By Business & Finance SmartBuilder Software, an Irish software start-up headquartered at NovaUCD, today announced the launch of a new app, Plan2Finish targeting the US and wider international construction industry.
The company also announced that it has established its US base in Austin, Texas with the assistance of Enterprise Ireland.
Construction is a vast industry with current world-wide output estimated at $7.5trn by the Global Construction 2020 Report. Mobile IT on site has been developing slowly over the last decade with large firms trialling various solutions. However mobile IT is currently only used by a small percentage of contractors.
SmartBuilder has announced the launch of its Android app, which is aimed at mass-market adoption, to help improve efficiencies within the construction industry.
Plan2Finish allows users to manage the work of a range of sub-contractors on tablets and can save up to 25% of an engineer’s or a construction manager’s time. Users of Plan2Finish can go in-field, raise defects or tasks on a tablet, add in images, mark-up drawings, record audio memos and then send all of this information, without any report writing, to sub-contractors over the internet. The data is managed on a PC and reports can be subsequently printed out.
According to Peter Daly, a co-founder and CEO of SmartBuilder: “Unlike expensive, legacy mobile systems, which need direct sales and training, our affordable app is very easy to use and acquire and needs no training. It is focused on users in SME companies and has built in features with help it to spread virally. We believe it is simpler and easier to use than any other similar app in the US market.”
He added: “SmartBuilder is targeting the Texas market as it is a major regional construction market in the US and is an ideal entry point into the wider US market. The company is being assisted by Enterprise Ireland, who are an investor in the company, and who have an office in Austin, Texas.”
SmartBuilder also sees a potential market in Ireland for the app following the introduction of new building regulations as the cloud-based database provides a secure audit trail for all inspections and helps ensure compliance with regulations. The company is already seeing early adoption in Ireland by fire inspectors and consulting engineers.
The Plan2Finish app is a combined web app and mobile app. Initially it is for Android tablets but will be available on Android smartphones in Q3 2014 and subsequently on iPads/iPhones. Users can create a free trial account on the website (www.GetPlan2Finish.com) then download the mobile app from the Google Play Store.
