BuildingBlok
Powerful Project Management Tools for the Construction Sector

BuildingBlok is a cloud-based construction management and communications platform, involved in increasing transparency and accountability for commercial and industrial construction projects. Spearheaded by Justin Nolan, the company strives to alleviate one of the major challenges impeding today’s construction industry—the lack of communication. “It is essential to effectively communicate with various parties involved in a construction project such as subcontractors, architects, engineers, general contractors, and owners to enhance the level of accountability,” notes Justin Nolan, CEO, BuildingBlok. Focusing mainly on small and mid-sized construction managers and subcontractors, BuildingBlok offers a cloud-based online platform to securely store, organize and share construction related documents and reports for an audit trail. “This will reduce litigation risks, improve cost efficiency and enhance the economics of managing construction,” says Nolan.

BuildingBlok has been successful in revolutionizing the way their customers manage projects. The company strives to get its clients off a combination of email, faxes, and excel and move them online. This ensures that the clients use a common database that results in effective sharing of data which in turn helps in communication and collaboration. BuildingBlok’s team of experts has also added a number of features that deliver incremental value to their customers and help them manage the entire lifecycle of a project.

As the construction industry of today is fast embracing technology, business firms are looking forward to move their operations to cloud and prefer solutions which are mobile and tablet based. To cater the needs, BuildingBlok offers Android and iOS mobile app, which allows users in the field to work offline and have that information synced back to the database. “It all matters on how the system handles the entire lifecycle of the construction management project and make it work with email, mobile and on cloud,” says Nolan.

BuildinBlok helps users manage bidding, construction documents like

submittals, daily reports and time sheets, and everything that has to do with a construction management project. What really distinguishes BuildingBlok from other companies is that there is a collaborative effect in which, contractors can add subcontractors, architects, and engineers at no extra cost to use the system. “Another interesting facet is that the tool requires no training; users can simply create an account, login and start using it without any tutorial,” adds Nolan.

BuildingBlok’s mobile-friendly platform reduces the amount of time spent on paper works by 75 percent, resulting in increased efficiency. This allows the customers to do more with the same number of people. For instance, the company’s software platform helped a client streamline the workflow and improve their execution process, resulting in more resource utilization. The client with 100 employees had to cut down the resources to 75 employees due to recession. But with BuildingBlok, during the same period, the client was able to grow the amount of business they have taken up by 50 percent, as the platform allowed them to streamline the workflow to a great extent.

Moving forward, BuildingBlok is keen on establishing partnerships with construction industry leaders, which Nolan believes will make BuildingBlok a major online construction management solutions provider in the market. “I expect that over the next few years in the construction space, there’s going to be a lot of technology providers consolidated into a few very powerful tools that will come at different price points for builders,” says Nolan. BuildingBlok is well equipped to be a most important tool among them.