Toric is Leading Digital Transformation in AEC

For people working in construction, engineering, and architecture, the latest digital tools have quite literally transformed the way they work.  Yet still, digital transformation in AEC has been a slow progression. It's because digital transformation can come at a cost. According to Autodesk's Harnessing The Data Advantage in Construction Report - while 55% of construction companies implemented a formal strategy- it fell short, and a third of all poor decisions were made based on bad data.

This is in part due to the complexities of projects and how siloed information and data are. They are simply inaccessible in a way that is useful for daily operations. 

Toric’s founder, Thiago da Costa wanted to change all that and started his project, Toric to eliminate the biggest headaches based on his unique experience with data and AEC. Primarily, Toric enables stakeholders to see the data driving digital transformation so that they could use their data and further propel digital transformation for the built world. 

The Setbacks for Digital Transformation in AEC

Yes, digitizing specific workflows and information sharing interfaces can drive efficiency when done well. But when done poorly, it can lead to rework, and decisions based on bad data— all contributing to missed deadlines and increasing project costs.

The problem with digital transformation is for AEC has been that stakeholders — from owners and general contractors to trades specialists — have felt blindfolded. The largest contributors being wrong, inaccurate or incorrect data. While incredible advancements have been made in modeling, and data management, there was still a missing link between all data sources. 

Data from models would be outdated as any change was made. Model audits, clashes reports, quantity takeoffs were all were a tedious processes.  Project timelines and budgets were created without the latest information, bids would be grossly inaccurate, and there was no way to control or adapt these projects. 

Toric was born from that frustration. 

New Bird’s Eye View

Stakeholders needed a way to see the data that was driving digital transformation on their job sites. So we built our no-code dataflow, with it you can move from feeling like you’re guessing blindly into a state of full data transparency and collaboration. And you don’t need to learn any technical skills to do so.

With features like drag-and-drop, you can pull data into an easy-to-see, easy-to-use workspace. That way, you can see everything in one place.

We’ve made sure Toric integrates with key drivers of digital transformation, like:

• 3D Models
• BIM data
• Finance data, including Quickbooks and Salesforce
• Procore
• Autodesk Revit, BIM 360, Naviswork
• Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets

We also offer app integrations so that when data updates in any of your integrated apps, it automatically updates in your dataflow dashboard, too. 

Long story short, we built Toric to give you a bird’s eye view of all of the tools and solutions driving your project. With this visibility, you can harness digital transformation (and avoid the potential pitfalls). 

Toric Digital Transformation Use Cases

With Toric, you take the concept of dataflow charts and move past them into a completely interactive way to see all of your data. There, you can transform it and discover insights, all within a single, user-friendly, code-free platform. 

That all sounds good, right? But how does it actually work on the ground? Let’s look at some specific examples:

Elevated data apps rather than dashboards.

With Toric app integrations, you get real-time synchronization. Anytime data gets updated in one of your integrated apps, the latest data you can automatically push data into your Toric dataflow. In other words, you don’t have to do any work to keep your dataflow up to date.

We’ve also built out a capability allowing you to share synced data apps from Toric. You can even embed them wherever your team needs to view the specific report.

White label to keep everything under the same umbrella. 

Users have the ability to white label data apps. That way, you can impress clients and comfortably share data with any relevant parties. Keep stakeholders informed and on the same page using the most up-to-date data across all of the digital platforms at play in the project. 

Unlock your historical data.

You might think about building a dataflow for new projects, but don’t miss the opportunity to unlock your historical data to inform current and future project decisions. 

Your completed projects have valuable data associated with them, but it’s probably siloed in the various software you’ve been using. But pulling it all into Toric, you get the opportunity to review all of the relevant data points in a convenient way. 

Putting all of a project’s historical data into a single data pool can help identify opportunities to drive efficiency moving forward. 

See our example of historical cost analysis. 

Integrate your models.

CAD models and BIM are key drivers of digital transformation across AEC verticals. But once created, these models all too often live on an island. They’re useful as a fixed-in-time point of reference, but they become significantly more helpful when they can act as living models that transform with the project.

By pulling data from your model(s) (e.g., an Autodesk CAD model) into your Toric dataflow, you get a way to keep that information top of mind. It becomes easier to use and more informative when integrated. And since creating those models in the first place requires so much work, leveraging them to the fullest extent possible makes sense. Especially when you have the opportunity to automatically synchronize all your data and have full version control in one place. 

Enable data joining and enrichment.

Speaking of models, you might have found yourself in a situation where several different software solutions are at play. The problem? Those different solutions might not necessarily play nicely together.

Your Toric dataflow creates a common ground. With it, you can blend data, supporting and clarifying your project management efforts. Rather than having distinct information living in separate locations, you can join — and even enrich — them in Toric. 

Do this with any data set, make data comparable or usable such as in the example of the embodied energy calculator.  Here we have combined EPiC energy data with model data to measure the environmental impact of this project: 

Key Takeaway 

At the end of the day, we created Toric to solve several of our own frustrations with digital transformation in AEC. But why keep that to ourselves? With Toric dataflows, you can not just avoid the headaches of digitalization, but seize the opportunity that digital transformation presents. If you want to keep your company on the leading edge, we can help.