Project Management Migrates to Palms

February 14, 2001

By Harry Goldstein

Construction executives are demanding easy access to detailed project information in real time. That means more heavy lifting for construction site superintendents who need to take notes in the field and then trudge over to the trailer to transcribe those notes into a computer.

It's a tedious, time-consuming process that Onsyss Mobile Computing President John Cannito knows only too well. After a year in the field with Framingham, Mass.-based Perini Corp. as a field support engineer, Cannito yearned for a way to do punch lists that would eliminate the redundant task of transcribing field notes into the company's Meridian Project System's Prolog Manager database, a process that can take an hour or two to complete.

"We figured that there had to be a better way to do this," Cannito recalls. "We wanted to standardize one way of doing it and cut time." Cannito decided to work with Palm Pilots, even though "construction people are very quick to throw [electronic gadgets] into the back of the truck if they're too complicated or take too much time." Bearing that in mind, Cannito, along with Manager of Engineers Joe Miller and Manager of Post-construction Rick Bartels started out to create a program that emphasized ease of use. The Perini team began with a punch list program, put it out on two jobs and walked around with engineers to familiarize them with the technology. Cannito returned often to ask them what changes they wanted, and rejiggered the program to smooth out the kinks. As Perini began to equip more job sites with Palms, Cannito was able to collect additional user feedback and incorporate it into subsequent versions of the software.

After Perini employees started using Palm Pilots to upload field data for punch lists, the next step was to create a module that allowed users to download punch list activities to take into the field. "Then you could walk down and check to see if the work's been done yet," says Cannito. After you close an item and give it a close date, you can sync with Prolog back at the trailer. At that point you can show whether closed items are closed or not show them at all, allowing you to shorten subs' lists quickly. This functionality also gives the user the ability to go back and see how long it took for a sub to get a job done. Not only did the Palm Pilot punch lists save time for the superintendents, they also saved time for the subcontractors who can read reports that are specific to them instead of wading through lists of other subs' work.

After the punch list part of the program was worked out, Cannito and Miller developed a module for daily reports and followed a similar beta-testing protocol which entailed taking the Palm software into the field and programming and re-programming the module until superintendents were satisfied.

"After we developed it for Perini, we thought that it was probably something a lot of people could use," says Cannito. So in October 1999, he e-mailed a demo to John Bodrozic, President of Meridian Project Systems, to see if he was interested.

Prolog Pocket's provides pull-down menus to minimize handwriting.

He was. In June 2000, Meridian announced a partnership with Onsyss to develop Prolog Pocket for the Palm to extend the Prolog 6.0 into the field. Nine months later, Meridian released Prolog Pocket, which can be used on devices running Palm OS 3.0 or later, including both Palms and Handspring Visors. The robust interface allows users to track labor hours, work performed, equipment, safety notices and notices to comply, punch lists and even weather conditions. Simply tapping the stylus on an icon or a pull-down menu minimizes handwriting on the Palm, which is often frustrating even for experienced users. Prolog Pocket for Palm handhelds syncs with Prolog Manager, Meridian Project System's flagship project management application used by 5000 companies and 30,000 AEC professionals worldwide.

While Prolog for Windows CE devices has been available for some time, Troy Tyler, product marketing manager for Prolog Pocket, claims that customer demand drove development, "primarily the need to take information from the field where the project is being done and the operations are proceeding, into the trailer where the computers are. If the information is in the trailer, you need to take that into the field." While no figures are available on the number of Palm users in the construction industry, Tyler cited a report by Forrester Research that predicts 36 million handhelds will be sold annually by 2002 and that 76% of those will be used in business. Autodesk, Inc. was the first industry player to recognize the opportunity when it introduced its Onsite handheld solution last May.

Despite the perception that the construction industry is notoriously slow to embrace new technologies, Cannito believes that mass adoption of Palms in the field will happen sooner rather than later. Brisk early sales seem to justify Cannito's optimism. In the first week after announcing the availability of Prolog Pocket on Jan. 22, 2001, Meridian shipped more than 40 licenses of Prolog Pocket for Palm OS handhelds. "By the end of this year, it should really start taking off," he says. "The push is to share information among parties and that puts a large burden on field personnel to collect data electronically to put in these systems. They have their own job to do building buildings." In Cannito's experience, field personnel like this technology because it makes their job easier; executives like it because they receive more real time data out of the field that they can use to manage projects.

Executives will also like the price-$299 for the software and $150 to $400 for the handheld, "a real manageable cost when you're talking about a $200-million hotel," Cannito adds. Onsyss has also partnered with Meridian's primary competitor Primavera Project Systems to develop OnTrak, a solution that extends Primavera P3 and SureTrak to Palm handhelds. Released last October, OnTrak has already built a user base of more than 70 companies.

Onsyss' focus on tailoring software by putting it in the hands of construction professionals and adjusting it to their real-world needs could provide a model for software developers who want that all-critical buy-in from end users in the construction industry. "We took a different perspective," says Cannito, "Let's figure out what features people want to use in the field."