Denmark-based construction technology firm, Optimise International, has introduced a “pay-as-you-go” project management software.
Traditionally, construction management software is purchased on a “per project” basis and a license fee is agreed. Often, prices are negotiated based on the project size or value. This can be prohibitive for smaller, specialist trades, leading to a loss of granular data collection, transparency and slower information flows. In turn, this increases project management risk and lowers productivity – and ultimately, profit.
Kapio Cloud is a new product that challenges this model. Making use of cloud technology and with high levels of security encryption, construction teams can access Kapio Cloud for a daily charge of €1.99 (£1.72). Being able to use the reporting and document control functionality on an unlimited number of projects adds the opportunity for further cost savings to both large and small firms.
Steve Arnold, CEO, explained: “The software enables construction teams to make the transformation to digital without costly upfront fees and additional support charges – these are all included in our daily subscription price. The contract commitment can be as little as 24 hours.”
David Watkins, former McKinsey Alumni and CEO of Refico, a major Asian property developer, added: “We’ve found Kapio very responsive to our needs. Productivity has certainly improved over the past 12 months as a result of our working with Kapio.”
The software is now in use on more than 20 projects Europe, Asia and South America, worth an estimated €35bn (£30bn). The team is made up of career professionals from within the construction sector, with an average of 20 years experience each. It is currently available in 20 languages.
About Kapio Software
The genesis of the idea emanated from frustration borne out of laborious, inefficient construction processes.
Philip Wright, a contracts manager, and Kasper Lorenzen, a site manager, the co-founders of the company, were working on a large public transport project for a northern European city in 2015/16.
The project consisted of 21 sites with 21 transit stations under construction. Because there were multi-lingual teams working on the sites, there were many language issues when filling out reports, while the contract language was in English. Maintaining accurate communication between teams was an issue.
In addition, daily reports had to be generated for quality, safety, progress, measurement, compliance etc. All data was in paper format, which was then put into different formats, (Word/Excel/pdf) so the reporting processes were prone to error from repeated inputting of data.
Inputting data in this way was also extremely time consuming. Because processes were analog, it was difficult for management teams to identify problems or trends; by the time data was available, it was a week out of date, so management became reactive to issues rather than proactive.
Wright and Lorenzen decided analog processes did not promote clear or accurate communications in multi-lingual teams and decided to look at ways to digitalise these processes.
In March 2016 Lorenzen left the industry to develop the platform and asked Wright and other industry investors for seed funding to develop the platform.
Sometime later, they asked Steve Arnold, who has a background in technology start-ups in Poland, to look at the system they developed and offer his advice.
