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a certified drone pilot who operates a sophisticated industry has the lowest technology spend as a
drone that possesses high-definition cameras, and percent of revenue in the nation. As documented
we are working with our building information modeling by Gartner and other analysts, the spend is around
teams to determine how we can start leveraging one percent and, in most cases, a little less. A major
drone footage for more than just beautiful marketing challenge we have is funding R&D to start working
flyovers.
on new projects and evaluating all these emerging
EVALUATING Challenges Along the Way technologies. We have to spend the few R&D
dollars that we do have wisely and hope that we are
choosing the right things to explore.
In our evaluation of drone technology, one of the
NEW TECHNOLOGY biggest challenges we encountered was what to Trying to instill passion and excitement into the
do with all the gigabytes of drone footage we were
team to work on new technologies, without available
collecting. . . How would we store it? Where would we
funding, can be difficult. The team may be interested
keep it, and for how long?
and intrigued, but sometimes IoT devices can feel
We used to think we had a big data problem before more like a hobby. Our company as a whole is very
this new technology came along; however, once we busy and does not have too much “extra” time to
By Sam Lamonica, Chief Information Officer
started looking at more IoT devices, we realized our dedicate to learning something new that may or may
data challenges were going to grow exponentially. If not be beneficial in the long run.

W hen I look at the emerging technologies because there are no set standards in place for our
impacting the field of construction, there’s
industry, there is not an efficient, effective way to
no shortage of avenues we could explore.
quickly evaluate each new technology that comes
Narrowing the choices down to those that are most along.
relevant is a big challenge. I’m sure CIOs across
industries can relate given the influx of new solutions Determining Relevance
and technologies we hear about every day. Over the past couple of years, drones have become
a big deal in construction. Initially, the applications did
For construction, safety is the number one concern not seem that practical. We had the capabilities to fly
across the industry, and emerging technology has a over a big hole in the ground and then fly over it again
number of potential solutions to address this concern. in a month and show a little
We are looking at things like intelligent safety gear progress. It seemed great
– everything from RFID tags; to sensors that can for business development
detect heart rate, pulse, exposure to dangerous and marketing, but little else.
gases, physical injuries, and more. These Internet However, we dug deeper
of Things (IoT) devices could be a significant step in to better understand and
making sure our employees go home to their families determine if drone technology
each and every day. But there are many challenges was worth investing in.
keeping us from deploying a slew of IoT devices at a
construction site. As the technology evolved, we have considered the we truly wanted to evaluate the benefits of drones for As an example, at one point there were some virtual
use of drones to address productivity and determine Rosendin Electric, we were going to have to address reality glasses floating around the Corporate building.
If I want to keep employees safe through the use of whether a project is on schedule. In addition, we have the data challenge early and head on. It was all the buzz. Staff seemed excited about them
devices that are on their bodies, that type of data has discovered a safety benefit from their use. If we need and were interested in experimenting with the new
to be monitored in real time. Couple that with the fact to inspect wind generators or power lines on a project, In this case, we partnered with a cloud technology technology; however, everyone was challenged with
that any one device can generate up to a terabyte of it is a lot safer to send up a drone to take pictures and intelligent platform provider that enabled us to carving out the time to play with them.
data a day, and the sheer ability to monitor, track, and and or video rather than a person. But, the only way not only store, but take action on our data. We have
react in real time can be absolutely mind-boggling. to know whether or not you can fully leverage the now married this platform with our drone experiments, Regardless of the industry you work in, there will
That is just one example. technology is to immerse yourself in it, and we did and it is helping us to combat early challenges with be challenges when it comes to evaluating new
that early on. the technology. However, figuring out how to use technologies and solutions. My advice for other CIOs
We are also looking at Artificial Intelligence (AI), IoT emerging technology is not our only challenge. is to identify those challenges early on so they do
applications outside of safety, and augmented and Once the use cases for drones became clear to not get in the way of determining whether a new
virtual reality. All of which come with their own layers us, the IT Department decided to get somebody at Getting IT On Board technology is right for your business. Do what makes
of considerations and potential complications. Also, Rosendin certified as a drone pilot. Today, we have Compared to other industries, the construction sense for your business and your people.

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