In a construction environment, real-time data is becoming the invisible scaffolding behind smart decision-making. At the center of this shift is Deepika Dayalan, an experienced project controls expert
whose work integrates on-site data flows into construction schedules and executive dashboards.
Over her career, Dayalan has built a reputation for making field-to-office data integration functionally useful. She has led initiatives that connect field reporting tools directly to platforms like Primavera P6, ensuring that updates from job sites, daily logs, inspections, and delay notices feed directly into the broader planning ecosystem. She earned recognition as a core scheduling and project controls expert for deploying real-time data workflows in construction planning environments.
This direct link between site and schedule has increased forecast accuracy by more than 30% across several large-scale infrastructure and municipal projects. She also enabled proactive intervention on emerging issues through real-time data dashboards, helping teams prevent cost overruns of up to $900K across active contracts.
Manual data entry has dropped by 40%, and in-field mobile reporting tools have shortened the time between data collection and analysis, resulting in reduced data lags between field teams and office planners.
At a regional pumping station modernization, mobile capture of daily conditions helped quickly flag site conditions and delays, triggering timely adjustments to the schedule. At a high-security facility retrofit, her integration of subcontractor field data into dashboard views ensured federal oversight benchmarks were met with minimal friction. And during a water infrastructure upgrade for a U.S. utility agency, she managed the flow of verified field data to keep critical path tracking aligned across multiple stakeholders.
If one has to quantify the milestones, on three consecutive projects, actual field progress was tracked within 95% of planned forecasts. Embedding real-time issue tagging into reporting cut RFI turnaround times by 25%. Schedule updates, once bi-weekly, are now weekly, enabling better milestone control.
The transition wasn't without resistance. They had to unify disparate sources of field data (spreadsheets, photos, verbal reports) into a centralized platform for consistent analysis and address adoption resistance by field crews by conducting tool training sessions and simplifying user interfaces for mobile reporting tools.
Beyond implementation, Dayalan has taken on the role of educator and advocate. She's contributed to internal knowledge hubs and blogs, like "Field to Forecast: Why Real-Time Data Matters in Scheduling," and has been a presenter in-house knowledge series:“Digitizing Field Feedback Loops for Smarter Scheduling”
She has also been a webinar guest in Data-Driven Decisions in Capital Projects, and a case-study contributor to "Real-Time Insights in Municipal Infrastructure Projects” (internal distribution).
Looking at the current trends, she says, “Real-time data is no longer a 'nice to have ', it's a critical input in today's fast-moving construction projects.” She believes real-time data, when used effectively, allows teams to shift from reactive to predictive project management. “The most valuable insights aren’t just about what happened, but what’s about to happen, and real-time field data gives us that power,” she adds.
She sees the following trends shaping the near future of field data in construction: integrated field-to-office ecosystems, predictive analytics becoming standard, and the rise of contextual dashboards that link field conditions with impact assessments on schedule and cost.
Her advice for teams? Start small. "Digitize one field process at a time. Once teams experience the value of immediate visibility, scaling up becomes a natural next step."
In a sector where delays and cost overruns are often accepted as norms, Dayalan is pushing a different narrative, one where smarter, faster, and more predictable construction becomes a norm. Through the lens of real-time data, she's helping project teams trade guesswork for clarity and reaction for readiness.
