78.7% of AEC Firms Expect Scanning/Modeling Work to Increase

Washington D.C. — August 9, 2016 Despite swings in the global economic climate, strong growth is expected in the scanning and modeling market, as nearly 4 of 5 firms expect their business to expand in the next twelve months. This is just one of the critical findings in a new survey of the laser scanning and 3D modeling industry. Sent to over 5,500 firms, the survey illuminates crucial industry data including average project profit margin, scanning/modeling best practices, profit margin degraders, hardware and software market share and more.

According to the survey, which was produced by industry newsletter Workflow 4.0, many firms are not only forecasting growth, but expect a substantial business expansion. 43% of respondents predict their work will increase between 21-100% within the next twelve months and 5.6% believe their business will double by next year.

Chris Scotton, CEO of ClearEdge3D, one of the sponsors of the survey, is not surprised by these results. “In conversations with our customers, nearly all say they are as busy as they’ve ever been, with some having to turn away work,” he said. “I think we are finally seeing an inflection point in the adoption of scanning and modeling in the AEC industry.”

Another important finding of the survey reveals the biggest profit margin degraders for AEC firms as long modeling hours and inefficient data processing. Almost 60% of companies point to one of these as their greatest profit margin killer. However, the survey notes that these are solvable problems and ranks software and hardware tools that help aid in creating workflow efficiencies.

The survey also uncovers the industry’s average profit margin on projects (a critical benchmark for any firm), the best practices AEC leaders deem most important to success, which hardware/software manufacturers dominate the market, and more.