an active player in the domestic software market, as well as in the construction market.

The processes of digitalization of the economy are gaining more and more dynamics. Construction this applies primarily to the industry. Such initiatives as the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 31.03.2023 No. 231 "On the creation, development and operation of state information systems using a single digital platforms of the Russian Federation "GosTech," the introduction of the State Information System for Ensuring Urban Planning Activities (GISOGD), the Information project management system of the State Customer in the Field of Construction (ISUP) and their mutual integration will strengthen the involvement of market participants in the processes of automation of management of the stages of design, construction and operation of facilities, says Igor Orelyana Ursua, an expert at CSoft Development. Accordingly, great prospects open up for those who develop solutions that make these very processes available to the user in all respects.

In parallel, taking into account the processes of development and formation of the legal field of TIM regulation, a measure to stimulate the introduction of these technologies in construction may be the creation in the regions of special authorized municipal or regional institutions that, in the mode of trust management and even the formation of information models, will ensure the fulfillment of the requirements for construction under the state order.

As of May 2023, the TAdviser database contains information on more than 3 thousand. IT projects carried out in domestic companies of the construction industry. Among the various classes of IT solutions among such enterprises, enterprise management systems (ERP), electronic document management (EDMS/ECM), and business process automation are most in demand . These solutions account for the largest number of projects completed during the observation period since 2005. Data on other classes of systems are shown in the diagram below.

For each class of IT systems implemented in certain industries, the TAdviser database allows you to identify the most popular solutions and vendors of these products. See the chart below for which companies are developing the systems most commonly implemented in the construction sector.

Let's separately consider the vendors of BIM systems. As of May 2023, the TAdviser database contains information on 156 projects completed using such technologies. Most of them are projects in Russian companies.

• Digital Technologies in Construction
• IT in Real Estate
• Real estate technologies (Russian market), PropTech, Property Technologies
• BIM - Information modeling of buildings and structures
• BIM technologies (Russian market)
• BIM technologies (global market)