At Beck Technology, our goal has always been to “revolutionize the construction industry and make the world a better place.” But what does “making the world a better place” look like practically? Does it even have a practical application or is it just a catchy slogan?
To answer those questions, we have to take look at where we’ve been—why we were started in the first place and what we’ve done to confidently say that revolutionizing the industry is more than corporate evangelism.
Where Have We Been?
Beck Technology was originally founded in 1996 by Dallas-based general contractor The Beck Group. The CEO at the time, Peter Beck, noticed that so many of the problems that led to failed projects were due to mistakes that occurred early in the preconstruction phase of construction. He theorized that if there were tools and systems in place to address these mistakes before they could take root, it would lead to less money wasted and faster turnaround for project completion.
Although solving the practical problem of “how do we maximize our time and minimize financial loss” was the initial motivation behind Beck Technology, we knew that the impact of preconstruction software on the built environment went far beyond just getting rid of waste. To us, preconstruction software meant growth, restoration, and even creation.
Mike Boren, Beck Technology’s Chief Technology Officer, gave a little more insight: “There was a 
hospital builder back in the ‘80s who was looking to replace a new hospital here in the Dallas area. They’d gone through a handful of different design iterations, went through a lot of estimating rounds, every time realizing they were over budget. Eventually, they ran out of money, and they realized they weren’t going to be able to fund this hospital without giving up everything. That hospital was never built, and if you think about that story and the countless other stories like that, it’s sobering to know that there are all these buildings that could have changed the world if only better decisions had been made earlier in the process.”
With the help of preconstruction software like DESTINI Estimator, suddenly the world is full of possibilities. DESTINI Estimator enables general contractors to get an accurate, visual estimate of their project before it ever gets off the ground thanks to features like team estimating and version estimates, which allow precon teams to send feedback in real time. When companies don’t have to completely scratch a project due to estimate errors, they can turn their focus to changing the communities they live in for the better. Clean water can now become a reality for an entire city. More food can be put on the table thanks to the jobs that a construction project alone generates. Illnesses can be cured, inventions can be made, philosophy and art and music can be born.
And not only can all of these things happen, but they also already have, thanks in large part to the use of DESTINI Estimator, which automates many of the tasks that can lead to huge mistakes. But don’t take our word for it. Hear from our clients themselves about the ways they’ve been able to impact the world using DESTINI Estimator.
Where Are We Going?
As proud as we are of all we’ve been able to accomplish with the DESTINI suite of preconstruction software, we’ve never been okay with settling for the status quo. We always want to make sure that we’re adapting to the needs of the industry, using the lessons we’ve learned from the past to inform our future. To that end, we’ve established the Innovations Lab, a team dedicated purely to developing and testing prototypes of potential features and programs. We also continue to strategically partner with other software vendors to enhance what we bring to estimators.
Mike Boren adds, “Why focus on making the world a better place? What we think is going to happen every day, and what we’re constantly driving towards, is to enable estimators to not only make better decisions earlier, but also to provide owners with projects that are significantly cheaper, that can be built faster, and that are safer thanks to those better decisions being made. In the near term, we want precon teams to spend more time with their families. We want them to be able to do things they’ve never been able to do before. Instead of spending time counting things and organizing the structure of their job to communicate to owners, we want them to be able to exercise their knowledge of what it takes to build that building. If they can spend more time focusing on delivering amazing products, rather than counting linear feet of walls, they can bring a product that is a thousand times better than anything that has ever been seen before, and that is of a much higher quality.”
Want to Change the World?
If like us, you see that preconstruction is a way to make a difference in the lives and communities around us—that it's not just about being a human calculator—then it might be time to think about partnering with us. Click the button below to request your demo of the DESTINI suite of preconstruction software.
