ProjectTeam Recognized as a Most Promising Construction Technology

While technologies such as 3D printing and Augmented Reality (AR) have already been ingrained into the market and captured our attention for future innovations, the time consumed to do so pinpoints how the construction industry has majorly been a laggard in adopting technology. However, of late, the industry has witnessed ascend in the number of construction-tech providers entering the market, indicating that the investments made to boost construction technology are for good and the industry is ripe to embrace disruptive innovations.

As smart buildings and energy-saving commercial establishments are gaining traction as construction trends, construction professionals are ever more persevered to invest in newer technologies and environment-friendly on-site project delivery methods such as cool roofs, cotton insulation, and electro-chromic smart glass to ensure lesser wastage and foster a healthier and cleaner environment.

On the hind side, construction methods such as offsite construction practices (prefabrication) are also gaining grounds for its ability to shrink deadlines, cut costs and maintain greater control over production quality. To better administer a project at a construction site, unmanned aerial vehicles and auto-bots are helping construction professionals to track progress in real-time by generating 3D images.

A distinguished panel comprising CEOs, CIOs, VCs, and analysts including CIOReview editorial board reviewed the top companies and shortlisted the ones that are at the forefront of bringing evolutionary changes to the construction domain. The companies compiled in this issue have exhibited extensive business process knowledge, along with innovative strategies in the construction landscape.

ProjectTeam.com named one of the "20 Most Promising Construction Technology Solution Providers"

For over twelve years Ty Witmer headed a leading value-added-reseller (VAR) business that sold project management software for the construction industry. That experience provided him with an opportunity to profoundly understand the pain points of clients and identify ‘the gap' in the existing solutions. In the past, Witmer witnessed how disruptive it was for clients to endure such time and cost-intensive technology implementations. He also came to realize that the leading solutions were lacking in several significant ways; stakeholders were unable to connect their project data and exchange information efficiently nor were they able to own and control the information that they had access to.

Likewise, organizations were not able to configure and customize the solution to fit their individual business processes or achieve a fast ROI. Overall, the collaboration between various stakeholders on a construction project was extremely inefficient and involved entering the same data into multiple systems. In 2014, Witmer launched ProjectTeam.com to provide a unique project management system platform that facilitates communication and collaboration between project stakeholders and offers each participant the ability to customize the application to suit their requirements.

Stressing upon the need for common ground in information sharing as the key tenet of collaboration, ProjectTeam’s next-gen system allows organizations to define and configure business processes that allow disparate stakeholders to share information selectively. To illustrate, Witmer described a scenario where construction management (CM) firm was administering a project for their client and they had to use the general contractor’s system as the GC was a key player. For a specific reason, the CM wanted to correspond with the design team and the owner without the general contractor being privy to the information exchange. Unable to do so through the general contractor’s system, the CM turned to ProjectTeam.com to find a middle way out of the situation. ProjectTeam’s next-gen platform allowed the agency to interact on a one-to-one basis yet be a part of the same project system. “Instead of trying to fit the company into a standard system, we take the approach of providing a platform that allows each stakeholder on a project to easily configure the system to meet their needs yet efficiently share information to other project participants,” highlights Witmer.

On the customization front, unlike other offerings, ProjectTeam.com provides added layers of customization capabilities where users can create any custom forms or fields and add those to the system so they work alongside the standard system forms. This way, users manage drawings, RFI’s, contracts, changes, budgets, meeting minutes, submittals, issues, daily reports, schedules, payments applications, and any other processes they need to successfully administer a project. Another special feature allows users to show the data “as of” a previous time/date so they can investigate the cause of an issue. ProjectTeam.com includes social features like you may find in other modern applications and these features allow construction experts and professionals to trend topics, follow people, and facilitate interaction and exchange knowledge. Witmer says, “These unique features enable stakeholders to unlock the collective knowledge they have across their organization."

"The platform allows each stakeholder on a project to easily configure the system to meet their needs yet efficiently share information to other project participants."

Pushing the envelope of project collaboration, ProjectTeam is now developing bid management and analysis features that will add value. With this novel approach, contractors can update information about their expertise and performance credentials and be matched with companies seeking their services. An owner on the east coast looking for a contractor for one of their projects on the west coast can immensely benefit from this innovative functionality. “A big part of our future is to connect companies and make them efficient in this exchange of information,” concludes Witmer.