This has major advantages for both the firm and the end users, he adds. "We can always be innovating."

The bottom line is that the iPad and apps in general use are changing the construction sectors' expectations about software on jobsites, Kanner notes. Another key point for Kanner is the web platform that begat the tablet apps. "It's easy to build apps now, but it's not easy to build software platforms that leverage apps," he says.

Competition From Customers

Sam Lamonica, the vice president and CIO of Rosendin Electric, San Jose, Calif., is in a situation similar to that of Burns at Hunter-Roberts. He counts the firm a happy customer of Vela's but also is looking at new ways of creating apps for jobsites that could complement or fill other niches.

The firm, one of the largest electrical contractors in the U.S., uses Vela for the iPad to work on files "untethered"—that is, without a web connection—allowing workers to load project drawings, commissioning information and related QA/QC checklists. "We just load it up, walk out to the point of construction that we're inspecting, highlight an issue and mark up the drawing. It's brilliant," says Lamonica.

But now he wants to do more, such as figuring out apps that can integate his markups back into the project BIMs he's working with. Lamonica just launched a working group within Rosendin to determine whether it has the capacity to build an app for this or to partner with a vendor.

"Or are there enough apps out there already that we can leverage for this?" he says. "That's something we just started scratching the surface on."

In the meantime, Lamonica has his hands full getting the 200 or so iPads that the firm now supports fully secured and in the staff's hands in the field. Once the apps are up and running, staff members curate and share them. He says, "We have a committee that finds 'iThings.' " It has come up with at least five other small applications, such as Docs to Go and SharePlus Light. These apps help staffers reach back-office documents or share the docs and print them from an iPad. The firm also installed GoToMeeting and Citrix clients to access back-office data.

The good news for Lamonica is that most of these "iThings" are free, and the ones that are not are incredibly cheap.

Partnering for Profits

Other construction firms diving deeper into app development are looking at the example of Brinkmann Constructors, Chesterfield, Mo., which formed a 50-50 partnership with enterprise software provider Impact Techologies Inc., St. Louis, to develop its own construction management app.

"We've got the best of both worlds," says Bryan C. Baehr, the president of Impact Technologies. "We have a world-class subject-matter expert in construction with Bob Brinkmann, the CEO, and a team that knows comercial-grade software design." Together, they came up with the Construction Superintendent Journeyman app (See ENR's story:"> iPad App: Learning Curve for All Ages).

Priced at $299.99 in Apple's App Store, the app is grossly underpriced, Baehr says, considering it includes daily reports, speech recognition and time-sheet tracking and works without a web connection, among other functions. Perhaps most important, it "dramatically increases the certainty of the information and reporting to both the project manager and the business owner," Baehr adds. Why is that so important? "Because a PM can become too disengaged with so many projects. They need to rely on regular feedback [from the field reports]," he says.

"Very often, unfortunately, [contractors] find themselves in lawsuits. If they've got the documentation—who did what, what they got accomplished, who visited the site that day, and who ignored pending items—they've got [evidence] to represent themselves in court," Baehr says.

Baehr uses the term "commercial-grade developers" as opposed to "app developers." He notes, "If I've built a piece a piece-of-crap [app] that I can sell on iTunes for $10, that would be a liability. If I build something of quality, we get sales calls, not support calls. It's iron-clad."

For many firms, advising on new apps for specialized construction needs is the sweet spot, more so than creating new development teams to support an app after it is launched. This tactic is how Hunter-Roberts' Burns is getting Vela to add features he needs and helping third-party app providers create tablet versions of their software.

"Tech has been so difficult to get into construction. It's been great to see these apps helping it take off. They really opened the door for the industry," Burns says.

"I still call myself an early adopter with caution."