Suffolk announced it has made a long-term enterprise agreement with OpenSpace, a leader in 360° job site photo capture technology. The agreement marks a continued commitment by Suffolk to scale the product across its job sites nationally. Its aim is also to discover exciting new ways to leverage the captured data. As part of the agreement, OpenSpace will provide Suffolk access to its platform for job sites. They will also provide support on future projects.
“We are committed to identifying the best and most sophisticated technology tools to ensure the success of our project teams in the field and deliver real value for clients,” said Jit Kee Chin, Executive Vice President and Chief Data & Innovation Officer at Suffolk. “OpenSpace allows our teams to collaborate more effectively, partner more closely with trade partners. We will provide clients more transparency and quality service. We believe this technology is the future of construction. OpenSpace is excited to put this technology to work on our projects nationally.”
Since Suffolk first piloted OpenSpace in 2018, adoption of the technology across Suffolk projects has grown exponentially. This is due to the effectiveness of the technology and the support of Suffolk CoLabs. Suffolk CoLabs serve as the company’s mechanism for operational change by exploring technological innovations and enrolling job sites into pilot programs with the goal of systematically distributing and scaling new technologies and processes company-wide. OpenSpace was initially tested through the CoLabs Pilot Program and rapidly scaled to become a “national operations solution” for projects throughout the country.
The platform
The OpenSpace platform is an invaluable tool for construction project teams because of the valuable visual data it captures seamlessly and efficiently. To capture data, a project team member walks a job site wearing a 360-degree camera affixed to their hardhat. During the walk, the OpenSpace platform automatically tracks the team member’s path throughout the job site. It does this by taking numerous photographs and then works to seamlessly stitch them together to create a virtual job site walk. In other words, creating a reality capture model of the site. Suffolk’s projects have completed over 5,000 walks with OpenSpace to date by leveraging the OpenSpace platform nationally.
Suffolk project teams have experienced a wide range of benefits and outcomes from implementing the product. With OpenSpace, project teams have comprehensive progress documentation for improved transparency on job sites. All stakeholders and team members have access to an interactive, virtual walkthrough of job site conditions across the lifecycle of the job. This centralized project documentation helps to mitigate risk with organized, indexed photos available from project start to closeout and turnover. Teams are able to track critical milestones and activities, capture pre-pour inspections onsite, document safety walks, and record current conditions prior to wall and ceiling closures, among other benefits. These outcomes ultimately equate to significant time savings, risk avoidance and improved workflows for project teams which adds significant value for clients.
“OpenSpace has been a tremendous addition to our technology stack at Suffolk, as it creates increased transparency on our job sites. From a daily operations’ perspective, owners, trade partners, and Suffolk team members have full visibility into the current state of the projects. That visibility and increased transparency around day-to-day site activity promotes an environment of accountability,” notes Jeff Gouveia. Goeveia is the President and General Manager of Suffolk Northeast.
Scalability
As the OpenSpace technology continues to scale, Suffolk project teams are exploring new applications. OpenSpaces is also unleashing new possibilities for the platform. Assistant Superintendent Max Sanchez says, “My team has been using OpenSpace for a variety of purposes. Mainly for closely managing subcontractors on incomplete work, addressing safety concerns, and also documenting field progress. The technology has been beneficial during team meetings and meetings with our client. This is because we are able to closeout open action items simply by referencing the OpenSpace platform.”
OpenSpace CEO and Co-Founder Jeevan Kalanithi said the agreement with Suffolk proves his company’s product is making a difference for construction teams. “Suffolk is not only one of the top construction firms in the nation, they are also one of the most tech-forward companies in the industry. Their dedication to using best practices in every area is extremely impressive,” he said.
“OpenSpace was created to leverage cutting edge AI technology to help builders work more efficiently. We are thrilled that Suffolk sees the value in using our platform on projects nationwide. We look forward to being a key player in their continued success for years to come,” said Kalanithi.
About OpenSpace
Founded in 2017, OpenSpace is a San Francisco-based tech company. Its mission is to bring new levels of transparency to construction. Its solutions combine simple 360 cameras, computer vision and also AI to make it incredibly easy to capture a complete visual record of the job site. It is then easy to share it via the cloud and track progress. To date OpenSpace customers have used the platform to capture three billion square feet of active construction projects. This spans across thousands of sites in dozens of countries.
About Suffolk
Suffolk is a real estate and construction enterprise that invests, innovates, and builds. Suffolk is a national company with $4.0 billion in annual revenue. They boast 2,500 employees. Additionally, they have main offices in Boston (headquarters), New York, Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Estero, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. The company serves clients in every major industry sector, including healthcare, science and technology, education, gaming, transportation/aviation, and commercial. John Fish is the founder, chairmen and CEO of the privately held Suffolk. Suffolk ranks #23 on the Engineering News Record list of “Top 400 Contractors.”
