More mobile, more Australian

Having just blogged about Australian company Constrex and their Tender.ly application (post), I now find myself writing about another Australian company, All Over Geo, which is developing location-aware mobile solutions for use on-site on construction projects.

The first solution is an iPhone app called Foreman’s Mate, aimed at improving safety and increasing productivity, and All Over Geo say field tests show it can save a foreman around 30-60 minutes per day in reduced administration and paperwork, and improve quality of service through better data collection and an increased presence on site. (From the website description, it sounds similar to the mobile solution that [my former employer] BIW Technologies developed for quality management, incorporating simple drop-down lists, use of photos as part of the reporting functionality, server synchronisation, etc.)

From an email exchange with All Over Geo CEO Benjamin Ranck, I understand the company is considering how to extend use of Foreman’s Mate, perhaps through integration with a construction collaboration technology platform (fellow Australian vendors Aconex or Incite would appear to be logical starting places).

The application is also being tested in the US, Canada and the UK, so maybe one of the UK-based vendors might also be interested in integrating this into their offering rather than developing their own solutions from scratch.

All Over Geo is also planning to make Foreman’s Mate multi-platform, with Android and Windows Mobile 7 versions to be developed as resources allow. Given the corporate use of Blackberry devices, I think All Over Geo should also include this in their plans (as Asite is doing with its cMob app – post).