Scaling Predictable Portfolio Delivery

408 Days Saved: Redefining Data Center Portfolio Delivery

Global demand for digital infrastructure is surging. With the rise of AI, cloud computing, and streaming, the data center construction market is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 10% through 2030, with hyperscale builds accounting for the majority of that demand. By 2027, hyperscale data centers are expected to reach over 1,200 globally, nearly doubling from 2022 levels.

THE PORTFOLIO

Project:
Hyperscale
data centers

Client:
Confidential

Capacity:
120+ MW

Locations:
7 sites, 6 countries

Speed alone doesn’t ensure success. As programs scale from one to seven – or seventy – projects, the operational complexity grows exponentially. Leading developers now face a new challenge: how to deliver dozens of high-stakes projects simultaneously, with consistency, predictability, and financial control. Let's take a look at how XYZ Reality supported a global leader in data centers in overcoming exactly that challenge.

enterprise-level Results:
Measurable, repeatable, impact

Importantly, ROI was calculated after deducting all XYZ Reality service costs. Even with conservative assumptions, the portfolio achieved a 10X return – a level of impact rarely seen in capital delivery programs.

408 total
days saved

by accelerating project delivery through SPI recovery and targeted mitigation

$135M overall impact

accelerated revenue, reduced operating and third-party costs, rework avoidance

10x return on investment

achieved, demonstrating outsized portfolio impact

$92M saved

by driving efficiency and safeguarding project operating costs

$27M rework avoided

by detecting and eliminating errors early

$16M in extra savings

after accounting for the cost of XYZ

Portfolio management at this scale comes with structural pain points – many of them hidden beneath the surface, masked by optimistic reporting and delivery complexity:

Commercial exposure from delayed RFS milestones
Unsubstantiated delays and inflated EOT claims
Fragmented contractor performance across jurisdictions
Inconsistent reporting and unreliable progress metrics.

The bigger issue? These risks are often unseen until it’s too late. Pressure to deliver under tight timelines and strained supply chains makes it even harder for teams to track accurately, challenge assumptions, or intervene early.

For mission-critical infrastructure where every day of delay can cost hundreds of thousands in lost revenue, the status quo simply doesn’t scale.

Client background

The client is a confidential global operator of mission-critical data centers, managing a rapidly expanding portfolio of high-performance digital infrastructure. With an aggressive expansion roadmap, they committed to seven major construction projects in six European countries, totaling 120+ MW of capacity.

These projects represent the backbone of global cloud and enterprise services, with uptime and availability expectations at the highest possible tier.

Their team was technically strong and deeply experienced – but the stakes had changed. Every day lost to construction delays meant deferred revenue, idle assets, and mounting reputational risk. Managing this type of complexity – across jurisdictions, contractors, and delivery methodologies – called for more than traditional project oversight.

The client needed a partner who could provide real-time visibility, enforce contractor accountability, and instil repeatable delivery discipline across the portfolio – primarily through progress tracking. While XYZ Reality’s engagement focused almost entirely on project control, broader adoption of quality assurance could have unlocked even greater results.

Challenge: Fragmentation, variance, and revenue at risk

Despite mature internal systems and experienced delivery teams, the client – like many modern project owners – often operated without full visibility. It’s a challenge we see across many of our partners’ projects: fragmented reporting and conflicting narratives from contractors make it difficult to see the true state of delivery until problems have already escalated.

Revenue slippage: Each missed RFS milestone delayed the monetization of high-value assets. With hundreds of thousands in monthly per-site revenue at stake, delivery overruns had a direct commercial impact.

Recurring delays and inflated EOT claims: Contractors submitted claims citing unforeseen delays, often with weak substantiation. The client lacked the evidence base to confidently challenge these or validate new timelines.

Inconsistent contractor performance: Each general contractor brought its own standards, reporting cadence, and schedule interpretation. The client’s teams were often left reconciling different views of reality across projects.

Opaque progress tracking: Progress reports frequently painted an optimistic picture, but site conditions told a different story. Without objective measurement, issues were often surfaced too late to avoid delays.

These challenges weren’t isolated
they mirrored broader industry trends. Research shows:

Up to 60% of data center construction projects

experience schedule overruns, and delays can escalate total project costs by up to 20%

Delays often cost developers over
$14m per month

led in part by fragmented, offline reporting systems that leave risks invisible until impact arrives.

What the client needed was not only problem resolution, but a repeatable system that surfaced risks early, enforced measurement discipline across projects, and eliminated surprises before they materialized.

Solution: A scalable model for delivery control

XYZ Reality was initially deployed on a single, high-priority project where early indicators suggested a risk to the scheduled RFS date. Within weeks of deployment, XYZ’s platform surfaced a 30% variance from baseline, prompting swift corrective action, contractor realignment, and ultimately, a 51-day acceleration in schedule. The results were unambiguous – and transformative.

While progress tracking remained the core service, XYZ also conducted quality checks across the projects. These interventions not only identified latent installation issues but also consistently drove clash detection and rework avoidance – reinforcing the intrinsic value of a proactive validation partner over a reactive capture tool.

Following this success, the client made the strategic decision to scale XYZ’s platform across six additional projects in their European delivery portfolio. This expansion marked a turning point: what began as a tactical engagement quickly evolved into a program-wide transformation.

XYZ’s solution delivered real-time, actionable insight and a new model for progress validation, contractor engagement, and strategic oversight.

“Once we saw what XYZ achieved on the first site, it was a no-brainer to expand. They gave us clarity, consistency, and control we hadn’t had before.”

Client Capital Projects Lead

Key components of XYZ’s solution:

EOT risk intelligence: XYZ helped defend against inflated contractor claims by combining captured site media and 4D model analysis to challenge their validity. In several cases, claims were disproven by demonstrating incomplete installs, missing deliveries, and inconsistent supply chain activity – backed by quantified variance and historical benchmarks that pointed to more achievable timelines.

Cross-project benchmarking and insights sharing: Lessons from one site (e.g., mitigation tactics, delay patterns, manpower strategies) were shared across the program – creating a delivery intelligence network that benefited the entire portfolio.

Site-to-board reporting: Weekly reporting packages distilled real-time site progress into clear, 15-minute updates for senior directors – creating executive alignment and faster decision-making.

Real-time SPI tracking and performance benchmarking: XYZ used its proprietary platform to calculate each project's Schedule Performance Index (SPI) before and after deployment. This became the foundation for assessing actual vs. forecasted delivery performance.

Optional QA insights (limited scope): Although not part of the formal scope, XYZ carried out targeted quality checks on select projects. These surfaced install deviations that, when caught early, reduced rework. A more systematic QA rollout would likely have driven further efficiency and assurance.

XYZ’s engagement redefined how the client managed capital delivery – shifting from reactive oversight to proactive, data-driven control at scale.

“This wasn’t just reporting – it was real-time project intelligence. For the first time, we could challenge assumptions with data and steer delivery with confidence.”

Client Program Director

A new standard for capital delivery

This engagement didn’t just solve delivery issues – it established a repeatable operating system for capital projects.

With XYZ Reality as their strategic partner, the client gained:

A portfolio-wide view of delivery health – allowing them to forecast issues and prioritize interventions.

A shared source of truth – creating alignment between field teams, contractors, and corporate leadership.

A scalable oversight model – ready to be replicated as the company grows its infrastructure footprint.

“The value wasn’t just in the platform – it was in the behavioral change it created. Teams became aligned, issues were actioned early, and delivery became measurable.”

Client-side stakeholder, anon

Conclusion

XYZ Reality didn’t just help a global data center operator deliver seven high-stakes projects on time – it gave them a framework to scale delivery excellence across their entire capital program. With construction risk now visible, quantifiable, and manageable, the client is equipped to move faster, smarter, and with greater confidence than ever before. As they look ahead, the opportunity to scale XYZ’s QA capabilities alongside progress tracking offers a clear path to even greater delivery performance.

This is what it means to turn unseen risk into actionable insight – and data into delivery.

Project-by-project impact overview

57 days saved through targeted mitigation after identifying a 30% variance from baseline.
Enabled early GC course correction and rapid SPI uplift.
Established the model for future rollouts.

59 days saved.
XYZ exposed a 9.68% actual variance (vs. GC-reported 1.3%) using live data.
Enabled leadership to take proactive action and restore schedule confidence.

48 days saved.
Identified slippage in Busbar and MEP scopes; supported GC double shift to recover.
SPI improved from 0.80 to 0.91.

57 days saved.
Flagged delays in CHW systems, containment, and OFCI scope.
Drove targeted handover recovery plans through room-by-room readiness tracking.

64 days saved.
Identified 25–30% fit-out delay, prompted GC to double workforce.
Delays reduced to ~5% before XYZ demobilized.

59 days saved.
Used cross-project benchmarking to refute a 15-month EOT claim, validating a 12-month delivery.

64 days saved.
XYZ uncovered the true cause of delays; disproved GC’s theft-related claim.
GC withdrew EOT, realigned efforts.

How Impact Was Measured

Delivering predictable outcomes at scale requires not only performance in the field, but also a transparent and rigorous approach to measurement. The portfolio-wide impact figures presented in this case study were derived from a structured ROI model combining client-provided financial data, industry benchmarks, and observed site performance improvements.

Inputs

Client-provided data: baseline project schedules, revenue per MW, operating costs per week, and portfolio size (7 projects, 120+MW).

Benchmark data: industry-standard rework rates and delay cost models, enhanced by XYZ Reality’s global rework dataset, which incorporates validated cost data across geographies and project types. This allowed us to model the true cost of rework more accurately than broad benchmarks.

XYZ Reality metrics: Schedule Performance Index (SPI) variance recovery, days saved per project, and quantified claims avoidance.

Methodology

Schedule acceleration – Days saved per project (40–64 days each) were captured by measuring SPI recovery before and after XYZ interventions. These were validated against revised RFS milestones.
Revenue acceleration – Client-provided $/MW/month revenue run rates were applied to schedule days saved, quantifying the value of bringing capacity online earlier.
Operating cost savings – Weekly site operating costs (management overhead, contractors, site services) were multiplied by schedule days avoided.
Error & rework avoidance – Industry benchmarks for typical rework were applied conservatively, based only on verified QA interventions.
Claim defense savings – Disproved extension of time (EOT) claims and contractor delays were translated into avoided costs and validated through cross-project benchmarking.

Assumptions and Guardrails

Calculations were conservative, excluding broader QA savings that were not systematically rolled out.

All estimates were client-validated, either against actual financial results or internal finance models.

ROI was calculated net of XYZ Reality’s service fees, resulting in a 10X portfolio return.

Give us your model and schedule.
we'll give you program surety:

1. Discuss your projects with us

2. Work with us to create a customized plan

3. Deploy XYZ on your sites

4. Deliver your projects ahead of schedule

Award-winning construction technology:

What our partners say

“XYZ continuously supported our project...saving us and the client cost, and program whilst improving quality and culture with our supply chain.”
Raluca Bahnean
Mace

“XYZ have changed the way we work. These are insights we have just never had before. The detail is incredible with actual real-time information.”
Director
Global Data Center
Asset Owner

“I love the objective data, it’s what gives me ultimate confidence and delivers project assurance across our sites.”
Global Executive
Global Asset Owner
Data Center

“This collaboration has already yielded incredible results, enhancing our precision and efficiency while significantly reducing rework and delays.”
John Molgaard
Senior Project Manager
Interstates

“This is the first time we have actually delivered a project on schedule in 20 years.”
Director
Global Asset Owner
Data Centers

“XYZ are solving for time, cost and quality. It does exactly what we say we are trying to do for the customer as well - reduce the pain points.”
Oz Nicco-Annan
CFO
Infrapartners

“This proved to be a gamechanger on our project. I will be hesitant to do another Data Center build without XYZ as part of the team.”
Tylor Horton
Project Manager
Interstates

“We have seen a huge impact on the culture of quality and delivery across the entire site.”
Project Manager
Global Data Center
Asset Owner

“The first supplier we onboard on every one of our new projects is XYZ.”
Michalis Grigoratos
CEO
Infrapartners

“Their technology is assessing actual installation accuracies to design tolerances... A an extremely valuable time saving method is assessing quality build.”
Patrick Sheehan
MEP Manager
Mace