[Case Study] Wolverine Engineers & Surveyors, Inc. Brings e-Construction Innovation to Michigan Municipalities

Background: Wolverine Engineers & Surveyors, Inc. (Wolverine) has served local communities in the Michigan area for over 100 years with engineering services for infrastructure improvement projects. Their teams prepare bid documents, post solicitations, make award recommendations, and continue following projects through the construction lifecycle.

Fueled by a desire to embrace the future of digital project delivery, Project Engineer Joe White sought out cloud-based solutions that would allow for visual daily reports, remote online bidding, and paperless change order management.

Solution: White and his team combine multiple Infotech software solutions to increase efficiency, transparency, and productivity. Wolverine uses Appia® for construction administration, Bid Express® for e-bidding, Doc Express® for paperless contracting, and Mobile Inspector® for field inspections.

Results: Detailed and streamlined reporting, safe and secure online bidding, increased field reporting productivity, and faster dispute resolution.

Seeking out cloud-based, multi-faceted solutions

Wolverine started vetting software solutions that would replace its use of FieldManager™, with one primary goal in mind: find something that would better organize and enable photo documentation in the field. White and his team have made consistent efforts to introduce digital solutions to their field, beginning when they first moved on from spreadsheets years ago.

“There’s potential for error in spreadsheets,” White said. “If you’re totaling pay items and you don’t capture a certain line, errors can be introduced into pay estimates by using spreadsheets.”

Moving from spreadsheets, then to a locally-installed program like FieldManager, and finally to a cloud-based solution in Appia was the natural process of Wolverine’s evolution.

“Wolverine justified investment into Appia because of what it offered for construction administration. We saw value in it that I can’t really put a dollar amount on but I see it as the way of the future for administering projects.”

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