In the fast-evolving world of engineering and construction, efficient project management is key to ensuring timely delivery, cost control, and quality execution. Wrench Solutions, under the leadership of Co-Founder & CEO Varghese Daniel, has been at the forefront of this transformation with its SmartProject platform. In this exclusive interview, Mr. Daniel shares insights on Wrench’s journey, the impact of digitalization in the industry, global expansion, and how AI and automation are reshaping project management.
Wrench Solutions has built a strong reputation in the engineering and construction sector with its SmartProject platform. Can you share the journey behind its development and how it has evolved to meet the changing needs of the industry?
Wrench has always been about solving real-world problems with software technology; we’re not a software company per se. We began in manufacturing, whereas a mechanical engineer I saw inefficiencies which could be improved with digital technology and although the response was encouraging, we hit a ceiling quickly because the manufacturing industry was already quite automated and standardised. So, we pivoted to EPC, which is also process-driven but much less standardised and the opportunity for improvement is higher, around 80-90% compared to the 5-10% in manufacturing. That’s what we’re currently focussed on and even today we’ve barely scratched the surface. We understand the industry’s problems from the inside, we connect to our customers as problem-solvers not software vendors and with that kind of reputation it’s become second nature to keep pace with both the needs of the EPC industry and digital tech as it evolves.
How does SmartProject address key challenges in project management, and what cost and efficiency benefits does it offer?
Our motto is Zero Tolerance to Delay because that is the industry’s main challenge, in fact over 90% of projects end up delayed. SmartProject is the embodiment of that motto. Most delays start out as minor deviations and SmartProject can identify the problematic deviations – not every deviation turns into a delay – and brings them to the attention of someone who will take action and course-correct and prevent the delay. Another key challenge is manpower, sourcing it and managing it, and SmartProject offers features like automated workflows that greatly reduce the dependency on manpower and that directly impacts the costs because you don’t need to hire more people and the people you already have can do double or more the work in a fraction of the time, without being overworked or underused. Those are just two examples, there are many more.
What major trends are shaping digital transformation in engineering and construction, and how is Wrench adapting?
I’m seeing a clear shift towards integrated solutions at the enterprise level, with companies starting to move away from their multiple generic and/or siloed applications working in parallel but separately, which was the norm until recently. There’s also more openness to technology overall. For example, 3D modeling has been in use for many years in plant design but is only now being adopted by infra and construction verticals and that opens the door to more efficient digitization and the subsequent benefits, and since our solutions are already set up for it, we’re delighted by this trend. I’m also seeing rising concern around wastage and data accuracy and a desire to increase automation at the process level – almost mirroring how manufacturing is set up – and that’s encouraging as we have roots in that space and any change in that direction will greatly benefit the entire EPC ecosystem.
Wrench has expanded across 35+ countries. What key factors have driven this growth, and what are your focus markets?
Our expansion has been mostly organic and driven by relationships rather than strategies. The goal is to take Wrench to every corner of the globe, but we’re people-driven at our core and so we do things a bit differently. Like, we prioritized building trust with customers over quick profits and that became our selling point, we went out of our way to deliver user satisfaction and so first-hand recommendations and testimonials became our USP, and now our ability to leverage multiple smaller partners in various geographies across the world rather than one mega partner with global reach has become our growth policy. You could say our priorities are not traditional and neither are our methods. But we know the market, we know what we’re doing, and we’ll get where we want to be – the Wrench way.
How is Wrench leveraging AI and automation to enhance project monitoring, collaboration, and decision-making?
We started with one big advantage, namely, our system was already integrated, and all documents and their native applications and teams were already connected in the cloud. So we were able to smoothly incorporate what we call the Wrench AI-driven Advisor or WAA which helps users make decisions more confidently because the decisions are based on accurate data expertly analyzed by an intelligent system. WAA is easy to use; you ask a question, like in ChatGPT, and you’ll get an answer in actionable language. In terms of monitoring, WAA is nothing short of a gamechanger; you needn’t even ask the advisor to check this or that, as you may not even know what to look for, instead the advisor will itself flag potential problems and suggest actions and you just select which action to take. Of course there’s a lot more to it, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
What role does Wrench Academy play in bridging the project management knowledge gap for your clients?
The role has evolved. Wrench Academy began as a knowledge dissemination hub at a time when the acceptance and awareness of digital technology in EPC was low. I wanted it to be a place where industry experts could deliver advice and tips about best practices and project management methods to young professionals and students. During the pandemic as WFH came into play we started catering to Wrench users who wanted to learn how to use Wrench SmartProject properly and get more value from it, and with our problem-solving approach we found a sweet spot between software effectiveness training and domain knowledge transfer. Right now, its a mix of the two and it remains to be seen what role the Academy will play in the future especially as the EPC industry is changing quite rapidly post pandemic and also, we have emerging technologies like AI which may transform the workforce landscape yet again.
