Digital records aren't just paper on a screen. They're a weapon.

21 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this presentation, William Doyle MRICS argues that digital records have become more critical than ever. He outlines three key points: (1) Digitalisation shifts records from reactive, paper‑based processes to proactive tools for forecasting, risk identification, and mitigation on projects. (2) Maintaining a single source of truth—accurate, up‑to‑date site records—underpins the trust model championed by the NEC and enhances collaboration among clients, contractors, and suppliers. (3) Linking site records with other systems such as contract management and programme tools creates powerful new capabilities, allowing data to be used in innovative ways that were previously unimagined.

Chapters

The way we capture records has changed, but how important they are, it's not. They are more important than ever. Digitalization has allowed us to do more with records, move away from reactive paper-based processes, instead be proactive, use it for forecasting, understanding risk, and mitigating those risks to projects. Secondly, records are important. Having one source of the truth is vital to all these projects. Having proper site records and projects has built on that foundation of trust that the NEC is famous for, and allow us to better collaborate as clients and contractors and suppliers. And my third key point is that we should combine this data. We should link our site records with other systems, contract management tools, programme tools. Doing that is an incredibly powerful offering, allows us to use that data in ways that we've not even thought about before.