Suffolk Announces Enterprise Commitment To OpenSpace And Its 360° Photo Documentation And Progress Tracking Technologies

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Suffolk announced it has made a long-term enterprise agreement with OpenSpace, a leader in 360° jobsite photo capture technology. The agreement marks a continued commitment by Suffolk to scale the product across its jobsites nationally and to discover exciting new ways to leverage the captured data. As part of the agreement, OpenSpace will provide Suffolk access to its platform for jobsites and 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 and provide clients more transparency and quality service. We believe this technology is the future of construction and we are 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 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 jobsites into pilot programs with the goal of systematically distributing and scaling new technologies and processes companywide. OpenSpace was initially tested through the CoLabs Pilot Program and rapidly scaled to become a "national operations solution" for projects throughout the country.  

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 jobsite wearing a 360-degree camera affixed to their hardhat. During the walk, the OpenSpace platform automatically tracks the team member's path throughout the jobsite, taking numerous photographs that are seamlessly stitched together to create a virtual jobsite walk, or reality capture model of the site. Suffolk 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 jobsites. All stakeholders and team members have access to an interactive, virtual walkthrough of jobsite 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 jobsites. 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, President and General Manager of Suffolk Northeast.   

As the OpenSpace technology continues to scale, Suffolk project teams are exploring new applications and unleashing new possibilities for the platform. Assistant Superintendent Max Sanchez said, "My team has been using OpenSpace for a variety of purposes, mainly for closely managing subcontractors on incomplete work, addressing safety concerns, and documenting field progress. The technology has been beneficial during team meetings and meetings with our client 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. I've been extremely impressed with their dedication to using best practices in every area," he said.   

"We created OpenSpace to leverage cutting edge AI technology to help builders work more efficiently and 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 that is on a mission to bring new levels of transparency to construction. Our solutions combine simple 360 cameras, computer vision, and AI to make it incredibly easy to capture a complete visual record of the jobsite, share it via the cloud and track progress. To date our customers have used our platform to capture three billion square feet of active construction projects 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, 2,500 employees and main offices in Boston (headquarters), New York, Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Estero, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. Suffolk serves clients in every major industry sector, including healthcare, science and technology, education, gaming, transportation/aviation, and commercial. Suffolk is privately held and is led by founder, chairman and CEO John Fish. Suffolk is ranked #23 on the Engineering News Record list of "Top 400 Contractors." For more information, visit www.suffolk.com and follow Suffolk on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.  

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