Acuite Construction Innovation Event – a first for New Zealand.
We recently hosted the Acuite Construction Innovation Event for the local industry. A first of it’s kind in the country and official launch of Acuite Construction Intelligence to the market. It was an entertaining and informative afternoon with many industry leaders and innovators joining the construction technology conversation.
A client’s view of Acuite.
MC for the event was Hugh Johnstone the Managing Director of Johnstone Construction. He introduced the afternoon and gave the audience an insight into why he had come on board as both a client and investor of Acuite.
“Johnstone Construction were early stage clients of Acuite after unsuccessfully attempting to build our own construction analytics platform in-house. We got some very pertinent advice after trying to develop our own software – are you a construction company or a software development company? It made us realise what our core competency was and what we should be relying on outside experts to provide.
It wasn’t a totally fruitless project though because it helped us understand what we wanted in the technology platforms we are looking to use. And the kind of companies we want to be working with. Meeting Antonia and David and knowing that they both come from the Construction industry and so are working to solve exactly the issues we were facing was hugely reassuring.
And we haven’t looked back since. We’re now using Acuite across all our projects and bringing our sub-contractors and clients along on the journey with us.”
Acuite’s journey so far.
Hugh then shared the journey of founders David and Antonia Speight while bringing their Construction Intelligence platform to market.
David and Antonia started the journey 2 years ago as a result of the real problems they experienced day after day managing large-scale construction projects. Construction firms run projects in the tens and often hundreds of million dollars. However, at its best, they are only able to generate 5% margin levels and in many cases significant losses.
They did their research and found it was not just a local problem.
KPMG conducted a global construction industry survey and concluded that there are common factors that influence under-performance –
- Time Delays,
- Poor Estimating Practices,
- Failed Risk Management,
- and poor performance of sub-contractors.
Antonia and David had seen all these problems firsthand while managing construction projects, and being digital natives, knew there must be a way to streamline and centralize processes.
Introducing Acuite Construction Intelligence.
Their solution is Acuite Construction Intelligence. Acuite is a cloud-based software. It helps construction companies achieve higher margins, fewer errors and faster timelines. This is done via aggregation of real-time data already being generated in the field. Combined with smart analytics the data is mined to optimise opportunities and mitigate risk at a company and project level.
Industry recognition and success for the founders.
Their forward thinking use of aggregated data to create internal company benchmarks and a construction industry first of predictive analytics has seen:
- David nominated to sit on the national industry benchmarking committee alongside industry leaders and government representatives.
- Antonia won a Special Merit Award at the National Association of Women in Construction Awards and a place on the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women group.
- And the company be exhibitors at ground-breaking construction technology events in the UK, USA and Australia.
Our supporters have made it possible.
Acuite appreciates the support of local construction companies getting us to the point of officially launching locally. Key among these are all three companies that have been part of the beta testing and continued on as clients – Dominion Construction, Maycroft and Brosnan. And a big thank you to our key event supporters – EY, Samsung and Uber.
Check out our other posts from the Acuite Construction Innovation Event for insights from the Global Trends in Construction Technology Keynote and panel discussions on Construction Excellence and Successful Technology Implementation!
