Construction Firm Builds Out Mobile Capabilities

By Brian Albright, Field Technologies

A suite of mobile apps has helped J.M. Wilkerson generate 6-figure savings and better document projects.

Like many construction firms, J.M. Wilkerson Construction Co. in Marietta, GA, traditionally relied on a lot of paper to document projects, complete safety inspections, and share plans and other documents with subcontractors and clients. Over the past two years, though, the company has undergone a transformation. J.M. Wilkerson has adopted a full suite of iPadand iPhone-based mobile applications that have reduced paperwork and improved efficiency across the company.

Safety director Rob McKinney acts as the company’s mobile construction app guru and says that prior to J.M. Wilkerson’s mobile initiative the company was very paper heavy. In 2012, McKinney was attending a trade association meeting when he noticed a colleague taking notes on an iPad. “I’d used iPhones and iPads personally, but up to that point I’d never really thought about using them for business,” McKinney says. “I was curious, so I went through the app store that night and started typing in keywords like ‘construction,’ ‘quality,’ and ‘safety,’ and found a lot of different applications.”