Smartphones: The Most Important Jobsite Tool

Most contractors will agree that collaboration and communication are valuable components to a successful project. To that end, FieldLens, a field management tool, aims to make smartphones a contractor’s most important jobsite tool, letting teams work faster and more efficiently.

"The largest benefit is real-time communication," says Todd Wynne, an operations technology specialist at Rogers-O’Brien Construction in Dallas, a TEXO member. "In the field, there are two main things: documentation and communication."

FieldLens provides both. Rogers-O’Brien began a push toward digital documentation in 2012, placing iPads with drawings and plans in the field, but it still needed a method of managing communication within the company and with other members of the team. Wynne tried several different applications before settling on FieldLens.

"It’s the sole communication platform on the jobsite," Wynne says. "It has given us a central medium for all project communication. It’s like Facebook for construction."

Doug Chambers, CEO of FieldLens, came up with the idea while working as an MEP project manager in New York City where he recognized a fundamental problem existed of coordinating all of the communication that was taking place by email, phone, meetings and notes.

"The hardest thing to manage was all of the conversations back and forth between the different companies and keeping the information tracked, so you knew who was doing what," Chambers says. "There are thousands of things coming up on large projects daily or you have multiple small projects going on at the same time, which can be even more difficult to manage."

FieldLens time stamps everything that happens and every decision that is made. It allows different companies to generate internal to-do lists. It also produces a variety of reports.

"We help people manage in a most efficient way," Chambers says. "We do it intuitively in a manner that feels familiar to them."

Rogers-O’Brien uses FieldLens from project start through the punch list. It collects photos, logs activity, takes meeting minutes and produces daily reports. FieldLens can replace traditional email, with the benefit that it will send alerts and reminders, so the team can follow up when pending items need action. It can also send email or push notifications if anything falls past the due date to the contractor and the subcontractors.

Although having every team member on the FieldLens network is ideal, it is not necessary. FieldLens will generate emails to subcontractors who do not subscribe and the answer to that email will automatically flow into the application.

FieldLens will sync the information generated when the device is offline once a WiFi connection is made. It works on Android and iOS devices and is Webbased. Contractors end up making fewer telephone calls, Chambers says. Integrating conference calls into the application is in the works, as is deploying the application to wearable technology like Google Glass and smartwatches.

"We are never satisfied and are continuing to innovate," Chambers says. "We will be relentless in bringing the best of technology innovations to construction."

Wynne says Rogers-O’Brien’s field staff has helped shape FieldLens, providing feedback on what has worked well and what features needed modification.

"I can see this for even more forms of communication, down the road," Wynne says. "FieldLens could be an industry changer."