Procore Breaks Down Construction Data Silos with OpenSharing

Construction industry data has long been scattered across the systems of designers, general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and owners, creating a classic "data silo" problem. Procore is attempting to change this through OpenSharing, enabling construction analytics to be built on cross-organizational, cross-system data.

The Data Dilemma in Construction

Construction projects are inherently multi-party collaborations, but each party uses different software, data formats, and permission systems. Design data lives in BIM tools, schedules and costs in project management systems, field records in mobile apps, and financial data in ERP. Data is rarely centralized, making it difficult for analytics to cover the full picture of a project.

The direct consequence of this fragmentation: decision-makers often see partial reports rather than a global view, cross-project comparisons are hard to perform, and historical data is difficult to accumulate into reusable experience. Procore's motivation for proposing OpenSharing is precisely to solve the fundamental problem of "data not being in one place."

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is the core digital carrier of the design phase in construction. It is based on 3D models that associate component geometry, material properties, construction sequences, and operational parameters. BIM tools (such as Revit, ArchiCAD, Tekla) are typically led by designers, but their data formats (such as IFC, RVT) have a natural gap with project management and cost accounting systems. IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) is an open standard that attempts to bridge this gap, maintained by the buildingSMART organization, aiming to enable model data exchange between different BIM software. However, IFC mainly covers design and geometric information, with limited expressive capability for dynamic data such as schedules, costs, and on-site quality and safety—one of the deep reasons why construction data is difficult to truly aggregate at the analytics layer.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems in construction companies typically handle finance, procurement, contracts, and human resources management. Common products include SAP, Oracle, and specialized ERPs for the construction industry. Cost data, subcontractor settlements, and material procurement records for construction projects are mostly stored in ERP, while schedule and field data exist in project management or mobile applications. ERP and project management systems are often connected through custom interfaces or manual exports, resulting in poor real-time performance and inconsistent standards, which prevents costs and schedules from being aligned in the same analytical view. The value of an open sharing layer like OpenSharing partly lies in allowing financial data from ERP and project execution data to converge at the analytics layer, without forcibly replacing enterprises' existing ERP systems.

What Problems OpenSharing Solves

The core idea of OpenSharing is to establish an open data sharing layer that allows construction data from different sources to be aggregated and used for analytics under controlled conditions. It does not require all participants to migrate to the same platform, but instead connects dispersed data through standardized interfaces.

For Procore, this positioning has practical significance: the value of construction analytics lies not in how rich single-point data is, but in whether data across dimensions such as schedule, cost, quality, and safety can be viewed together. OpenSharing allows the analytics layer to simultaneously consume data from both within and outside the Procore platform, thereby supporting more complete project insights.

Data Sovereignty in the context of the construction industry refers to each participant's control over their own data, including deciding the scope, permissions, and purposes under which data is shared. Construction projects involve multiple parties such as general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and owners, with complex contractual relationships, and data often contains commercially sensitive information (such as quotations, profit margins, and subcontract terms). Therefore, cross-organizational data sharing cannot simply equate to "data centralization"; it requires fine-grained permission controls, audit trails, and compliance frameworks. The design philosophy of an open sharing layer is to let data flow within boundaries agreed upon by participants, with sharing parties retaining the right to withdraw and restrict usage. This aligns with the spirit of data protection regulations such as the EU GDPR and is also a prerequisite for construction companies to be willing to participate in ecosystem collaboration.

Significance for Construction Analytics

Once cross-organizational data is connected, the capability boundaries of construction analytics will expand significantly. Project-level cost and schedule deviations can be identified at an earlier stage, comparative analysis across project portfolios becomes possible, and a foundation for accumulating industry-level benchmark data is established.

This direction also addresses the construction industry's concerns about data sovereignty—sharing does not mean giving up control; participants can exchange data under agreed permissions and scope. For construction companies long plagued by system fragmentation, an open sharing layer is more attractive than adopting yet another closed platform.

Implementation Still Faces Challenges

Advancing open data sharing in the construction industry will not happen overnight. Unifying data standards among participants, interface compatibility, and permission and compliance boundaries are all areas that require continuous refinement. Whether OpenSharing can be widely adopted depends on the willingness of ecosystem partners to participate and the integration costs in real projects.

From a trends perspective, digitalization in construction is moving from single-point tools toward data collaboration, and Procore's OpenSharing is a representative attempt in this direction. Its ultimate value will be tested by analytical outcomes in real projects.

One-line Summary

Procore launches OpenSharing to break down cross-organizational data silos in the construction industry through an open sharing layer.

Paragraph Summary

Construction industry data has long been dispersed across designers' BIM tools, general contractors' project management systems, field mobile apps, and enterprise ERPs, creating classic data silos that leave decision-makers with only partial reports, make cross-project comparisons difficult, and prevent historical experience from accumulating. Procore's OpenSharing does not require all parties to migrate to a single platform; instead, it establishes an open data sharing layer through standardized interfaces, aggregating cross-organizational and cross-system data under controlled conditions to support comprehensive analysis across schedule, cost, quality, safety, and other dimensions. This direction addresses the industry's concerns about data sovereignty, but implementation remains constrained by ecosystem collaboration challenges such as unifying data standards, interface compatibility, and compliance boundaries. Its value will ultimately be tested by analytical outcomes in real projects.