BAM joins forces with nPlan to launch AI forecasting

BAM has become the launch partner for nPlan Portfolio, making it the first contractor worldwide to utilise nPlan’s AI and big data technology to quantify and manage schedule risk across a portfolio of projects.

nPlan Portfolio includes a summary that displays the overall health score of a portfolio (Photo: nPlan)

By employing nPlan’s latest product, BAM will oversee an initial portfolio of 50 projects while collaborating closely with nPlan to shape the future roadmap for the product. The technology provided by nPlan is said to enable BAM to analyze the entire portfolio through an AI lens, offering impartial insights into the potential schedule and cost risks and facilitating proactive preventive measures.

The nPlan Portfolio includes a summary that displays the overall health score of a portfolio, the number of delayed projects, and the health of individual projects within the portfolio. Users can quickly view the workload of the portfolio by month, including planned work and estimated time using nPlan’s AI to identify bottlenecks.

The dashboard also includes widgets that show project delays and overall progress. Additionally, the platform highlights risk groups or themes that contribute to delays in the portfolio. This feature is said to enable PMO professionals identify opportunities for improvement and make valuable interventions to drive organizational growth.

By utilizing nPlan’s machine learning capabilities on a portfolio level, nPlan says that this will allow BAM to identify areas where efficiency can be improved, and opportunities can be realised. Ultimately, hopes are that this will lead to more cost-effective outcomes for clients, especially during a period of rising cost pressures and funding limitations.

Dev Amratia, CEO of nPlan, commented, “Accurately forecasting and effectively de-risking a single large-scale project is extremely challenging - doing the same for a whole portfolio of projects is an order of magnitude more difficult. It is also arguably an order of magnitude more important, because unrecognised portfolio risk has led to the demise of many contractors–and the loss of the jobs they provided–over the years.

“nPlan made its name solving the forecasting and risk identification problem for single projects - and we’re incredibly excited that we now also have a system which can enable portfolio managers to solve the portfolio risk problem on behalf of their organisations. This was a problem which many people said was a fact of life within the construction industry, but we’ve shown it can be addressed - and we’ll continue to work on the really thorny problems limiting growth and development, because ultimately that’s what gets us out of bed in the morning.”