What makes information management successful at scale?

One of David Webborn’s greatest career lessons is that information management only works when it solves practical problems for the people closest to operations or construction. “It's a familiar pain point across most large programs,” explains David. “There's normally a long list of suppliers and contractors that produce and share information in different ways. Then it ultimately comes down to one person or a select few who must carefully stitch it all together at the end, usually under time pressure.”  

Research shows that’s where quality slips, costs rise and confidence drops: bad project data results in poor decisions more than 50% of the time. 

“I start by figuring out what decisions the information needs to support, and for how long,” explains David. “If the end user is an operations team, they need consistent asset information they can trust: dimensions, materials, condition, inspection history, safety and security constraints.”  

Then the focus is on making it practical. It includes agreeing the minimum information requirements, the naming and classification rules, and the checks that prove it meets the standard. When users are empowered to validate data as they go and automate the handover of information into asset management systems, digital delivery becomes repeatable. That consistency is also the foundation for bigger ambitions like digital twins and AI, but it starts with getting the basics right.

Consistency turns data into results 

In framework delivery, a specific technical challenge is sometimes not the hardest part. The hard part is alignment: getting dozens of organizations to produce data in the same way, at the right time and with the right assurance. Without that common language, teams waste hours reconciling spreadsheets, models and reports, and operators inherit gaps they can’t risk.  

David has worked closely with the Environment Agency on its Digital Asset Data and Information and Creating Asset Management Capacity programs, where the goal is to receive reliable asset information from the supply chain in a form that can be ingested straight into asset management systems. Instead of manual rekeying or data re-entry, the owner can understand what an asset is and how it’s constructed, as well as how it should be operated and maintained. Critically, it's faster and there are fewer errors.  

This approach has been applied successfully to flood risk management projects such as Low Crosby Flood Risk Management Scheme, but sectors like defense and nuclear energy face the same pressures: assurance requirements, security constraints, long asset lives and complex interfaces. Digital standards empower teams to keep delivery moving while protecting safety, compliance and operational readiness. 

Make standards more usable with automation 

The best standards are the ones people can easily follow and apply. David focuses on building delivery routines that make compliance the easy option. This includes clear requirements and robust templates, with automated checks that flag issues early — reducing rework and giving clients confidence that what they’re receiving will work in operations. 

On projects such as Avon Riversides 2100, which is being delivered with Bristol City Council in partnership with the Environment Agency, David has mobilized a custom Common Data Environment from the ground up and used process automation to track and monitor information deliverables. He has also supported tools that check models against client CAD standards and extract structured asset data into database-ready formats for handover.  

These digital delivery workflows apply to more than deliverables and asset information. David has also defined a digital process for exchanging health, safety and environmental risk information across the project lifecycle, aligned to an international standard. The result is safer sites for program teams and local communities. For clients, there are fewer surprises at handover, as well as clearer accountability and safer operations, whether it’s a flood defense asset, a power facility or critical national infrastructure.