Progress capture and data quality top concerns in Eleco and SymTerra planning survey

Progress capture, reporting and data quality is the most common barrier to keeping a construction programme in step with site activity, according to a poll of more than 200 planners and senior leaders published by Eleco on 6 November.

The software company asked planners and senior construction leaders across multiple sectors what their biggest challenge was in keeping the programme aligned with what is happening on site, as part of a joint webinar with site-reporting platform SymTerra. Eleco said 30% of respondents put progress capture, reporting and data quality first, making it the most frequently cited issue across the survey.

Four in ten respondents pointed to either progress reporting or information flow problems, Eleco said. Both planners and senior leaders ranked confidence in project reporting among their top concerns.

Gerry Kelliher, Managing Director of Eleco UK, said the findings matched conversations with Asta Vision customers. "At the end of the day, it's progress visibility that helps to deliver programmes on time or even ahead of a schedule," he said.

Findings by role

Eleco said the responses differed by organisation type. Between 40% and 50% of main contractor responses focused on programme visibility, progress reporting and obtaining reliable site updates.

Around half of consultant and project controls responses centred on data accuracy, reporting quality and planned-versus-actual performance, the company said. Specialist contractors and MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) firms were more likely to raise coordination, with about one-third citing subcontractor, trade or supply-chain dependencies as the biggest obstacle to programme alignment.

Clients, developers and owners showed more interest in understanding programme impacts and supporting strategic decisions than in site-level reporting processes, according to Eleco.

The company said the evidence did not support a simple split between planners and leadership. Senior leaders mentioned change, delay and sequencing proportionally more often, while planners mentioned workload, supply-chain constraints and programme adoption somewhat more often.

John Ryan, Director of SymTerra, said most of those surveyed had an information problem rather than a planning problem. "The programme is only as good as the last update from site, and that update is usually late, vague, or both," he said.

The panel

The webinar included a panel discussion with Brendan Johnston, Planning Director at McLaren Construction Group, Dave Shaw of Montel Civil Engineering and a former Associate Director at AECOM, named in Eleco's panel write-up as Ben Fitzgerald. It was chaired by Peter Jaworski, Head of Sales at Eleco UK, and Ryan.

In Eleco's write-up of the panel, Fitzgerald said reports are not the evidence, and that teams had stopped arguing about what they think is happening on site and started talking about the facts.

The integration behind the webinar

The survey follows the release in March 2026 of a first iteration of an integration between Eleco's Asta planning software and SymTerra, built on the new Asta Vision Plus API. Eleco said users can keep programme data up to date through manual synchronisation or a scheduled monthly refresh.

Eleco describes SymTerra as capturing what happens on site, including conversations, photos, inspections, delays and daily records. SymTerra says its platform has been used on more than 1,000 projects and lets site teams log reports, photos and observations from a phone, including offline.

Eleco plc said it launched Asta Vision Plus, its API-led product, during the first half of 2026. In October it released Asta 2026.3 in the UK and Ireland, an update to Asta Powerproject and Asta Vision that adds a native dashboard framework within Asta Vision, native Primavera P6 interoperability add-ins, expanded API capabilities and webhook notifications.

Eleco's position

Eleco plc, which describes itself as a specialist international provider of software and related services to the built environment, reported annualised recurring revenue of about £35.5m at 30 June 2026, up 16% from £30.7m a year earlier. Headline total revenue for the six months to 30 June 2026 rose 8% to about £19.9m, with recurring revenue at £16.9m, or 85% of the total. Cash at 30 June 2026 stood at £15.4m.

The company is the subject of a recommended cash offer from Avocet Bidco Limited, a vehicle of private equity firm Accel-KKR, at 235p a share, valuing its issued and to be issued share capital at about £207.6m. Shareholders voted in favour of the scheme at a Court Meeting and General Meeting on 27 October 2026.

Completion remains subject to conditions including the Court sanctioning the scheme at the Sanction Hearing.