At McSteen, we see innovation and the use of cutting-edge technology as a core fundamental that is driving the growth of our company. As a result, we are always on the lookout for new technologies that can help us do our jobs better and more efficiently on behalf of our team members and clients. And, sometimes, we create our own.
McSteen CEO, Kevin Woeste is responsible for leading the charge in terms of technology, noting “Technology has always interested me, so I’ve also stepped into overseeing the technical division and guiding the company’s focus, vision, and direction with regards to technology.”
While some of the ways we incorporate technology into McSteen and our workflow may be obvious, some are a bit more behind the scenes.
Enhanced Human Resources
In a competitive market, differentiating ourselves from others in our industry is of the utmost importance. While we certainly expect a potential employee to make a good first impression, we also understand that we must do the same. A few software partners help us to do just that.
At McSteen, we incorporate cutting-edge technology from the very beginning of our interview and onboarding processes. The Predictive Index is software that allows us to align the right people with the right roles and to help ensure they’ll be set up for success before we even extend an offer.
Once we’ve found a candidate, assessed them with PI, had one or multiple interviews and we’d like to move forward with an offer. Enter, Rippling. The social media equivalent of an HR and Payroll platform. It’s organized, user-friendly, and honestly, just looks really cool – that counts for something with first impressions.
Testing New Survey Technologies
Both internally with our team and externally for our clients, we look to technology to help us become more efficient. After all, we believe that even the smallest gain in efficiency can have an impact and allow us to offer better service to our clients.
As a company, we see the value of investing time and money into technology early in the process rather than waiting for it to be fully fleshed out. It requires a lot of internal testing to find the balance of adopting technology early without getting burned too frequently on tools that just won’t work for us, but our team embraces it.
For instance, we recently tested AirWorks, actually for the second time. An AI-powered software that turns remote sensing data (i.e., Drone Ortho Masic photos and LiDar scans) into pixel-accurate base maps, AirWorks was not mature enough to incorporate into our workflow when we first tested it in 2018.
Fast forward to the present day, and we heard enough rumblings about the product throughout the industry that we decided it was time to give it another chance. After testing it, we have signed up with and purchased Acres with Airworks and look forward to incorporating them on many of our larger acreage projects for drone data collection and processing.
Building Our Own Technology
We can probably all agree that the single most important factor to success in almost any business is time. Specifically, having more of it. In today’s world, it is all about getting things done fast, so we can do more with the same number of resources. Although our people are our most important “tool” by far, they are exponentially more successful when provided with the right technology.
By developing our McSteen Field App, we have been able to create great efficiencies throughout our company. In fact, we are not just more efficient but are able to provide better and more accurate information for our clients. Every crew member has their own iPad and uploads data in real-time rather than messing with individual files and FAXing information, which we used to have to do not all that long ago.
Similarly, our Survey Tracker software allows our clients to log in, order a survey, track the survey, and receive a final copy of it. And while we are proud of this, we are working towards the development and launch of a new platform that will integrate throughout our entire organization, empowering us to revolutionize our internal processes as well as leave a notable impact on the wider real estate industry.
