The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
BENGALURU, NOVEMBER 9, 2021
Leading diversified professional services and investment management firm Colliers announced the launch of its pathbreaking technology platform: CoGence, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven platform that enables remote site monitoring and advanced analytics thereby ensuring faster and more efficient management of its construction projects. The platform developed in partnership with Inkers will significantly boost the construction and project management business in India.
Colliers is the top player in project management in India, and with this innovative platform, it has future-proofed its business that is emerging from a long pandemic. A challenging business environment has highlighted the need to adopt innovative technologies to ensure the health and safety of the onsite personnel while enhancing the services provided to clients. The construction industry is poised for giant leaps, and the use of cutting-edge technology like AI and computer vision will enable the brand to accelerate the success of its people and clients.
Argenio Antao, Chief Operating Officer, Colliers India, commented: “Colliers in India continues its focus on innovative technology platforms to provide customized and productive solutions for the business. CoGence as a platform has been developed to make the Project Management business more future ready, where one can get advanced analytics and real-time reports at your fingertips. Technology will enable the Project and Construction Management service line to attract high-caliber talent, making the industry more appealing and organized. “
Today, the Project Management business faces a significant dearth of talent for construction sites. This is due to strenuous working hours (24/7) and rigorous hands-on training required for construction activities since academic institutions tend to focus more on engineering studies over construction abilities. Construction and supervisory activities that are highly repetitive can be easily executed through deep learning which is in-built in the platform. This platform provides productive solutions by reducing human error, enabling experts to monitor multiple sites, creating visual records, obtaining real-time data for virtual meetings, automating non-compliance, quality and safety issues, predictive analysis based on actual data. It can give Colliers a decisive edge over its competitors.
The technology partner for this initiative – Inkers, based out of Bengaluru, has been in the AI and Computer Vision business for 12 years. During the last five years, Inkers has developed various unique AI solutions with regular and thermal imaging for reputed clients. Now they have partnered with Colliers to adopt and modify the same to enhance the Project Management processes of construction projects. The superior technology will be able to analyze both video and images even with lower resolution, such as that of a mobile phone and provide valuable inputs for the team.
“You can’t improve what you can’t measure! Without real-time on-site insights, it is extremely difficult to track progress, and productivity. Using our turnkey solution called CoGence, one can just walk around a construction site and track every component and on-going activities, while building a high precision 3D model of the building capturing its real-time status. Using AIML algorithms, CoGence provides instant analysis on BIM, schedule, and budgetary conformance. Designed in collaboration with Colliers, this is a revolution in construction industry, that integrates AI analysis, BIM, scheduling, and project management tools”, said Rohan Shravan, Founder and CEO, Inkers.
