Anthony Day, Jacob Boersma, and Jan Willem Santing joined Constructrr in 2019 to discuss smart buildings, BIM, blockchain, and real-estate data. Anthony set the scale of the challenge early: “In reality, the technology is about 20% of the problem.” He placed the remaining work with people, process, governance, operating models, and the willingness to change how organizations work together.
A connected platform can move information. It cannot give participants a reason to trust, share, or reuse that information.
Technical feasibility is not business transformation
Anthony Day distinguished a proof of concept from implementation and scale. A team could show that a sensor connected, a transaction was recorded, or a prototype worked. The harder work began when multiple systems, suppliers, buildings, and decision-makers had to use the process.
He also noted that a single company's problem may not need blockchain. A database and application connections may be enough. The technology choice becomes more relevant when many parties need to contribute to a shared process and no one system reaches all of them.
Reuse depends on the quality of the first record
The guests described building information that was no longer used after construction, then measured or recreated for leasing and other lifecycle needs. They argued that selected BIM outputs could pass into later workflows through controlled access and system connections.
Jan Willem Santing offered a related caution: poor information remains poor when it is carried into another system. A timestamp or shared platform can preserve a weak record without making it accurate. The first user has to capture information clearly enough for the next user to understand and verify it.
Jacob Boersma then described Axiom as a real-estate data-sharing platform that was still developing from an earlier prototype. The 2019 concept used controlled source data and verification records so participants could share trustworthy information while retaining control of their own data. At that stage, the platform's proposed value remained an aim, not a result measured across a real-estate portfolio.
A platform needs enough willing participants
Anthony Day called this a minimum viable ecosystem. Before choosing a platform, the team needs a valuable multi-party workflow, enough participants to make the connection useful, and a reason each participant benefits from joining.
Transparency can complicate that decision. The guests observed that organizations may want access to other parties' information while protecting their own commercial position. Governance has to address who contributes, who can see the record, who verifies it, and what value each party receives.
Where information is checked or recreated across organizations, compare the first record with what the next participant needs to accept it. Missing ownership, weak source data, or an incentive conflict should be resolved before the team adds another platform.
A connected system earns its place when the data can be trusted, the operating rules are clear, and the people involved have a reason to use it together.
