A friend recently told me about his newly adult son being asked to send a fax, and he had no idea what it was. He asked, “so it’s like an email but it goes to a phone number?” He was thoroughly confused. It got me thinking about the past and the way the construction industry has changed. As I thought about it, I found myself torn between some of the amazing advances and some things that we may have had more right back then.

Remember the days of architectural drawings on paper created with actual pencils? Or even 2D CAD software? Look at how far we have come with technology. 3D BIM modeling allows us to virtually tour a new facility long before it is ever built. Materials and costs can be estimated with extreme precision. Construction sites and home office designers and engineers collaborate in real-time. Construction managers carry iPads, not just a tool belt. Project management software helps provide unprecedented capabilities in coordinating large, complex projects. I could go on and on, but you get the point – technology has truly enabled amazing advances in the construction business.

But then there is the other side, the side where I’d like to go back to the good old days. Remember when almost all of our time was spent simply designing and building things? It seems like more and more of the industry spends more time and is more concerned about contract clauses, risk management and legal wrangling than what’s really important – building something that satisfies the needs of the client and helps them succeed.

At AdvanceTEC, we’ve deployed the most advanced technologies for our business, and infused truly incredible people. We are using all the best tools of the trade to help us deliver for our clients. And yes, we have contracts, and talk to lawyers and all that other stuff. But, every day we strive to put our time and energy into doing right by our clients. That old-school approach will never change, and is at the heart of who AdvanceTEC is.

So while fax machines and pencils and paper give way to facetime and BIM, we’ll always be right here, building and doing the right things.

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