NexTraq offers a range of products that help fleet managers turn raw information into actionable solutions.
By Tim O’Connor
Back when telematics provider NexTraq was founded in 2000, data was a lot simpler. Most customers only wanted to know where to find their truck or piece of construction equipment. But in the nearly two decades since the new millennium began, the prevalence of data and the sensors needed to capture that information have fundamentally changed expectations.
Today, everyone has a mobile device – sometimes several – and companies are clamoring to use the information generated by the connected world to discover ways to become increasingly efficient. Fleet managers not only want to know where their trucks are, but they want to dispatch optimized routes and be alerted if drivers are skirting the rules of the road. NexTraq is continuously evolving to stay ahead of those demands by offering an increasing number of add-on services. “The solutions over the years have been tailored to the needs of the customers,” Vice President of Marketing Pankaj Sharma says.
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ALICE Technologies uses AI to solve construction scheduling challenges.
By Tim O’Connor, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
Planning a construction project is a monumentally complex task. It can take months to match the building sequence with the availability of contractors and materials – and even once the schedule is in place there’s no way to tell whether it’s truly the most efficient way to meet all of the project’s goals.
While pursuing his Ph.D. at Stanford, Rene Morkos began to think about how artificial intelligence could be applied to the problem of construction scheduling. The son of a builder, Morkos grew up around construction sites and understood the challenges contractors faced. He had a strong interest in the industry from the time he was young, eventually becoming a foreman during college and later a construction engineer. Through those roles, Morkos learned every facet of what goes into building a project and where the most likely bottlenecks can be found.
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Photo Credit: The Village of Obetz
Falcon Structures continues to grow its portfolio of projects.
By Jim Harris
The closure of the Columbus Motor Speedway in 2016 left its host, the village of Obetz, Ohio, with both a challenge and an opportunity. The village wanted to redevelop the property with a structure that would be large enough to host the home games of the Ohio Machine, a Major League Lacrosse team; as well as major events such as the popular Obetz Zucchini Festival.
With the Ohio Machine’s first game scheduled in less than a year, the village needed a very large structure built in a short period of time. To solve this problem, the village looked to Falcon Structures.
In summer 2017, Falcon Structures completed the new $15 million stadium, Fortress Obetz. Completing a structure akin to the 6,500-seat, 71,112-square-foot Fortress would normally take two years. However, Falcon Structures needed only six months to pull off the feat.
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EZ-ACCESS’ aluminum solutions help make access easier for all individuals.
By Alan Dorich
For 34 years, EZ-ACCESS has helped people move beyond barriers. “We believe that people can enjoy life the most when they have the ability to obtain accessibility,” co-owner and CEO Don Everard says.
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Linron expands its sales market with the launch of decorative overlay flooring it expects to become a significant portion of the business.
By Janice Hoppe-Spiers, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
For the past 25 years, Linron Co. has provided floor covering for more than 18,000 retail stores nationwide and covered 2.2 billion square feet. Known as the nation’s leading national accounts distributor for retail chain stores today, the company built its reputation on excellence in customer service.
The Houston-based company was co-founded more than two decades ago by flooring industry veterans Linda Krienke and Ron Harris. The longtime friends met in 1977 when they worked together for a flooring distributor in Texas. In 1993, they decided to start their own company and Linron was born.
“We built this company on service and one word we have never used is ‘no,’” Krienke says. “I’ve gotten calls at 4 p.m. on a Friday from someone who needs flooring tomorrow and there is nothing easy about it, but we take the extra step and get it done. We have always been based on our service.”
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Cumming employs a proven construction method to raise accountability and keep building costs under control.
By Timothy O’Connor, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
APRIL 2, 2018 -- Building a major project such as a new corporate headquarters or a cutting-edge hospital requires the coordination of dozens of stakeholders, each of which has their own agenda. That’s a recipe that often leads to cost overruns, delays and dissatisfaction for the project owner.
For many projects, it’s better to have an independent voice that can consolidate several disciplines and efficiently manage construction on behalf of the owner. On an increasing number of jobs, that role is being filled by quantity surveyors such as Wayne Selby, the regional managing director of the East Coast at Cumming, an international construction consultancy that focuses on cost and project management. Quantity surveying takes the functional roles of a project estimator, accountant, engineer and conscription lawyer and puts them into the body of one person who has experience in all four disciplines.
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eMars’ Compliant Client system allows contractors to follow the Davis-Bacon Act and other laws while saving time and effort.
By Jim Harris, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
Contractors have a lot to keep track of during a publically funded project. In addition to managing construction crews and blueprints, builders must comply with federal and state laws dictating how wages are paid and reported.
One of the most prominent of these requirements is the federal Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, which requires contractors to pay the prevailing wage – the hourly wage paid in the largest city in each county to the majority of workers, laborers and mechanics – on federally funded projects. The prevailing wage is determined by the U.S. Department of Labor for each work classification involved in public projects.
For many contractors, complying with the law has historically meant keeping extensive paper records of what the prevailing wage in their county was and what each worker on a job – including certified apprentices – was being paid. Failure to abide by the requirements of the Davis-Bacon and related acts can lead to fines and loss of reputation.
eMars’ Compliant Client system makes following the law painless for contractors. The web-based service ensures that contractors and their subcontractors are following the law at the click of a button.
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Enginaire adds to its Cabaire™ product line to help its customers meet the new OSHA regulations for respirable crystalline silica.
By Janice Hoppe-Spiers
As the leader in air pre-cleaners for more than 45 years, Enginaire expanded its product line more than a decade ago to include cab pressurization systems so operators could breathe easier. The company continues to evolve its Cabaire™ product line as OSHA revises its regulation on small crystalline silica.
About 2.2 million workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica in their workplaces and a more than half of these workers are in the construction industry, according to OSHA. “In September, OSHA passed its first revised regulation on its respirable crystalline silica standards since 1971,” says Mark Losching, director of sales and marketing. “There is a long list of new measures that companies need to take to protect their employees from silica. The new regulation has cut the previous permissible limit in half.”
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Asset Drone provides its construction industry and other customers with innovative drone applications that are both safe and productive.
By Jim Harris, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
Flying a drone over a construction site may seem like a simple job: anyone with a FAA Part 107 remote pilot’s license can legally operate a drone at a work area. But to truly tap the power of drones in construction requires an innovative company that can adapt drones to specialized tasks, fly them safely over and throughout the work site, and create accurate maps, 3D models, measurements and photos of the site. One such company is Asset Drone.
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Sage’s Enterprise Management Construction solution enables medium to larger construction companies to meet industry-specific challenges head on.
By Janice Hoppe-Spiers, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
In an increasingly complex global marketplace, Sage specializes in serving today’s business builders with a new generation of solutions to manage everything from money to people. “Re-imagining business is not about playing catch up, it’s about leapfrogging the competition,” the company says. “Too often businesses make decisions based on what’s in the rear-view mirror rather than the headlights. We combine social, mobile, real-time technology to put live information at your fingertips so you can make fast, informed decisions.”
The company recently rebranded Sage X3 to Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management. The Enterprise Management platform is used by more than 6,000 organizations globally, with a majority being in manufacturing, distribution or services. Sage allows customers to move up through its portfolio of applications as their business needs change.
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