Real People. Real Experiences. Saving Time, Raising Productivity, Building Trust — Industry Leaders In Their Own Words
Key Takeaways
- Industry leaders from Penta Ocean, Teambuild, Soilbuild, and Wee Hur all cite the same root problem: unstructured data costs far more than most firms realise.
- Manual project submissions were consuming 2 to 4 hours per submission due to fragmented communication, no single source of truth, and excessive administrative work
- SGBuildex’s “Connect Once, Connect All” model links one integration to BCA, HDB, and other agencies — no separate pipelines needed.
- Teams stabilised on the platform within 3 weeks, achieving a 60–80% reduction in manpower effort per submission.
- Beyond efficiency, SGBuildex functions as a neutral data intermediary — reducing costly disputes and building cross-stakeholder trust.
Introduction: The Hidden Cost of Unstructured Data in Construction
“The hidden costs of unstructured data are much larger than most people realise.”
That’s Veronica Ng, Executive General Manager, Deputy Head of Civil Engineering Division, and Deputy Head of the Global DX Centre at Penta Ocean Construction, and she’s not the only senior leader articulating such a concern.
Across Singapore’s construction industry, firms are grappling with a shared, largely invisible burden: the daily grind of manually consolidating, formatting, and submitting regulatory and project monitoring data across fragmented platforms and stakeholders. Such unstructured data is not organised according to a predefined style or is hastily collated together from a range of disparate file formats; the time lost to wrangling and aligning this data is significant, and the frustration is real. And, the opportunity cost — skilled professionals spending hours on low-value administrative work — is rarely ever fully calculated and reckoned with.
In our latest video interview, industry leaders shared how transitioning to a centralised, integrated platform is revolutionising their workflows. By leveraging SGBuildex, contractors are breaking down data silos, reclaiming thousands of lost hours, and radically streamlining their workflows and project submissions.
Here’s what they had to say.
The Problem: A Shared Burden Across the Industry
Hours Lost to Administrative Work
For Benjamin Lee, Project Director at Teambuild Construction Group, the pain point was clear from the outset: “Before connecting to SGBuildex, the regulatory and operational processes were a significant burden — and we believe that many contractors face the same challenge.”
That sense of a shared industry-wide experience is telling. This isn’t a problem specific to one firm’s workflows or legacy systems. It’s structural.
Gerald Ho, Digitalisation Head and Project Director at Soilbuild Construction Group, puts numbers to it: “It will normally take about 2 to 4 hours per submission, with manual formatting and consolidation among the stakeholders.”
But for Mr Ho, the real cost wasn’t just time — it was what that time represented: “The biggest frustrations were excessive no-value-added administrative work, no single source of truth, difficulty in tracking accurate up-to-date information, and fragmented communication.”
Why “Good Enough” Isn’t Good Enough
The cumulative effect of those frustrations — scattered data, fragmented communication, hours of manual re-entry — isn’t just an operational inconvenience. It represents a structural drag on project quality and team performance. As Ms Ng frames it, the hidden costs compound quietly, right up until someone finds a better way.
The Solution: Connect Once, Connect All
A Single Integration That Reaches Every Stakeholder
Andy Lu, CEO of Wee Hur Construction, describes the transformation in straightforward terms: “With SGBuildex, the data that we collect using different solutions as well as across different projects are all structured and synchronised.”
That synchronisation is made possible by SGBuildex’s standardised API. Mr Lee explains the mechanics: “‘Connect Once, Connect All’ means that once we integrate our SMP with SGBuildex via API, that single connection allows our data to reach all the relevant parties — like BCA, HDB, and other government agencies — without us having to set up separate data pipelines to each one.”
For firms that have historically maintained separate integrations with each project owner, the operational simplification is immediate and significant. Beyond regulatory bodies, SGBuildex also seamlessly connects to multiple project owners as well as other industry partners. One connection, all parties. No duplication.
Structured Data as the Foundation
What makes this possible isn’t just the connectivity — it’s the underlying data structure. By ensuring that data collected across different tools and projects is consistently structured and synchronised, SGBuildex eliminates the inconsistencies that made manual consolidation necessary in the first place. The platform doesn’t just streamline the submission process; it addresses the root cause of the friction.
The Results: Real Metrics From Worksites
Stable Adoption in Weeks, Not Months
Organisational change is often the hardest part of any technology rollout. Yet Mr Ho says Soilbuild’s experience suggests SGBuildex clears that bar relatively quickly: “The adoption stabilised within 3 weeks, with improvements in data accuracy, accountability, and workflow consistency.”
Three weeks to stable adoption — with measurable gains on three dimensions simultaneously — is a meaningful signal about the platform’s ease of integration and the clarity of its value proposition.
60–80% Reduction in Manpower Effort, Reclaiming Precious Time
The efficiency gain Mr Ho cites is striking: “I would say it’s about a 60 to 80% reduction in manpower effort per submission.”
To understand what that means in practice, consider Ms Ng’s emphasis on the human impact of this shift: “Even saving 1 or 2 hours a day — time previously lost to extracting and re-uploading data across platforms — is meaningful. This allows project teams to redirect their time and resources towards higher-priority activities on site.”
An hour or two per day, per team member, compounded across a project’s duration, represents a substantial reallocation of skilled capacity. Less time reformatting data means more time for the work that actually moves projects forward.
The Bigger Picture: Trust, Neutrality, and Fewer Disputes
Why a Neutral Platform Changes Everything
Efficiency metrics tell part of the story. But Mr Lu points to something less quantifiable — and arguably more important: “I believe that a neutral party like SGBuildex actually helps to facilitate and foster trust.”
In construction, where disputes between contractors, subcontractors, and government agencies are common and costly, the source of data matters as much as the data itself. When information flows through a neutral intermediary rather than between parties with competing interests, it carries different weight.
Mr Ho connects this directly to outcomes: “When data is shared and trusted, disputes reduce significantly.”
Fewer disputes mean fewer delays, fewer legal escalations, and stronger working relationships — benefits that are difficult to put a number on, but easy to appreciate in practice.
Would They Recommend It?
Ms Ng’s verdict: “I would recommend SGBuildex to fellow contractors. It is a practical enabler for more structured data exchange, better connectivity across stakeholders, and a more efficient workflow.”
Her turn of phrase — “practical enabler” — is one worth sitting with. Not a silver bullet, not a complete transformation of how construction works; but a concrete, demonstrable improvement in the infrastructure that underpins daily operations. For an industry that has long relied on manual processes and fragmented tools, that kind of practical progress is exactly what’s needed.
Conclusion: The Cost of the Status Quo
The four leaders featured in this case study work for different firms, at different scales, with different project portfolios. But they share a common diagnosis and a common conclusion.
Unstructured data has a cost. Manual submissions drain skilled professionals of hours that could be spent on site. Fragmented communication creates disputes that could be avoided. And a tool exists, right now, that addresses all of it.
For contractors still spending two to four hours per submission on manual formatting and consolidation, the question isn’t whether SGBuildex could help — it’s how much longer the status quo can be justified.
🎬 Watch the Full Video
Hear directly from Gerald Ho, Benjamin Lee, Veronica Ng, and Andy Lu, in their own words. Watch the full video case study to see how SGBuildex is reshaping all forms of data workflows across Singapore’s construction industry — and what it could mean for your firm.
▶ Watch the Video Case Study Now
Explore how SGBuildex can reduce your submission burden and improve data connectivity across stakeholders: https://www.dextech.ai/our-dexes/sgbuildex/
