Topcon Acquires Digital Construction Works

Data stuck in software silos has limited value. And having staff manually extract data from multiple sources from the field and office to try and make sense of it all wastes precious time and money.

But now, Topcon is taking the complication out of connecting data with its acquisition of Digital Construction Works (DCW), a construction software and data integrations and services company.

In an announcement at a ConExpo-Con/Agg media preview day, Topcon said DCW’s services and software integration platform will help customers navigate and maximize the use of construction data made available across multiple apps and software.

“You can’t just skip over from design to build because after you design, you go to the dirt. Those systems have to connect,” said Mark Cantino, vice president, North American retail distribution. “We connect with the right players because every contractor that wants to be different can be. They can pick the tools for that.”

By understanding data generated from every phase of the project, construction business owners can make better-informed business decisions. Automating the transfer of that data helps owners get to those decisions faster.

Now, with DCW as part of Topcon, the integration platform enhances the value of Topcon’s interoperability with third-party software typically used to execute machine-guided operations.

“Digital models and CAD designs have to be translated into something the machine can operate. You’re dealing with what I need to do, what I’m going to do as far as the model goes, and then you can start to automate that machine. Now, all of a sudden this machine is becoming part of your operation,” said Jason Hallett, vice president and general manager, DCW. “Every one of those handovers today is fairly manual. The integration platform will automate a lot of those exchanges with third parties.”

The DCW team will continue to focus on integrations that connect a project’s planning and design phase with the construction and field completion phases, Topcon says. This office-to-site connection provides automated workflows and insightful visualization and reporting within a secure user-facing multi-vendor and multi-stakeholder project environment.

“All of a sudden you’ll get to a point where the tasks and the models and everything just flow from the data points that they’re connected to, and there’s no more of this manual import/export and transfer of data. It’s all automated through the platform,” said Hallett.