A Lesson from Payments: How Collaboration Built a Seamless Industry Standard

At Docketbook, we talk a lot about the importance of industry collaboration, shared platforms, and a unified version of the commercial truth. In construction, we’re still wrestling with siloed systems, “not invented here” syndrome, and a heavy preference for bespoke solutions. But other industries have overcome similar barriers. One great example? Payment gateways and international money transfers.

So, what’s different about payments?

Ten years ago, international payments were slow, opaque, and riddled with hidden costs. Banks developed their own proprietary systems and rarely shared data or standards. It was normal for funds to take days to clear, with multiple intermediaries clipping the ticket along the way. Sound familiar?

Fast forward to today, and we have near real-time international money transfers via the SWIFT gpi network, near-universal support for ISO 20022 payment standards, and seamless user experiences through platforms like PayPal, Stripe, and Wise. What changed?

The Payments Industry Took a Shared Approach

Rather than building their own competing solutions, financial institutions aligned on shared protocols and infrastructure. Here’s what made the shift possible:

• A shared backbone: The SWIFT global payments innovation (gpi) program created a trusted network for tracking and settling international payments. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked, and nearly every major bank got on board.
• Common standards: The adoption of ISO 20022 has become a global standard for financial messaging. This allowed software providers, payment processors, and banks to develop compatible systems, reducing the need for translation layers and custom interfaces.
• Customer-first thinking: Disruptors like Stripe and Wise built user-friendly tools that abstracted away complexity. Rather than fighting them, banks integrated or collaborated, recognising the value of delivering a better user experience.
• Transparency and trust: gpi made it possible to track payments like parcels — customers could see where their money was and when it would arrive. Transparency replaced blind trust.

What Can Construction Learn from This?

In construction, we still see adversarial contracts, disconnected systems, and bespoke tools for every project. Everyone’s solving the same problem differently. Imagine if every bank had its own proprietary payment standard. That’s how construction looks from the outside.

To change that, we need to:

• Adopt common data standards across the project lifecycle, from purchase to pay.
• Collaborate on shared platforms, even if it means using solutions we didn’t invent ourselves.
• Build integrations across company boundaries, not just within our own ecosystems.
• Prioritise transparency and accountability, especially in commercial transactions.

Making Productivity a Team Sport

In payments, the industry aligned around a common truth: customers just wanted money to move quickly, securely and transparently. The players who embraced shared infrastructure didn’t lose their competitive edge — they gained trust, speed, and scale.

In construction, we have the same opportunity. If we can align on the facts, we can focus on the fix. That means fewer disputes, faster payments, and more value for everyone.

Let’s stop reinventing the wheel and start building the road together.