San Diego-based Inertia Systems today officially announces the launch of Inertia Platform, a cloud-based SaaS enterprise construction management platform that automatically connects and coordinates teams, processes, project and quality management through BIM and smart drawings.
The 10-year-old company, whose marketing tagline is “Closing the loop from design to built,” is introducing its platform at a time when the construction sector is still determining how best to use jobsite technology to improve productivity. A recent FMI Corp.-PlanGrid report estimated that construction overages and rework result in $177.5 billion in wasted labor costs annually in the U.S. alone.
Most project management software is list-based cloud collaboration, explains Matthew Hudelson, Inertia Systems’ CEO. What differentiates his company’s product is its “pivot to a location-based platform that leverages information from the BIM model.”
Generated automatically based on designs, each record created in the platform is automatically attached to its physical location on the project map and updated wherever designs change. Inertia Platform uses patent-pending technology to connect information from every solution and Building Team member (including contractors, owners, engineers and architects) throughout every phase in real time, ensuring all information stays connected and up to date throughout the construction process.
PLATFORM PROVIDES COMPLIANCE VERIFICATION
Among Inertia Platform's functions is the ability to create real-time mobile punchlists.
What’s unique about this software, Hudelson goes on, is that it provides collaborative information for Project Management, Quality Management, Performance Management, and Compliance Management. That last function is critical in California’s healthcare sector, which is highly regulated and where construction managers must prove to inspectors that their work complies with the state’s codes. “Inertia makes this information accessible quickly,” he says.
To develop its Inertia Platform, Inertia Systems has worked with leading construction management firms that include Turner Construction, McCarthy Building Companies, Clark Construction, Kiewit Construction, and AECOM. “We’ve worked alongside builders, owners, inspectors, architects, and team members to learn how our tools and workflows impact challenges they face and, in turn, learned to address their varying needs and inefficiencies in scalable ways throughout every single step of the construction process,” says Hudelson.
Inertia Systems has been used by dozens of owners and GCs in the healthcare, education, and sports and entertainment sectors. The projects it contributed to include the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, Scripps Prebys Cardiovascular Institute, Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center Van Ness Campus Hospital, and a major NFL stadium.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Let There Be Daylight
The new public library in Champaign, Ill., is drawing 2,100 patrons a day, up from 1,600 in 2007. The 122,600-sf facility, which opened in January 2008, certainly benefits from amenities that the old 40,000-sf library didn't have—electronic check-in and check-out, new computers, an onsite coffeehouse.
| Aug 11, 2010
BIM school, green school: California's newest high-performance school
Nestled deep in the Napa Valley, the city of American Canyon is one of a number of new communities in Northern California that have experienced tremendous growth in the last five years. Located 42 miles northeast of San Francisco, American Canyon had a population of just over 9,000 in 2000; by 2008, that figure stood at 15,276, with 28% of the population under age 18.
| Aug 11, 2010
Platinum Award: The Handmade Building
When Milwaukee's City Hall was completed in 1896, it was, at 394 feet in height, the third-tallest structure in the United States. Designed by Henry C. Koch, it was a statement of civic pride and a monument to Milwaukee's German heritage. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2005.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Products
14. Mod Pod A Nod to Flex Biz Designed by the British firm Tate + Hindle, the OfficePOD is a flexible office space that can be installed, well, just about anywhere, indoors or out. The self-contained modular units measure about seven feet square and are designed to serve as dedicated space for employees who work from home or other remote locations.
| Aug 11, 2010
Special Recognition: Kingswood School Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Kingswood School is perhaps the best example of Eliel Saarinen's work in North America. Designed in 1930 by the Finnish-born architect, the building was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style, with wide overhanging hipped roofs, long horizontal bands of windows, decorative leaded glass doors, and asymmetrical massing of elements.
| Aug 11, 2010
The pride of Pasadena
As a shining symbol of civic pride in Los Angeles County, Pasadena City Hall stood as the stately centerpiece of Pasadena's Civic Center since 1927. To the casual observer, the rectangular edifice, designed by San Francisco Classicists John Bakewell, Jr., and Arthur Brown, Jr., appeared to be aging gracefully.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Technology
19. Hybrid Geothermal Technology The team at Stantec saved $800,000 in construction costs by embedding geothermal piping into the structural piles at the WestJet office complex in Calgary, Alb., rather than drilling boreholes adjacent to the building site, which is the standard approach. Regular geothermal installation would have required about 200 boreholes, each about four-inches in diameter ...