Mr. Jensen, what do you like about your job as a digital transformation manager?

One of the best things about my job is solving problems for the customer. Just yesterday, I was sitting with a client and noticed that the architectural firm had drawn the wrong density into the model for a fire-resistant wall that would not live up to the fire rating in reality. It would have been costly if this mistake had actually carried over into the real building! I was able to change it quickly and my client was happy -that's the best feeling I can have in my job. Now I'm about to celebrate my tenth anniversary.

What are the reasons you've been with the company for so long?

I think the atmosphere here has something of a start-up. There are a lot of young people working here, we can do things as we see fit. This openness to new suggestions also attracts exciting new employees. I practically grew up with some of them in the company, and we have shaped the company together. Even when I started as an intern ten years ago, I was able to get involved and convince the managing director of Xella Scandinavia of my own idea after only a short time.

What idea was that?

In my second week at Xella, I virtually accelerated our digitization process: until then, in order to calculate the material prices, my colleagues manually typed in the designations for the individual building materials for every calculation. I thought, "this has to be easier," and found a way to save the names of the 40 or so different wall types so that you just had to select them correctly. That was then quickly implemented. I learnt then: if I recognize a problem in this company and find a solution, I can make a lot of difference here!

Today, as a digital transformation manager, you are responsible for the Xella units Denmark, Norway, and Sweden-Finland, and thus for the digitalization of construction planning. How did that come about?

I also later enjoyed getting involved in projects that would simplify our work. As a calculator, I wrote quotations for our building materials - at that time in 2015 I had a part in developing an estimating program. It worked still in 2D, but could be loaded with data much like BIM.
After working with that successfully, BIM came up as a strategic issue. We decided to make something out of it. How could we use BIM as a tool for ourselves and our customers? After some time, Xella asked me if I would like to manage these requests centrally - and I agreed. We were trying to implement the solutions of other countries, adapting an external piece of software and at last developing our own plugin to our current software.

Many competitors are still reluctant to use digital construction planning with BIM, even in the digital pioneer country of Denmark. Why is that?

Those who are used to working in 2D will not change of their own accord unless someone shows you what you are missing. Because if you only look at yourself, what you're doing probably looks good. I used to ask myself: why do I need this 3D? It wasn't until others pointed out to me that it can save a lot of time and avoid mistakes that I changed my mindset. BIM definitely offers a better way and you can make a lot out of it, if you know how to use it. But it needs people who have experience in it and can take you by the hand. The leap from 2D to 3D is too big to make alone. You need expertise from outside to help you get moving: we also hired experts to get us moving. For example, my colleagues Tobias Koppel and Salih Osman, who drive our BIM development with their expertise in a much more technically proficient way than I could.