Innovation Expo Series: How BuildVision and CPS Are Empowering Contractors
BuildVision is a software platform built to help commercial contractors save time, cut costs, and gain complete control over their building systems procurement. Construction Procurement Solutions handles the complexity of procurement sourcing, so project teams gain the freedom to focus on what truly matters—building projects. They’re working together to revolutionize the way procurement works in the construction industry. In this month’s Innovation Expo interview, STOBG Chief Innovation Office Rob Leon speaks with BuildVision COO Ben Lyddane and CPS Senior VP David Hamilton about the results of their recent pilot program.
Innovation Expo Series:
How BuildVision and CPS Are Empowering Contractors
HOST
Rob Leon
Chief Innovation Officer, STO Building GroupView Bio
GUEST
David Hamilton
Senior Vice President, Construction Procurement SolutionsView Bio
GUEST
Ben Lyddane
Chief Operating Officer, BuildVisionView Bio
Rob Leon (00:00):
Hello everybody. Welcome to the STOBG Innovation Expo series: behind the Scenes conversation. Today we are talking to BuildVision. We’re joined by Ben Lyddanne, COO of BuildVision, and our own, Dave Hamilton, Senior Vice President of Construction Procurement Solutions. Good afternoon, gentlemen.
David Hamilton (00:17):
Afternoon. Afternoon.
Ben Lyddane (00:18):
Thanks for having us.
Rob Leon (00:20):
Absolutely. So, so Ben, I really want to start with the question of like, what was the problem that you guys saw in the industry that you wanted to solve?
Ben Lyddane (00:28):
Sure. It’s a great question. I think being in construction for about 10 years prior to coming on and doing this at BuildVision we’ve all lived through inefficiencies in construction and kind of just the grinding, halting nature of the supply chain of construction. So mainly related to procurement. We were very focused on the little kind of micro inefficiencies, but then also some of the overarching business model issues. There’re misaligned incentives in procurement, there’s subcontractors by equipment that may or may not be technical experts. There’s kind of this amalgamation of problems and we view it as like a, as not one specific single thing, but really like fifty plus kind of, of these micro smaller problems that all create a lot of friction that we see every day. Right. Well,
Rob Leon (01:12):
Certainly, something that I think the industry as a whole is looking at, right? We’re all trying to solve, I think that little problem, that little nuance, and how do we get an advantage in the game. Dave has been working on this for, I mean, his whole career in some way or another, but from a technology standpoint, Dave, we started looking at something like five years ago maybe. It was when we started looking at different solutions from a technology point of view.
David Hamilton (01:34):
Yeah, we, we really struggled with trying to get data across the entire organization, across our, our family of what’s now fourteen different builders and how to amalgamate and aggregate all of that information. And I couldn’t believe it whenever Mike Powers called me, who’s been Lydanne’s partner, and also his boss called me a couple of years ago and said he had cracked the idea and he was able to bring us BuildVision and what the inception was, was fantastic. Being able to give us that aggregation right across the whole industry, across our, our company.
Rob Leon (02:06):
That’s really great to hear. So tell me a little bit, like, how did you go about solving the problem, building the team building technology to get us to where you are today?
Ben Lyddane (02:14):
Sure. So it started back like a year and a half ago with Mike and his co-founder Christophe, and really kind of where the construction brain and Mike and then the engineering brain and Christophe who started building the platform. But there’s a really big focus on kind of closing the loop of the quotation process and the procurement process. So right now there’s a lot of different kind of open-ended pieces in the problem where you’re working with many different vendors, many different manufacturers information is spread all across the internet, and we’re trying to take all of that unstructured kind of web of information and turn it into something structured that’s useful for your organization. So I’m sure if you can imagine like a set of construction plans, there’s a million different MEP engineering firms, they all have a slightly different flavor of how they build different construction documents and taking all those unstructured pieces of information and turning it into something that Dave’s team can look at in a coordinated, structured way, and then relay that information to the vendors is allow a big focus of ours on a daily basis. I’m always kind of thinking of like; how can we turn what might have taken a hundred steps before into five steps Now?
Rob Leon (03:18):
That’s great. And Dave, like, you know, the vision of having a, you know, centralized procurement department has been a vision of the organizations for a long time. Yours specifically as well talk a little bit about how the platform of BuildVision got you, let’s say, quicker into getting to where we are now and actually establishing a standalone business. So talk bit about how BuildVision helped speed that process up and make it more efficiently and how it’s leading to the success.
David Hamilton (03:47):
I would say, Rob, looking across the, the couple of years that Mike and I have been working together being able to understand the, the, the lack of integration of the data and the unstructured nature of it, as Ben has said as well, has been so difficult for us. And I think what really cracked, and I’d like to hear what you have on this Ben but is really the AI and being able to take what is a very intuitive platform like building Connected, which we use all day every day across the entire organization. And building another portion onto the end of that almost is what it feels like. That really helps us ingest a lot of the documents that are already in building connected, bring them across, into BuildVision and then take the, the information and aggregate that together. I know I’m using the word aggregate a lot, but it’s a very, very important definition for, for us to have as that viewpoint across. And, and I want to really, you know, hammer home the, the two words that Ben mentioned in passing, and I think they really need to be emphasized. One is efficiency and the other is frictionless. And those are two things that we, we keep looking at as we build out and as we keep talking about BuildVision and see where it applies across the organization, those two are very, very important.
Rob Leon (05:07):
And I think one of the challenges, especially when you’re looking at very, you’re talking about like, like larger equipment, HVAC equipment, there’s a lot of nuances that are in there. And obviously you have to eventually meet a specification. Talk a little bit about how you make sure that you’re meeting the exact specifications. So what’s on the drawings, what’s in the specifications, you know, a lot of times we know that when the subcontractor gets to it, that’s when all these nuances kind of fit. Is it, is it a left-hand valve assembly? Is it a right-hand valve assembly? So where do those, like, that’s like the nitty gritty part of, it’s not just buying a refrigerator out of Lowe’s or something from Amazon. These are very specific things that have to be tweaked. Tell me about that process.
Ben Lyddane (05:52):
Yeah, in a lot of ways it’s actually closer to like a fighter jet than it is to like a SKU or SKU number that you’re buying something off of Amazon. Like some of the machines that Dave’s team purchases can have a million, literally a million different parameters of options and accessories that they’re looking at. So how do you come up with the exact right solution? So part of that is in the effort that their team puts on from an engineering perspective of using the expertise that they have to send out bids in a way that they’re getting structured data back. So what I mean by that in more detail is, like today in the construction industry, everyone’s probably seen a new email in their inbox with the subject title of a project that you’ve never seen before, never heard of. So to get caught up to speed, you’re opening up the files.
Ben Lyddane (06:34):
I mean, just finding out where the schedules are, where the, where the item’s located on the plans, where the specification is. There’s a lot of duplicated effort happening across the industry. Every vendor’s doing that over and over and over again. So using a combination of our software to kind of structure that data, put it into a viewable format, and then Dave’s team with an engineering lens viewing it kind of puts it together so that when you start to get the bids back and, and take a look at them, you’re really being an expert. You’re not just looking at a PDF and hoping for the best kind of thing. It’s, it’s a lot more, in some ways it actually enables you to do the engineering work. I
David Hamilton (07:08):
Think what Rob was asking as well is around the scope sheets, right? So we’ve developed what, eighty-five unique scope sheets.
Ben Lyddane (07:14):
Actually today, like over 550 templates now? Yeah. So we’re up to a lot of honesty, any piece of equipment you can think of in the industry, we almost have a template for it. And we have a detailed version and a basic version of it. So depending on the project, where you are on the project, you can also really kind of meet, meet the bid request.
David Hamilton (07:32):
So the templated ones that we did, the eighty-five, that’s ones that we have created. Yeah. And then yours are the additional ones on top, correct. Yeah. So could you just talk a little bit then around some of that I heard recently is AI and being able to scrape from manufacturer’s data sheets? Yeah, no, and being able to understand those a lot deeper. I’ll
Ben Lyddane (07:51):
Give a couple, yeah, a couple examples. So one reason, one thing of why it’s so important is that these nuances that you mentioned, there could be one line item on a set of construction plans that really dictates an entire project. So for Dave and his team to go in and create these templates and scope sheet questions that the vendors are answering, it’s giving you those, the information back that you actually need to get the, you know, to get the correct bid answered. So that’s part of it. The next thing with AI that’s really cool is we’re taking the schedule notes and the specification notes and turning those into scope sheets. So if you had a schedule note that said like you know, a roof curb is required on a rooftop unit, all of a sudden that becomes a scope sheet questions and you’re, you’re getting the response back from your vendors whether or not that thing’s included. It’s not buried in A PDF somewhere. And then really too, when you’re comparing pricing, you really are looking at apples to apples. That’s not this apples to orange just comparison. Well, that’s
Rob Leon (08:39):
The other key to that is that, so, okay, alright. If the supplier isn’t, you know, providing it, which may not be a standard thing, at least it won’t fall off the scope sheet from the contractor, supply it. So you can at least go down there, say it’s not a piece of equipment, but it has to be provided, it’s provided by the subcontractor to this point. And so that piece of the puzzle is a real nice connection too. And it seems like that’s eliminating some, some project scope risk as well.
David Hamilton (09:04):
Yeah. Scope gap, scope gap, it’s what we’ve looked across, closing.
David Hamilton (09:07):
And, and this is just enabling us, you know, BuildVision has really lifted us right. Tremendously into a whole other arena of, of not being able to, or, or, or, or you could do it, but it’d be very laborious. Sure. And the data would be outdated and you know, it, it’s lifting that all.
Rob Leon (09:23):
Well, I think that’s the other key to ai. As the AI starts to learn more and just to see, to find out what the, the typical questions, answers, things like that, it’s going to start refining it to you even more efficient as the process goes along. So here’s one for you. So as you’ve gone through this journey of developing where you are today, what are some of the surprises that have hit you <laugh> the
Ben Lyddane (09:44):
Way? Well, you know, even like, you know, 18 months ago when BuildVision was started, LMS and ChatGPT pt, I think 3.5 was out and it was still pretty new. And to what we’re seeing now with oh one and some of the new models, like the large language models have come a long way in a pretty short period of time. It’s something that we really, 18 months ago, like we’re not an AI company, but we’re using it in our application because it’s able to solve a lot of the problems that we’re trying to solve. So I, I was, I wouldn’t have planned on becoming this AI kind of tool now, and it’s been kind of cool to see, to see that happen. That’s
Rob Leon (10:13):
Great. So tell me about some of your successes, like milestone successes to date and like, what is your next vision of, of a milestone success?
Ben Lyddane (10:21):
Yeah. So it’s been fun. We’ve, we’ve kind of gone through the full project life cycle now, and I think that’s been awesome to see. So starting with a set of construction plans, going through an entire bid process all the way to where equipment’s actually purchased and closing that procurement loop. So, you know, a year ago we were just a dream of like, we’d love to have a bunch of quotes on the platform, and now it’s like, no, there’s real construction projects that Dave’s team’s looking at and that are getting procured using the software. It’s pretty cool to just see it like, almost like A to Z. Everyone loves to go, you know, point at all the buildings they’ve created. It’s kind of our little version of that in the procurement world.
Rob Leon (10:53):
That’s great. Well, we look at these things as like a really, like a symbiotic kind of relationship, right? The fact that the, the platform that you’ve built is really helping us build a business and become more efficient. How do you see our involvement in the development your company and the, and the relationship and the value to the relationship that we bring?
Ben Lyddane (11:11):
Yeah, I mean, we couldn’t have done it without a partner, like structured tone, realistically. And it’s just the day-to-day interaction because like, as much as you can have an idea for something and want to make it until you’re getting direct day-to-day feedback on users of, of the application, you, you can’t refine it. Well. So Dave’s team’s been critical to being able to give us like, here’s the specific thing, exactly what we need for this specific process, and that lets our engineers team build it to specification. Because at the end of the day, if we’re not, if we’re building the wrong thing, it doesn’t help anyone out. So like, we have to be building the right thing for you, and then you guys have to be involved with us to make sure the right thing’s getting built. So it’s, it’s every, I talk to them every day essentially about, you know, how we can improve the application. It’s great.
David Hamilton (11:52):
I think right from the initial get go, you know, there was very much of a conversation between Mike Powers just before you came along, Ben, but it’s been the same with yourself, where we looked at each other in the eye and said, I, I need you and I, and he would look at me and say, I, I need you. So, you know, there was very much this, this partnership idea of understanding each other’s reliance, just to be able to get this all off the ground and, and make sure that the concept actually worked, beginning to see the concept work. You talk about successes, you know, it was just amazing to see those first couple of bids come in. I know it doesn’t sound like a huge deal, but seeing those first 30,000, you know, a hundred thousand dollars bids come in, scope sheets being filled out, you know, naturally vendors reacting the way that we want them to in the marketplace, and that them having to go through a, a learning curve, a little bit of a change here. They’re not just sending out their usual, you know, quote to broad scatter. Yeah. You know, they’re really having now to go in and answer these questions and think about it, but the reaction from them I think has been very positive. And I would say successes and, and something that has been a surprise, maybe in a sense has been how people have embraced it.
Ben Lyddane (13:02):
Yeah, I’d say the savvier the vendor too, the more likely they are to love it because they’re just putting their equipment in the best light possible. So Dave’s teams ask a question, if they can have the right answer, then they’re there at the right time. So it does work for everyone, even downstream with the vendors. Sometimes it does take ’em a little bit to get on board, but once they’re on board usually they’re pretty excited about it. Yeah, I
Rob Leon (13:22):
Think it’s great. Look, when we decide to invest in a company, whether it’s physical dollars or a time and an effort, it really goes back down to the team, right? Say we have to have belief in yes, the solution, but also the team. And that this interaction, this partnership is going to actually work. And I remember when I first met Mike, he brought me into the room and talking to Mike about like, okay, so how’s this information getting into your system? And Mike said, “We’re doing it manually. I’m like, oh boy, well that’s going to, but here’s the key to that, right? It’s, it was the commitment from you guys to go from, yeah, that’s how you had to start, right? And where you are now, where it’s, it’s so intuitive, automatic, you know, the connection to building connected is, is one piece of it, but the, the technology that was built into, you’re now scraping the information from the drawings and all that stuff. That to us is the sign of a great partner. And I think what is, what going to make you successful going forward? So it asks, it begs the question to say, okay. So within the BuildVision context, what is your next like, major achievement? What are you focusing on? Yeah,
Ben Lyddane (14:30):
I mean we’re, we’re hyper-focused on increasing the volume going through the platform. So that’s more projects that are bringing, you know, just doing it more often. And I think the better the product gets, the easier it is to do it more often. So like, I have a big thing on my wall at my house that’s like, you know, make Dave more efficient.
Ben Lyddane (14:47):
Because that’s all I want to do every day is just make, make his team better. Because the, the better his team can get, the more the product works. So you know, I think it’s nice to hear you say some nice things about how far it’s come along. I think software it’s never over and I think we’ll be working on it forever. Hopefully, that’s the plan. And just like constantly trying to improve it, that’s the goal.
Rob Leon (15:05):
And I’m assuming that the expansion from HVC equipment, electrical equipment, to some of all the other pieces and of materials that we’re focused on as well.
Ben Lyddane (15:14):
Yeah, definitely. I mean, today, mechanical and electrical are, we, they’re, they’re challenging, but they’re low hanging fruit because in that challenge there’s a lot of opportunity. So the closer you get to a commodity, the less likely it would be to run through like a full procurement process. But beyond mechanical and electrical, there’s many other pieces of equipment that, that do require it as well. So I think the sky is the limit as far as what we could procure, you know, what your team could procure.
David Hamilton (15:39):
I would say lighting’s a very, very much a nice progression, you know, and I think even building out some of the AI to be able to begin to do that automatically is going to be interesting. So it picks up on symbols and then a verification trust and verify, as you always remind us as far as the ingestion and to BuildVision that things are always verified. But
Ben Lyddane (15:58):
Yeah, and also running the other direction too, so like, as important as it is for you guys to run efficiently, we’re, we’re also on our kind of next iteration, we’re going to spend a lot more time focusing on the vendor responses. Because It’s critical for them to be able to use it extremely easily and for them to get value out of it too. Because at the end of the day, you, you really need that symbiotic relationship with everyone in the construction supply chain.
David Hamilton (16:19):
I think what’s been very interesting too, for us has been the scale. So we’ve just talked about light fixtures, you’re right down to one component that’s pretty small whenever you think of AC units. We’re not just out there concentrating on the bigger projects and the larger AC units. BuildVision has that capability of being able to be agnostic, as it were to the size of the unit just because of, you know, quantities and digitization, et cetera. It, it just makes it so simple. So we can scale that across any size or shape of project and the large ones and the small ones together. So it’s not as though we’re just concentrating on very large projects we’re you talk about low hanging fruit, you know, that some people have been very focused on those. But for us as a view, as we have always said, we do what, 1200 projects a year. Seventy percent of our projects are under two or five million. Whatever way you want to slice it. You know, and that’s, that’s really where we see BuildVision being tremendously powerful because it’s able to grab all of that information, all of that data right across even the smallest of projects and aggregate that all together for us, that’s going to be tremendous. Perfect.
Rob Leon (17:24):
Well, we’re certainly excited to see what happens next with BuildVision and the partnership that we have with us together. Thank you both for joining us. Again. Join us next time at STO Building Group Innovation Expos Behind the Scenes.