Data is fragile. Entering it is labor intensive, checking for quality is hard, reusing it is even harder. Take the example of something as simple as tracking progress of construction projects. Fairly simple forms with information fields such as project beginning date, estimated end date, percentage conclusion, resource allocation, funding status etc. But in reality, the process is heavily manual. Forms are often hand written taking days to process since the data needs to be re-entered, often manually again, in electronic format. The form then gets disseminated and the necessary action, such as release of funds for the next stage of the project, can finally take place. Some of these large projects, although primarily owned by a contractor, are eventually carried out by hundreds of sub-contractors. Once a subcontractor fails to deliver on deadline, this delay ripples through an entire Eco-system and often puts an overall project in jeopardy .
Now imagine that the data were tagged during submission using a technology like XBRL (eXtensibe Business Reporting Language). Everyone in the value chain, from the sub-contractors who are submitting the data and tracking their own progress, the contractors who own the overall project, the federal agencies who often fund these projects and the Banks who provide Bonds, can read and consume this data within minutes. Decisions are taken in minutes too. This can result is millions of dollars of savings for all involved, not to mention efficiency and transparency of the status of the projects.
The first step towards this was taken today by a consortium of companies under the leadership of USC Chico and technical backing from Apurba by proposing an XBRL-CET (Construction-Energy-Transportation) taxonomy.