For more than 15 years, the construction industry has been discussing digitalisation and data. The conversation has moved from theoretical possibility to practical implementation. Engineers now work on the same digital platforms. Architects consider not just aesthetics but data properties. The flow from architectural concept through engineering to MEP contractors is becoming more continuous.
Yet one question persists. When Jesper Skou presents digital strategies to experienced colleagues at Wicotec Kirkebjerg A/S, they ask: “Are you really sure that the cost matches the value you’re getting out of these models?”
It is not a cynical question. It is the right one. And the answer determines whether digitalisation becomes genuinely useful or remains an expensive documentation exercise.
The data trust problem
The first place this question surfaces is when digital models are used as the basis for decisions.
“People do not trust the data we’re pulling from the models. But just over the last couple of years, the trust has increased. The quality of the models we’re getting is increasing.”
The preconstruction phase has become increasingly critical at Wicotec Kirkebjerg. When a request for quotation arrives with a BIM model attached, specialist work begins immediately. Verify the model. Take spot checks. Ensure the quantities extracted are close to accurate. Trust is not automatic: it is earned through careful inspection.
The industry has effectively split into two types of tender processes when it comes to quantities in digital models. In one, contractors are expected to extract and calculate quantities themselves and submit bids based on their own readings of the model. The result is that each bidder works from slightly different quantities, making bids difficult to compare.
In the other type, quantities are provided upfront as part of the tender material, ensuring that all bidders price the same quantities.
“That creates a much fairer bidding process. But it doesn’t solve the problem. It just postpones it.”
The challenge reappears once the contract is awarded. When the winning contractor receives full access to the models and begins to verify quantities in detail, discrepancies often emerge. Quantities turn out to be inaccurate, incomplete or subject to change as the project develops. On top of that, additional changes frequently occur after contract signing, forcing contractors to reassess models and quantities under real production conditions.
From design to reality
As the model moves from bidding into execution, the consequences of missing or ambiguous data become tangible.
Wicotec Kirkebjerg is investing in people who can enrich models, increase quality, verify readings, and perform the essential task of transforming a detailed design model into a buildable one.
“We see very good models on large projects where there’s a detailed design model which you should, in theory, be able to build from. But in reality, there are too many collisions which make it impossible to do it this way.”
Technical shafts in buildings turn out to be too small once height is taken into account: installation becomes impossible, future servicing even more so. Duct channels are perfectly routed until you realise a fire exit door blocks the path. These are problems that must be identified and resolved digitally, in the office, before materials are ordered and workers arrive on site.
For plumbing, HVAC and piping, prefabrication offers real potential. On some projects, Wicotec Kirkebjerg aims to produce large portions of the work outside the actual construction site, then deliver finished assemblies ready for installation. But the requirements for detailing and model accuracy increase dramatically when prefabrication enters the picture.
“On electrical, we are far away from being able to do that.”
The idea of ordering cables pre-cut to exact lengths based on the model? Not realistic yet. The level of detail required would be so demanding that material waste from safety margins would eliminate any efficiency gain.
When design cultures collide
These challenges are amplified when projects cross national design cultures. Wicotec Kirkebjerg operates primarily in Denmark but increasingly encounters projects designed by UK-based or Dutch-based engineers. The gap in expectations is immediate and substantial.
“We expect as a construction company in Denmark a much higher level of detailed projects than what we see in the UK.”
In British and Dutch construction markets, contractors carry far more responsibility for final design. That can work, but only if contracts explicitly define where engineering responsibility ends and construction responsibility begins.
“If you design a contract where the engineering company stops here and the construction company starts here, then you start up in conflict from day one.”
Several large Danish hospital projects have experienced exactly this friction, where international engineers delivered what they considered complete designs, and Danish contractors expected something far more construction-ready. The division of labour can shift. But expectations, timelines and contractual structures must align with it. Otherwise, digitalisation simply accelerates miscommunication.
The white-collar problem
The cumulative effect of unclear expectations, verification work and coordination gaps is a growing administrative burden.
Jesper estimates that roughly 98 per cent of employees at Wicotec Kirkebjerg and its competitors come from traditional trades: electricians, plumbers, carpenters.
“We need those in the future. But it may not be the right approach to use a carpenter or electrician to do BIM teaching work, or design work, or operation manuals.”
The proportion of white-collar management resources in projects has grown disproportionately compared to blue-collar workers. The result is a troubling efficiency equation: for every krone spent, less gets built, because value creation happens on site with the people who physically construct.
“The scalability is one-to-one. We need another person, we add another person. We need to do this smarter.”
Documentation requirements have exploded: fire safety regulations, pharma compliance, healthcare standards, environmental reporting. All of it generates management work. Language models and AI offer a clear opportunity to automate repetitive documentation tasks, freeing white-collar resources for genuine problem-solving rather than paperwork processing.
But the broader solution requires rethinking who works in construction. The industry needs more engineers embedded in contracting companies: people who can handle technical, data-driven work natively, rather than learning it as an afterthought.
Fixing the start
For Jesper, all of this ultimately points back to how projects begin. The real bottleneck, he believes, has nothing to do with technology.
“In almost all projects I’ve been involved in, the majority of time spent in the acquisition phase is discussion with the customer on contracts. We spend most of our time on legal terms and on pricing. We spend too little time on how we want to cooperate, how we want to manage changes.”
Denmark developed a standard contract framework years ago, the AB system, intended to provide common ground. Yet both contractors and building owners make their own standard modifications, leading to lengthy negotiations over terms that are, in Jesper’s view, not the essential parts of a successful project.
He envisions project kick-offs where the digital model sits at the negotiation table. Where construction companies can point to a design approach and say: “This is extremely cost-efficient. If you do this instead, you probably get the same effect.”
“All major construction projects take time to come to maturity. But I think in the acquisition phase, too much time has been spent on the non-essential parts.”
The tension is real. Building owners start projects carrying 100 per cent of the risk. When they sign with a contractor, some risk transfers. That balance between price, time and scope must be negotiated. But Jesper believes the industry would gain far more from focusing on how to work together than on how to protect against each other.
Contracts will always matter. But cooperation matters more. And right now, the industry spends its energy in exactly the wrong proportion.
This article originally appeared in ONSIGHT Magazine Issue #01 2026, the magazine for digital transformation in the construction industry, published by Vitus. Download the full magazine for free. More from ONSIGHT: Closing the Gap Between Speed and Craft and Making Digital a Core Production Discipline.
