The construction industry in South Africa faces challenges with the current payment system used to manage progress payments. Contractors often experience delays in progress payments for completed works. These late payments stem from the improper management of progress payment procedures, namely, information, communication, and collaboration, as well as corruption. This study proposes the integration of common data environment (CDE) as it has emerged central in managing information, improving communication and collaboration in a transparent manner. However, the implementation of CDE is facing challenges in the industry. Therefore, the study aimed at developing a model based on the implementation of CDE to uphold efficiency in the management of payment systems for progress payments. A systematic review was conducted to examine the enabling factors, characteristics of CDE in managing progress payment challenges, and benefits of integrating a payment system in a CDE platform. Furthermore, the study utilised questionnaire surveys to purposively collect data from construction professionals who implemented CDE in their projects. From 201 valid questionnaire responses, a structural equation model was developed; testing for the reliability, validity, model fit, and hypotheses was conducted using AMOS and ADANCO. The findings revealed that enabling factors such as quality technology and quality assurance team are the strongest enablers, followed by training and policy. The findings further predict that CDE integration will improve the management of the payment system by 0.589. The study provides theoretical and practical guidance for researchers, policy makers, and construction professionals seeking to strengthen CDE-based payment system frameworks in South Africa. Furthermore, it is recommended to adopt the method of questionnaire surveys and SEM to validate variables and establish their influence on one another to improve generalisation.
Malomane et al. (Fri,) studied this question.