From Paper to Platform: Demystifying Digital Construction Management for Gas and Electric Utilities

For many gas and electric utilities, the transition from a completed design to actual field construction is still trapped in a world of clipboards, paper forms, and manual data entry. This disconnect creates blind spots, delays project closeouts, and introduces compliance risks. Updating systems of record with accurate asset and other construction data can take months and, in some cases, years. That also compromises the heavy investment electric utilities have put into operational systems like ADMS, which require accurate, timely data to run effectively. Digital Construction Management (DCM) bridges this gap, establishing a single, real-time digital platform that connects field crews with the back office to automatically capture high-accuracy asset data, scan barcodes, and track progress as it happens.

In this session, we will break down the foundational value proposition of DCM—why it is becoming an industry standard and how it fundamentally transforms utility infrastructure delivery.

To ground these concepts, Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. (MDU) will share its digital transformation journey. MDU initially adopted DCM to modernize its gas construction workflows, replacing paper with real-time data to streamline asset documentation and close projects faster. Recognizing that field construction challenges are universal, MDU seamlessly expanded the exact same digital platform to its electric business. Presenters will provide a "101-style" introduction to DCM capabilities, share lessons learned during implementation, and demonstrate how a single platform can be tailored for a single commodity or scaled to unify both gas and electric operations.