Could the iPhone revolutionise the construction industry?

[M II A II R II K]

Could the iPhone revolutionise the construction industry?


08/20/09

By Georgia Dylan

http://www.euinfrastructure.com/news...tion-industry/

The construction industry has hugely benefited from technological advances in machinery and equipment - from the chord-less power drill to the numerous heavy machinery from manufacturers such as Caterpillar. However, the Apple iPhone could be about to impose a huge technological leap onto construction that could further revolutionise the industry, but in a way never before seen. Britain's largest plant hire company Ashtead are set to pioneer a new scheme in which its sales force will be equipped with the iPhone.

- The iPhone will enable Ashtead's sales team to provide clients with instant quotes and information about the availability of equipment, and they will even be able to place orders for the hire of machinery on the spot. In the blue-collar construction industry, sales reps from hire companies are often required to clamber over piles of bricks and building machinery to try and find clients who are not always sat in the site-office. After that, the time then spent with a client is minimal and the offer of a call back can possibly lose them the deal. Ashtead have spent two years working on the system for the iPhone platform and rolled out the technology in the United States in June to staff in its Sunbelt Rentals division.

- This is a giant technological advance to the construction industry, eliminating the need for ring binders and folders full of time-consuming documents and photographs that have to be filtered through in order to find the client exactly what they want. Having up-to-date information means that an accurate quote can be given instantly. In a recent interview with The Times, Geoff Drabble, chief executive of Ashtead, said that on a recent visit to a hospital construction site in Boston with a customer who needed 50 scissor lifts, he could only provide two lifts immediately available in Boston, but was able to relocate more in the greater Massachusetts region and instantly calculated the time and cost of delivering the equipment. This could lead to a huge improvement in efficiency for the construction industry, when site foremen are no longer required to sit and wonder, wasting valuable time, when they will receive a 'promised' quote, or at what point the hired cement mixer will actually arrive.