The project started in October 2021 and will last for 18 months until April 2023.

The project has the ambition to provide hands-on and directly measurable support to EU construction SMEs in their path towards digitalisation. In particular, it tackles the challenge of increasing the adoption of digital technologies by SMEs, especially the microenterprises with limited capability. This is reflected in ‘Action 1: Development of a digital maturity scan and interactive handbook’. In addition, it addresses the need to increase the number of skilled workers, especially on-site workers, in the use of digital technologies, which is reflected in ‘Action 2: Trainings for digital skills’. 

To select best practices, we asked companies in the construction sector to share their experience in terms of digital projects that positively impacted their work. All contributions describing the project, the experienced benefits of digitalisation, and the barriers to implementation in sufficient detail are included within our best practices.

You can submit a best practice either through this survey or alternatively you can send us your best practice by email to digital-construction@ecorys.com. Please explain in your email what digital solution you have implemented, which technologies this involved, how it benefited your company, what challenges you encountered and how you overcame them.

The European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) under the powers delegated by the European Commission, contracted a consortium to support the digitalisation of construction SMEs. The consortium is composed of Ecorys, TNO, IMP³ROVE, and Europa Media Group.

The project supports construction SMEs with a range of services

• A digital maturity scan to assess a company's level of digitalisation (available in quick and in-depth format);
• An interactive handbook, providing recommendations and next steps based on the results of the digital maturity scan;
• Training sessions online and on-site, provided by experts in the field and tailored to the needs of each company.

This project has been launched by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) of the European Commission.

While this project primarily targets SMEs, contributions from larger companies can be helpful, especially when collecting best practices. If your company is not an SME and you are interested in our project, do not hesitate to reach out to us to explore how we can collaborate.

We aim to minimise the amount of data that we collect, however to make use of our services you need to register and create an account on this website. When registering we require the following personal data: first name, last name, e-mail address.

In addition, should you be interested in the training offer, we will also require the following personal data: nationality, country of residence, date of birth, language skills, company name, current position and technical skills (professional background).

For more information, please read our privacy notice (see here).

Yes, the scans will remain available. 

Europe’s construction sector consists of numerous SMEs, which can be divided into the following groups when it comes to their digitalization: late adopters, early adopters and frontrunners. In order to tailor the handbook and trainings to each of these groups’ needs it will be important to know their digital maturity level to be able to forward them to the handbook chapters and trainings that are most relevant for them. For this purpose, we developed two digital maturity scans: a quick scan asking some basic questions (the quick scan) and a scan asking more advanced questions (the in-depth scan). Both scans follow the following four dimensions and allow a company to assess its digital maturity:

1. The digital innovation strategy: this concerns the digital transformation plan of a company.
2. The digital processes: this dimension focus on the digitalization of the internal company processes such as financing, consumer contact, etc.
3. The digital ecosystem and culture: this concerns the employees within the organization and their role in the digital transformation.
4. The digital technology enablers: these are technologies such as BIM earmarked as relevant for construction SMEs.

Yes, the handbook can be downloaded after registering to our platform and is available here.

Yes, you are welcome to share your ideas and suggestions via our contact form that you can find here

Technical content can be found in Chapters 4 to 10 of the handbook, available here.

BIM is the acronym for “Building Information Model” as well as “Building Information Modelling”. Building information modeling is a process supported by various tools, technologies and contracts involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical characteristics of places. 

A robot is a machine, that is programmable by a computer and is capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically (e.g. actions executed by construction workers). A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within the robot.

A sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment (e.g. in a building) and sends the information collected to other electronics, often a computer.

3D scanning technology allows for the capture and translation of real life objects into digital 3D models. 3D scanning focuses on capturing the geometric properties (size, dimensions, surface textures) of the objects. Moreover, 3D scanning can provide additional information such as the geolocation, the surface color or even the amount of radiation emitted from the objects.

3D printing is an additive manufacturing process enabled by data from specialized 3D models to direct hardware, most commonly a robot arm, to deposit material, layer upon layer, to form geometric shapes. The result is a 3D-printed object.

The term “drone” is usually reserved to describe an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). However, the term can also be used to describe an unmanned ground vehicle, which similarly does not require a driver to operate. Aerial vehicles, are flying drones that usually fit with either multiple rotors for short distances or fixed wings for longer distances.

The Internet of things (IoT) concern physical objects (or groups of objects) with sensors, processing ability, software, and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other (mobile) devices and systems over the Internet or other communications networks.

A digital transformation strategy can be seen as a roadmap for introducing digital technologies to improve your business aspects such as reducing operational costs, improving quality, increasing efficiency etc.

Digital technologies can be used to make processes such as customer contact, sharing orders and invoices more efficient, productive and profitable while achieving greater customer satisfaction.

The digital company culture concerns the people side of the digital transformation. Digital culture concerns the interplay between people and the digital technology they use to react more quickly to customer needs for competitive advantage and value creation within the organisation. The digital transformation has shown that cultural and behavioural challenges can be a primary barrier to a successful transformation.

You can sign up for a training session by going to the training calendar, click there on the training of your interest and there select the yellow button ‘Please login or register to apply’. Please note that you will have to create an account first on the website to sign up for a training session. In case you encounter any issues in signing up, please contact: training.dcsme@kearney.com.

The training calendar outlines a first set of scheduled training dates. If you miss a region and would like to place your interest, please send an email to: training.dcsme@kearney.com. We are looking forward to considering your needs when coordinating additional training dates. 

You will receive a digital training certificate which will confirm your participation. Moreover, you will be able to promote your skill development among the LinkedIn-network.

The training programme is designed for and addressed to members of Construction SMEs in the EU. Their participation in the training courses will be free of charge.