At McSteen, we see innovation and the use of cutting-edge technology as one of the core fundamentals driving our company’s growth. 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.
Since Kevin Woeste, CEO, is responsible for leading the charge in terms of technology for McSteen, we asked him to fill us in on what is new and what he sees on the horizon for the land surveying industry.
First up, Kevin shared a new technology that the team is vetting. In fact, McSteen is among the first in the U.S. to test the newest innovation from Emlid, the Pix4d Catch – Handheld Scanner. The new technology has the potential to change how we locate site improvements for mortgage location | SLRs (Surveyor Location Reports), Boundary, and ATLA Surveys.
Instead of setting up equipment and locating individual points – which can take between several hours up to several days for ALTA Surveys – this new technology would allow the field crew to walk the site with the Emlid Scanning kit and capture all the major site improvement data in 20-30 minutes while still achieving the same accuracy.
“We think the future of collecting site improvements for surveying is going to move from surveyors being required to collect high-grade data points through traditional survey process, using a total station or similar technology, to the use of a hand-held device like a phone to capture that data.”
To stay on the cutting edge of innovation, Kevin points out that he frequently looks to see what is happening in other industries and how it might benefit the work being done at McSteen. For instance, each new Tesla vehicle is equipped with eight external cameras and powerful vision processing to provide assistance in driverless cars. The need to have expensive Lidar sensors is slowly diminishing, as we are starting to rely on cameras for vision in these new innovations.
“We watch what is happening outside of the survey world, as it is eventually going to trickle to our world,” Kevin notes. “We have been on the lookout as companies release new products because that’s where we think McSteen is heading.”
In addition to Emlid, Trimble also just announced it is releasing a new product, which makes it clear that there has been a fundamental shift in the industry from relying on expensive instruments (Robotic total stations, GNSS, and LiDAR scanning equipment) to photogrammetry and GNSS that can be captured from a cellphone and GNSS receiver and then process through cloud-based software. “We want to be early adopters of that since a lot of our time spent on-site is setting up the equipment and collecting high-grade accuracy site improvements. (houses, curbs, fences, etc.)”
Traditionally, in surveying, the field crew uses a Robotic Total Station and GNSS receivers to capture thousands of points of highly accurate information on site. Now, with this new technology, we have millions of highly accurate data points that can be collected in a much shorter amount of time.
- Can the software process that amount of data?
- Does the accuracy achieved match what we need?
- Can we process this data in a usable format in an efficient way?
- Can we be at least as efficient in the office in the processing of the data, if not more efficient?
At the end of the day, if it saves us time in the field but takes longer to process the data there is no benefit to adopting the new technology. It must be at least as efficient overall as our current process, with the goal of becoming up to 30% to 40% more efficient.
It takes time to collect the data necessary for Mortgage Locations, Boundary, and ALTA Surveys, sometimes up to three to four days for large projects. With this new technology, we can collect that data in 20-30 minutes. The benefits can include reduced costs, faster turnaround time, and enhanced capacity throughout the company.
We believe this technology has moved past the tipping point and the future of our industry – and McSteen – is moving in this direction. Thus, we have to consider –
- How is it going to change our current workflow?
- How is going to affect our clients?
- How will it enhance what services and deliverables we offer our clients?
There is a huge amount of potential, even though we are early in the vetting and adoption process. It’s new, not known yet, but over the next 1 to 5 years, this idea will become more mainstream and adopted by more of the surveying industry and we want to be leaders in that evolution.
As an early adopter of new technology, we are constantly working to find a balance between the risks and benefits of innovation. We talk a lot about the fact that just because something is a new, shiny object doesn’t mean it is right for McSteen. We spend significant time looking at and testing new technology, heavily vet it and test in the field, and ultimately if we choose to adopt it, spend time and money to develop a process.
Once we are comfortable that it is the right thing to do, our in-house training program and amazing team allows us to ramp up quickly throughout the organization. We have very high standards and our team does a fantastic job of ensuring our evolution is thoughtful and intentional, and always driving us forward.