Cool Tech on Construction Sites
The construction business isn’t exactly known for being an early adopter of IT. (Did you know your iPhone is also a makeshift hammer?) But one DC-area tech startup is realizing how hungry some firms are to ditch their old-fashioned clipboards.
With a fresh round of funding in hand, ADR Software president Marty Pollak told us this week his Reston, Va., company has been selling RFID service software to general contractors doing large construction projects. Kinda like E-ZPass for construction workers, Workforce Monitor lets general contractors or individual subcontractors accurately track workers on construction sites an RFID tag on their hard hats. That data is then collected by ADR’s software and is made available in real-time on any web-enabled device. (But without a clipboard, how will we look busy?)
The software is being used in eight states, with Turner Construction its biggest customer. Marty says, as a whole, labor costs can be 50% of a construction project’s total cost; it's a $440B US market. The product also has a safety benefit, with managers able to track worker movement after an evacuation. ADR raised funding from Virginia’s CIT GAP fund last month and has been using it to expand the team. Marty says the focus this year will be on improving the product and customer service.
