16 Dec 2020

Convergence in Infrastructure: Accelerating Digital Transformation's Momentum

Autodesk University 2020 launched on November 17th with multiple product announcements, vision statements, hundreds of robust pieces of learning content, and much more. But one theme, in particular, was very clear throughout the conference - Autodesk wants to help you Reimagine Possible and gain that competitive edge. COVID-19's impact has changed the way we work forever.  The shift to a more digital, connected, and virtual future is calling on you to unleash innovations that deliver new benefits, experiences, and value. There is no time like the present to invest in the Autodesk tools that will get you there.

But how exactly are we going to create the New Possible? By ushering in the Era of Convergence. Convergence is the next stage of digitization, leading to the digital blending of previously separate technologies, processes, and digital and physical assets; the reshaping of industry structures and markets; and entirely new combinations of products, services, and experiences.

To help show you the true value of Convergence, we are posting a blog series on Convergence in your Industry.  Start off by reading Convergence with Forge, as our cloud platform underpins much of what can be done for each industry. Then below you will find pieces of Civil Infrastructure's on-demand AU content that teach you more about this phenomenon and show how you and your industry can capitalize on Convergence as an opportunity for innovation and growth. 

Civil Infrastructure and Convergence

Forge for Civil Infrastructure

To meet the demands of population growth, the Civil Infrastructure industry needs to build an exorbitant amount of roads, rails, bridges, and more to keep up. In Forge for Civil Infrastructure, you learn why it is essential for the industry to embrace Convergence from Theo Agelopoulos, Senior Director of Infrastructure Strategy & Marketing, and Jim Quanci, Senior Director of Forge Partner Development. You also hear great new ways of making from Norconsult and Black & Veatch. The Norconsult team was hired by the Norwegian New Road Authority to build a better road system to open up economic development for Western Norway. Using Forge APIs, Norconsult made all digital assets accessible from one source, on-demand resulting in a digital, paperless and drawingless experience from start to finish that minimized risks and errors and drove buy-in from stakeholders through their visual models and data.  Black & Veatch combined the capabilities of Forge, BIM 360 and Microsoft Azure, to give professionals access to data and visuals in a simple web browser. No training needed. Without Forge it would have been difficult to get near real-time updates from a desktop application such as Revit. Using BIM 360 and Forge, they are able to pull updates frequently from these types of complex design files.

Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Keynote

In the AEC Keynote, Nicolas Mangon, Vice President AEC Strategy & Marketing at Autodesk, said “Digital transformation has gone from a nice-to-have to a must-have across every phase of design and construction." And Autodesk certainly has big plans to capitalize on the new ways of making that enable this digital transformation to be accelerated. To name a few of the keynote highlights:

  • Nicolas Mangon, Vice President AEC Strategy & Marketing at Autodesk, highlighted the acquisition of Spacemaker
  • Leona Frank, Senior Industry Marketing Manager for Infrastructure at Autodesk, introduced Autodesk BIM Collaborate.
  • Vanessa Bertollini, Sr. Industry Marketing Manager – AEC Thought Leadership at Autodesk, introduced Autodesk Tandem, bringing digital twin to BIM.
  • Jim Lynch, Vice President & General Manager, Autodesk Construction Solutions at Autodesk, announced three new products for Autodesk Construction Cloud built on a unified platform and common data environment – Autodesk BuildAutodesk Quantify, and Autodesk BIM Collaborate
  • Amy Marks, Head of Industrialized Construction Strategy and Evangelism at Autodesk, shared more about Autodesk’s strategy and vision for industrialized construction. 
  • Digitized workflows enabled the teams building the Bangalore Airport to go to remote site management overnight when the lockdown started.
  • Federating access to project data and models enabled Norconsult to reduce the production of drawings by 97%.
  • BIM-based processes in DfMA enabled Bryden Wood to lower embodied carbon by 19% and reduce labor by 35%.

To read more about the top construction news and how all the announcements from the AEC Keynote highlights Convergence, check out this blog.

Civil Infrastructure: Welcome & Updates

In Civil Infrastructure: Welcome & Updates, Theo Agelopoulos, Senior Director of Infrastructure Strategy and Marketing, discusses accelerating the momentum we’ve seen in the industries transformation to digital. He shares three areas in which Autodesk is investing in: connected data, resiliency, and design optimization. Tune in to hear him discuss project collaboration experiences,  product updates, partnerships, and customer stories from Link Alliance in New Zealand and BHP of Australia that show Convergence's appeal.

Better Project Delivery Workflows

In Civil Infrastructure's Better Project Delivery Workflows program, you hear tailored messages from Brey Tucker, Senior Industry Manager, Project Delivery and Ashley Poage, Industry Marketing Manager for Infrastructure about how the world is placing extraordinary demands on building, so Autodesk knows you need extraordinary tools to deliver your projects. They show new product offerings, announcements, and demos that unlock a whole new level of connection, efficiency, and integration for complex Infrastructure projects. You also hear updates from the teams at Gannet and Fleming and Tetra Tech to see how they are gaining a competitive advantage. Tune in to see how Convergence is guiding the Civil Infrastructure industry.

BIM 360 collaboration functionality
BIM 360 collaboration functionality

Be sure to watch the above Autodesk University 2020 programs to get a well-rounded idea of just how impactful Convergence can be to you, your team, and your industry. And check out the other blogs in this series to find inspiration from other industries:

If you'd like to learn more about how different industries, processes, and disciplines are coming together, check out this overview on Convergence.

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