Lendlease Signals Its Commitment To Digitization By Launching A New Software Development Centre

Lendlease Signals Its Commitment To Digitization By Launching A New Software Development Centre

In September 2020, Sydney-headquartered real estate development and investment firm Lendlease announced that it will set up a S$40 million product development centre in Singapore to accelerate its development of software for the property and construction sector. Lendlease will hire 50 software application developers in the first year, with plans to keep growing the team in the future. The aim is to build out software apps that empower data-driven decision making across the building life cycle and make the construction supply chain more efficient.

Lendlease’s plan to hire 50 software engineers gives teeth to its existing strategy to digitize its business. In 2019, Lendlease hired William Ruh as CEO to lead its digital division “Lendlease Digital”, who was formerly CEO of GE Digital. In August 2020, it also launched Podium, a new portfolio of digital tools and services for managing building data across the life cycle. Lendlease is initially using Podium for its own development pipeline where it sees an opportunity to improve construction productivity by up to 20%. It will explore opportunities to use data collected during the operational phase of buildings to inform future building design.

Other firms in the construction and development sector are also increasing their ambition to bring more digital tools to the industry to drive new efficiencies. The construction sector has been slow to digitize; often, project planning is un-coordinated and many field processes are still paper based. For example, in May 2019, Skanksa partnered with Autodesk to develop its Digital Construction Platform and DigiHub to help digitize the firm and cut construction costs and times. Another example is VINCI Construction UK which is piloting a mobile collaboration tool that enables on-site engineers to access 3D models on their mobile devices, reducing the need for paper drawings.

For an analysis of the implications of Lendlease’s digitization programme on the broader smart building sector, read our report Lendlease Launches Podium To Share Data Across The Building Life Cycle.