In an interview, Inside Construction (IC) caught up with Dan Hicks (DH) COO of InEight to discuss the development and the company’s plans for the Australian and Asia Pacific markets.
IC: How did InEight and QA Software come together?
DH: It’s an interesting story as to how the two organisations came together; it’s a genuine case of good timing and industry needs tying together perfectly for us.
InEight has developed solutions that are designed to solve industry challenges in the engineering and construction world from design to turn-over and field execution, project administration, and everything in between. These issues had gone mostly unsolved except for point solutions, and certainly unsolved from an interoperable, complete-set-of-solutions angle.
We’ve been developing an exciting set of tools, InEight Project Suite, which was commercially released in 2017. It’s a cloud-delivered solution that meets the needs of today’s engineering and construction sector.
We were out talking to customers and potential customers and noticed a growing trend and an increasing need for a cloud-based document management solution.
We knew the TeamBinder product from an engagement they had with a customer of ours in the States. TeamBinder was relatively unknown in North America, but in our opinion, they were a hidden gem. From a functionality stand-point, they scored better than any other solution out there. Much like InEight, QA Software built the TeamBinder solution to be industry-specific to solve industry-specific challenges, so we saw the potential for a really happy marriage. We began pursuing clients looking to solve problems using our combined software solutions, and we co-presented our solution with TeamBinder’s to DVSANTOS, an engineering, procurement and construction company that caters to the energy, oil and gas sectors in Latin America and North America. I am pleased to say we won that business.
Through that process, it became apparent that we could improve our business by combining the organisations. Timing played to our benefit. The owners and founders of QA Software, who have done a phenomenal job building a great team and a fantastic product, are both engineers by nature and their focus has been on building a great product. They were ready to find the right partner, so over the last couple of months, we’ve been working through the deal terms. I’m pleased to say that in mid-March we officially welcomed TeamBinder into the InEight family. They’ve done a fantastic job solving the document management and control challenges that most in this space are struggling with.
IC: Australia has a once in a generation construction boom happening right now. How is InEight positioned to service this?
DH: I smile when I think about the opportunity in Australia and how wonderful the timing is for this to happen. The TeamBinder solution has a very strong reputation globally and in Australia specifically. InEight is, frankly speaking, not as well known in Australia. We’ve just introduced our new suite of tools in Asia Pacific and have had a sales office in Sydney since late 2014. Our Enterprise solution was released last year, but we haven’t really gained as much traction as we could in Australia and throughout the region. InEight has a very strong presence in North America with great brand awareness while TeamBinder doesn’t, so we’ve strengthened our position with a great solution there. In the Australian market, we can leverage the 200-plus customers that TeamBinder has today, they’ll continue to have the option to use TeamBinder as a stand-alone product. Plus, we’ll introduce them to the rest of the InEight tool set which we think will solve some additional challenges and real needs that they have.
IC: The Asia Pacific region is set for a similar construction boom, does InEight have plans for this region?
DH: We have an absolute eye for growing our market in the Asia Pacific area and have contracted industry analysts to conduct studies for us. We estimate the addressable global value at US$1 billion (AU$1.3 billion) for document management software solutions. Specifically in Asia-Pacific, there is double-digit compound annual growth predicted for the next five years for this market, which we see as being a largely untapped opportunity. We have the ability to really grow the use of the InEight products based on the strength and reputation of TeamBinder locally, and to expand the document management component throughout North America with our acquisition of TeamBinder.
IC: What are the main advantages for customers that adopt an automated document management system?
DH: Historically, documents have sat in rooms or offices. Our document management offering provides a central location where you can electronically access them all. One of the really nice things about TeamBinder is that it was built purposely for the engineering and construction space. While other document management solutions come at it from a more generic stand-point, there are things that TeamBinder has like role-based alignments and provisions that speak specifically to engineering and construction. TeamBinder has added a functionality that resonates very well. Customers have told us there have been some frustrations with other products because they don’t address specific needs, not being as purpose-built as TeamBinder is.
IC: There is plenty of movement in the Australian ‘construction technology’ sector with new companies emerging all the time. How is InEight positioned in this space?
DH: We are very aware of the boom in infrastructure growth in Australia and of the expansion plans for the major cities. We believe we are in a prime position to locally leverage the strength of our InEight solution delivery combined with TeamBinder.
Where standard construction projects fly a little blind, we offer visibility at every stage of the product life cycle, with solutions focused on project cost management, field execution, project administration and project information modelling. All of these are interoperable, so you’re working with technology solutions that talk and communicate with each other. There is no need to go to three or five places to get an overall status of your projects; InEight tools are fully interoperable and offer visibility from front to back. It’s very exciting for us. In our eyes and those of the analysts, the breadth of our solution is unparalleled. We show companies how they can become more efficient and effective throughout their organisations. This is a great opportunity for construction companies to improve their efficiency and visibility. With the high- profile nature of big projects going on in Australia, companies can have an eye on how to be progressive, and we fit hand in glove towards those needs.
For us, it’s about making a difference in a space that has been sorely lacking the tools to allow construction and engineering firms to get better at what they do. We can help them stick to their core competency using tools that allow them to focus on their functionality.
We are also keenly aware of others in this space and their growth and will without question stand side-by-side and demonstrate our products. We are dedicated to continually enhancing our product portfolio; therefore, we significantly invest year-on-year in the research and development of our technology offering. At the end of the day, we are very comfortable as to who has the real solution for this space and we’re looking to capitalise on this growing market.