Trimble and Microsoft Partner to Drive Digital Transformation in Construction

Trimble, a member of multiple AGC chapters, and Microsoft announced recently a strategic partnership to advance technology adoption and accelerate the digital transformation of the construction industry. By leveraging the Microsoft cloud, Trimble and Microsoft will collaborate to develop, build and deliver industry cloud platforms and solutions that connect people, technology, tasks, data, processes and industry lifecycles. This collaboration represents a significant milestone to advance Trimble’s Connect and Scale 2025 strategy, which centers on building industry-leading cloud platforms.

Initially, Trimble and Microsoft will focus on building the Trimble Construction Cloud powered by Microsoft Azure.

The construction process is fragmented, which can result in lost productivity, rework and a lack of transparency. According to a McKinsey & Company article, The next normal in construction: How disruption is reshaping the world’s largest ecosystem,* the construction industry is lagging with only 1 percent productivity growth over the last 20 years. This is significantly lower than the 2.8 percent experienced for the total economy. In addition, one of the significant emerging disruptions that will drive change in construction is the digitization of products and processes. The ability to link technologies, tasks, processes and multiple stakeholders—such as general contractors, subcontractors, designers, engineers and owners—across the construction project workflow can transform and significantly improve productivity, quality, safety, transparency and sustainability.

This partnership expands Trimble and Microsoft’s existing relationship to combine the Microsoft cloud with Trimble’s construction solutions and industry domain knowledge. Trimble’s construction solutions include on-machine and field technology, modeling and collaboration software, project and resource management, and all underlying analytics. The companies will deliver the Trimble Construction Cloud, an innovative connected platform powered by Microsoft Azure, which is fully enabled for 3D constructible models that will reduce risks, drive speed, and increase efficiency and accuracy across the entire construction project lifecycle, in 2022.

In addition to cloud engineering development, Microsoft and Trimble will partner on joint go-to-market strategies and deliver innovative solutions to multinational and regional enterprises. The first solutions will enable continued support of infrastructure investment cycles, and be used for large-scale projects, on which multiple stakeholders work in parallel to deliver connected construction projects.

“Trimble and Microsoft will create a powerful partnership to advance technology adoption in the construction industry. Using Microsoft technologies, Trimble will be able to more rapidly develop a construction cloud to connect stakeholders and workflows throughout the industry,” said Bryn Fosburgh, senior vice president, Trimble. “We are building on our combined success to help construction companies use digital data to improve productivity, reduce costs, increase collaboration and create agility. By leveraging the Microsoft cloud, Trimble technology and our combined engineering capabilities, we will empower construction businesses to realize the benefits of the cloud and accelerate digital transformation throughout the construction lifecycle.”

“Industry customers are accelerating deployment of cloud-based services and solutions to facilitate better decision making based on data-driven insights, gain efficiencies, reduce costs and engage customers in new ways,” said Casey McGee, vice president Global ISV partners, Microsoft. “We are excited about our enhanced collaboration with Trimble as it will help customers, across industries, evolve their cloud strategies and realize business transformation.”