Reimagining what it means to be a construction company in a digital age

Set up in 1859 by John Sisk and with operations in Ireland, the UK and across Europe, Sisk has been responsible for erecting some of Ireland’s most iconic buildings, from the Central Bank of Ireland to the Aviva Stadium and the Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin.

The company prides itself on being able to take on projects ranging in budget from €100,000 up to half a billion euros and more, demonstrating a degree of flexibility that’s unrivalled in its industry. With around 1,000 staff based in Ireland, Sisk’s Irish business turns over between €700 and €800 million euro a year and €2.5 billion euro overall.

And when it comes to getting its buildings off the plans and out of the ground, technology and connectivity in particular are crucial tools in the company’s toolbox.

“We’re engaged in an ongoing process of finding out just what a digitally-literate construction company can be in the year 2025. We’re very lucky to have a company turnover of around €2.5 billion euro and that gives us appropriate resources to work with the leading technologies out there and to explore new ways of working, while also treating each job that we do for a client as a learning experience,” said Ken Kennedy, group IT director for Sisk.

“These two approaches together are really very exciting. This also helps with attracting and retaining staff because the best people always want to work with the latest technologies in their area.”

As well as using next generation systems to help it design projects from the ground up and the latest in measuring and surveying tools, Sisk also makes use of drones and other high tech tools to allow it to become more effective, and connectivity plays a big role in keeping those systems working effectively together.

“Our overall goal is to make ourselves more efficient, to streamline the lifecycle of each building we work on from tender through to building and finally to handing over a finished built environment to our clients. And now we’re in a position to put a facilities management wrap around the project too as we go forward with Sensori, our specialist facilities management company.”

Busines needs and next generation technology

Sisk wants the technology it uses to become a type of utility, something that’s available and ready to go and with its implementation of cloud technology and Vodafone’s software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) technology, it’s brought that goal one step closer.

“The faster we can get our customers from the planning stage of a build to a completed building, the better the value we can offer, and we use a lot of different technologies to achieve that,” said Kennedy.

All of Sisk’s on and off-site technology is cloud-enabled and it’s here that Vodafone’s connectivity expertise and products come into play.

“For us, it’s all about connectivity and having access to robust connections both in terms of the equipment that we're providing to our people and the networks we use to access that equipment through Vodafone’s 4G and burgeoning 5G networks,” said Kennedy.

“This is always a challenge because we're not a typical client for Vodafone. We set up between 40 and 50 new sites every year and as a result we’re constantly rolling out large numbers of high speed connections. At the same time, as other sites come to completion, we take down 40 to 50 sites as well.”

“That’s very different to the traditional client that just wants to install a fibre network and maybe not change anything for ten years. We are constantly on the phone to our partners asking for more fibre, more microwave connections, more satellite connections and obviously also more broadband, 4G and 5G.”

Sisk uses multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network technology that controls how data is moved around the company’s sites, controlling network traffic and optimising the user experience at each location.

“On a typical construction site, we may have up to 50 Sisk staff on site, building a hotel for example, for two and half years. In order for us to be efficient on that site, we might need a 100Mb/s fibre link with a 25 or 50Mb/s microwave backup, in case that fibre goes down. We have experienced delivery times for these services of between 12 to 16 weeks to install as there is a reliance on wholesale providers. These technologies have proven to be very expensive to run,” said Kennedy.

“The nature of this MPLS technology has effectively meant that we end up paying for a backup link that we’ll hopefully never use. On a construction site with demanding schedules and deadlines, this seems like an eternity.”

How SD-WAN makes things easier

Using SD-WAN technology simplifies matters, streamlining the way data is moved around and allowing construction sites to become operational quickly. This is a virtual solution that sits over a company’s existing network and gives immediate visibility and control of network traffic.

Its usefulness lies in its ability to combine a centrally controlled and managed wi-fi solution, a secure firewall and state of the art analytics and application controls. These tools help IT administrators to improve the end-user experience, and crucially to significantly reduce the time it takes to isolate network or application problems that lie beyond the local area network.

“It's a cleverer technology that allows ease of access to the internet whilst maintaining our security posture and it allows us to have a lot of active connections at the same time. This technology allows us to combine different connections to cater for increased demand, traffic shaping and more network resilience,” said Kennedy.

“I can have three of them active at the same time, and can shape my traffic to go across different links. This system uses different technologies with different supply lead times which typically are quicker so if all we need is basic business broadband, we can get it delivered in six to eight weeks. All of this means sites that are operational faster.”

Business outcomes

The result of having tightly integrated technology into its operations is that Sisk is adopting best in class solutions and facilitates rapid responses to changing business demands. This positions the company well for further expansion and growth, while also allowing it to meet the needs of its employees and customers in the most ethical and responsible manner.

“How we do what we do is just as important as what we do. For example, it’s very important to us to be a company that is representative of the society it operates in, both in terms of diversity in our workforce and in our leadership. Everybody who works here contributes to the success of Sisk and we think it’s important to expose ourselves to different mindsets and different ways of operating.”

According to Kennedy, the thinking at Sisk from a senior level on down is that the more inclusive the company is, the better it can shape its own future.

“We think that having different people from different backgrounds who think in different ways can only lead to strength. It gives us a more inclusive culture that we can leverage across multiple disciplines and without that, frankly we’d be missing a trick,” he said.

People power and safety onsite

“The access control systems we use allows us to know who is on our sites and when they are there so that in the event of any type of incident or God forbid, an emergency situation, we can tell exactly who is there and where they are. That allows us to account for our people and make sure they're safe,” said Kennedy.

“Health and safety is our number one priority for staff, subcontractors, suppliers and clients, and this is something that is absolutely sacrosanct to us. Our tech helps by making us more efficient in everything we do including in the way it allows us to spot where there are shortcomings or potential issues.”

Whether it’s ongoing projects like the Dunkettle Interchange Improvement Scheme in North Cork, the Glass bottle construction site at Dublin Port or the Grangegorman Technological University of Ireland campus, technology is at the heart of every job Sisk does and is set to play a huge role in the company’s development into the future.