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Inside Skanska's Tech Stack Problem: 27,000 Employees, Hundreds of Tools, One Mission
Owen Drury
October 08, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes
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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Inside Skanska's Tech Stack Problem: 27,000 Employees, Hundreds of Tools, One Mission
A project team in Boston was drowning in software. Not because they lacked training. Not because they resisted technology. But because they were required to use 18 different tools daily just to maintain project information.
Duplicate data entry between contractor and client systems. Constant context switching between platforms. More time managing software than managing construction.
This wasn't an edge case. It was a symptom of a deeper problem spreading across the industry.
Danielle O'Connell and Michael Zeppieri see this pattern repeatedly in their roles leading Skanska's emerging technologies team. O'Connell runs the tech enablement program. Zeppieri came to construction through the Army Corps of Engineers and aerospace software development. What they've discovered challenges a core assumption in construction tech: more innovation doesn't always mean better outcomes.
Skanska field team in action. Credit: Skanska
TL;DR
One Skanska team used 18 tools daily just to manage project data.
Company-wide: 200–300 tools and growing tech fatigue.
Decentralized adoption = chaos, not innovation.
Skanska’s new mission: consolidate, not add.
Pilots capped at 3–6 months to kill “zombie apps.”
Success now means integration over features.
Vendors: replace tools, don’t add them.
Builders: innovation = subtraction.
The 18 Tool Reality
The project wasn't trying to be cutting edge. The team wasn't experimenting with new technology for the sake of it.
"It was because there were 18 tools between the Skanska systems and the client systems that they were required to touch and use daily to maintain their project information," O'Connell explains.
Duplicate data entry across systems. No integration between platforms. Project managers spend more time managing software than managing construction.
This is tech sprawl in an exaggerated form.
How Hundreds of Tools Accumulated
Skanska operates with approximately 27,000 employees globally. Their software portfolio sits somewhere between 200 and 300 tools.
The accumulation wasn't a strategy. It was the inevitable result of decentralization.
Multiple entry points for software adoption meant business units could respond quickly to market conditions. A project team in New York could pilot a tool without waiting for enterprise approval. A superintendent in Boston could experiment with field management software that solved an immediate problem.
The flexibility created agility. It also created chaos.
Industry experts now call this the "accordion effect". Companies push to adopt point solutions with the latest features, eventually creating a tangled ecosystem of disconnected applications. Construction technology executives are finally questioning whether new solutions can actually fit into tech stacks they've already invested in.
The pattern repeats across the industry. One problem, one tool. Repeat 200 times.
Field teams facing fragmented systems. Credit: Skanska
Field Teams Drowning in Software
Project teams send contradictory signals.
They want to innovate. They want new capabilities. They read about competitors using advanced technology and ask why Skanska isn't doing the same.
They're also overwhelmed by the volume of change hitting them daily.
Project management carries the heaviest burden. Client requirements add another layer of complexity. When owners mandate their own project management systems alongside Skanska's platforms, teams face constant context switching and duplicate data entry.
The result is what O'Connell calls "tech fatigue."
Skanska now has an effort underway focused specifically on reducing the burden on field teams. The mission isn't about adding technology. It's about subtraction.
The Zombie Application Problem
Pilot programs created another layer of dysfunction.
Teams would sign agreements to pilot tools on projects. The understanding was simple: test the software, provide feedback, make a decision.
In practice, pilots lasted as long as the project. Two years later, applications remained in use whether they delivered value or not. Teams forgot about them. No one made adoption decisions. The software became what O'Connell describes as "zombie applications."
The team now defines specific pilot durations:
Three months for lightweight tools
Five to six months for complex implementations
Clear alignment with project phases
A pilot that starts during demolition but won't be useful until steel goes up is a wasted pilot. The tool needs to be tested during the phase where it actually provides value.
Timing matters as much as features.
The Consolidation Imperative
Research from ADAPT shows that 68% of technology leaders are planning to consolidate their vendor landscape. A majority target a 20% reduction in vendor count.
The construction industry is following the same trajectory.
Skanska built a tracking system this year for all tools under evaluation or in pilot. The system answers a critical question: do we already have solutions that address this problem?
When requests come in for new software, the response often surprises teams. We've already evaluated three tools that solve that exact issue. Would you like to pilot one of those instead?
The approach shifts the conversation from acquisition to utilization.
The team is also mapping hundreds of tools to business capabilities. The exercise identifies redundancies and asks harder questions about replacement rather than addition.
Engineering leader balancing tech and operation. Credit: Skanska
Key filtering criteria now include:
Does this solve a problem we haven't already addressed?
Can this replace multiple existing tools?
Will this integrate with our current platforms?
Does the timing align with project schedules?
The bar for new tools keeps rising.
The Procurement Paradox
Large enterprise buyers want standardization. Procurement teams push for enterprise deals that simplify vendor management and reduce the number of contracts.
Decentralized organizations need flexibility. Regional offices want autonomy to select tools that match their specific needs.
These competing pressures create what Zeppieri describes as "the procurement versus what we really need conversation."
The tension extends to how software companies operate. Startups want explosive growth. Once they secure a deal, they push for aggressive expansion and extensive contracts.
Construction moves at a different pace. Tools need field testing. Pilots need to align with project schedules. A superintendent won't adopt new software two weeks before a project completes.
The friction between software industry expectations and construction reality remains constant.
When Pilots Fail (And Why That Matters)
Not every successful pilot leads to enterprise adoption.
Some tools work brilliantly in specific contexts but don't scale across all market segments or project types. The technology might be excellent for high-rise construction but irrelevant for infrastructure work.
Duration isn't always the right metric for pilot success. Outcomes matter more.
Sometimes unsuccessful pilots deliver as much value as successful ones. When teams invest time and budget in testing technology, confirmation bias creeps in. There's pressure for pilots to succeed because competitors are using similar tools or because the team heard about it on a podcast.
Failed pilots provide critical intelligence:
Where the technology has limitations
Which use cases don't translate from demo to reality
What gaps exist between marketing promises and field performance
How the tool performs under real project constraints
The innovation team runs quarterly knowledge sharing sessions focused on different technology segments. They emphasize sharing unsuccessful pilots as much as successful ones.
The information shapes thinking about vendor roadmaps and guides future evaluation criteria.
Digital tools meeting the jobsite. Credit: Procore
What Vendors Need to Understand
The pitch of "just one more tool" died years ago.
Enterprise buyers want to know how a solution replaces existing tools, not how it adds to the stack. Integration capabilities matter more than standalone features. Tools that can't share data seamlessly with existing platforms create the exact problem companies are trying to solve.
The new baseline questions:
What can we remove if we adopt this?
How does this integrate with our existing stack?
Can this consolidate functionality from multiple tools?
What's the total cost of ownership, including training and support?
Timing and project alignment matter more than vendors realize. Enterprise implementations need to align with project start dates, not vendor sales targets. Rolling out new tools to projects about to complete wastes everyone's time.
The pace mismatch between rapid growth expectations and deliberate construction timelines creates constant friction. Software companies need to understand that saying yes to a pilot is the beginning of a conversation, not the end of a sales cycle.
The Path Forward
More tools don't equal more innovation.
The focus at Skanska has shifted to making existing investments work harder. That means pushing incumbent platforms to deliver on features companies already pay for. It means shaping vendor roadmaps toward integration rather than feature bloat.
It means saying no more often.
For project teams managing 18 different tools, relief won't come from tool number 19. It will come from leaders who understand that real innovation sometimes means subtraction.
The Bottom Line
When 27,000 employees across hundreds of projects face tool overload, adding another point solution isn't the answer. The solution is consolidation, integration, and defending simplicity as aggressively as companies once pursued innovation.
For vendors, this means rethinking the pitch. For buyers, it means building the discipline to subtract before adding.
Watch the episode with Michael and Danielle here 👇👇👇
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