PlanGrid: The leader in mobile construction productivity software

“With PlanGrid, any construction team member can manage and update blueprints, specs, photos, RFIs, field reports, punchlists and other information from any device.”

Today, the massive explosion of technological advancements has taken nearly every industry to extraordinary heights of excellence. It is the construction industry that has still remained untouched, to a great extent, by the rapid technological developments. While the integration of technology into the businesses of most industries has doubled the productivity over the years, the construction industry has witnessed no significant growth in its productivity. In fact, the research reveals the construction industry to be one such industry that is least proactive in spending on technology compared to other industries.

And it is this underutilization of technology in the construction industry that has led to the invention of PlanGrid. This is the industry where PlanGrid aims to bring a revolutionary change with its simple, powerful construction software. The company’s mobile-first technology offers general contractors, subs, owners and architects and all those part of a construction team, access to real-time information, enables greater collaboration and provides actionable insights. PlanGrid enables any construction team member, from wherever they are, to manage and update blueprints, specs, photos, RFIs, field reports, punchlists and other information from any device. With over 150 million digital blueprints on its cloud-based platform, PlanGrid is also the largest digital blueprint repository in the world.

“With faster timelines, shrinking budgets, and fewer skilled workers available today, PlanGrid understand the importance of measuring the ROI of your construction productivity software.”

How it all started

It dates back to the time when Tracy Young was working as a construction project engineer for Rudolph and Sletten. It was during this time that she identified the lack of proper utilization of technology in the construction industry and that it is failing to build good buildings. To solve these problems, Young teamed up with four friends and founded PlanGrid in 2011.

Awards & Achievements

• PlanGrid CEO Tracy Young has been named as a Top 50 SaaS CEO in 2018
• Tracy Young, was named to Fast Company's "Most Creative People in Business" in 2015
• PlanGrid has won two awards at the 13^th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service for third consecutive year in 2019

“From plans and specifications to punch lists, documents, and photos, PlanGrid is your single source of truth.”

Case Study

PlanGrid shares an impressive story where the company called “Air Analysis of Atlanta” (AAI) relied on its products to get some of their major project-related issues resolved. The company faced few unique challenges in the mechanical systems of its new construction project. This is when AAI approached PlanGrid.

PlanGrid enabled AAI to document and communicate its findings in a way that it never did before. AAI’s traditional tracking process included some tedious and cumbersome tasks like taking photos on site, and then going back to the office, trying to remember where the photos were taken, then spending hours trying to format everything in a report.

But by implementing PlanGrid, the company moved away from its traditional tracking process and resorted to a tracking process that generated a report linking photos to physical locations on the plans. AAI received astounding results and the issues got resolved in an efficient and effective way. With the help of PlanGrid, the company saved $15,000 worth of labor costs, witnessed a reduction of 10-20% in project timeline, and generated 7,400% ROI from PlanGrid.

Elated and satisfied with the results, Cx and Business Operations Manager of AAI, Dane Richards said: "I can pretty confidently say that we would have spent 10-20% more time on the project if we had not used [PlanGrid issue tracking] on the project."

PlanGrid Offerings

PlanGrid offers construction software that includes variety of products which when combined, makes the entire construction task very simple for the team. The products eliminate all manual and paper based tasks thus allowing the members of the team to perform the tasks from their convenient spaces, just by the use of the software. Also, the software enables the effective collaboration of and communication in the entire team. The software works in a sequence of steps which are performed through the various products offered by PlanGrid.

• Documents: This is the first tool of PlanGrid’s construction productivity software. It allows the team members to maintain documents and perform variety of tasks ranging from publishing any number of sheets, transforming 2D into 3D model to reviewing submittals and responding to RFIs. It comprises of many products like smart drawings, BIM, documents, workflows, submittals, automatic submittal log, advanced RFI’s instant sync, each of which is designed to perform a specific task.
• Progress: This comes as a second tool of the construction productivity software that effectively contributes in simplifying the project. Using the tool, the progress of the project is tracked in many ways like marking the issues or areas that requires attention, track and find punch lists, etc. It comprises of variety of products, like markups, tasks, punch lists, sheet compare, photos & videos, project hub, each of which is dedicated to a specific task.
• Reporting: This is the third tool of the construction productivity software. This tool enables the project team members to prepare and maintain different kinds of reports like field reports, PDF reports, and as-builts. There are numerous tasks that can be carried out through report creation. Reports are present in the form of forms that details tasks like reports tracking, references attachment, assign permission levels.
• Enterprise: This is the fourth tool of PlanGrid’s construction software that is designed to help ease the burden on the enterprise. It offers the enterprise the comfort of managing every project related task through its software. The tool comprises of variety of products like admin console, PlanGrid connect, integrations, each of which is developed to serve a specific purpose and can perform numerous varieties of tasks.

“PlanGrid is the first construction productivity software that allows contractors and owners in commercial, heavy civil and other industries to work and collaborate from anywhere.”

Meet the Construction Luminary

Tracy Young is a Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder at PlanGrid. Young has earned her bachelor’s degree in Engineering from California State Sacramento. Prior to PlanGrid, Young has worked as a construction project engineer for Rudolph and Sletten.