Yovza, a collaborative cloud-based construction intelligence management Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that digitalises the operational workflows in the construction sector, says it has already registered more than 500 companies since its launch in February this year.

CEO Madan Kumar tells Gulf Construction that he expects the platform to revolutionise the industry in the near future.

“Yovza is the most economical state-of-the-art construction technology solution provider in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region that connects four key project stakeholders, namely engineering consultants, main contractors, sub-contractors and material suppliers, making their operations completely paperless,” he says.

Kumar ... Yovza helps save 70 per cent of processing time and cost.

It collaboratively manages their project communications and enables them to stay on top of their projects using analytical reports generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools (MLTs). All of this is handled and managed in real-time from the comfort of their home, thereby saving 70 per cent of their processing time and cost, Kumar states.

“We streamline operational aspects of construction projects, especially for companies that are from the lower tier of this industry and address challenges with integrated project controls that provide a holistic view for individual projects, as well as project portfolios,” he explains. “Any organisation using the solution can track its progress systematically, manage its contracts and process payments with ease and confidence. As a cloud-based platform, this system can be accessed online on a computer or mobile device.”

The one-of-a-kind platform also enables companies to collaborate, connect, post, find, share and recommend the latest projects with one another, thereby assisting collective growth.

Each registered company can have up to 25 users per account based on the subscription plan, Kumar states, adding that only the builder/main-contractor needs to purchase the licence, with the rest of the stakeholders coming on board for free.

Elaborating on the platform, he says Yovza receives all the company’s project reports and requests wherever it is located as soon as they are sent in real-time. It then analyses the reports and requests remotely from anywhere in the world; and seamlessly processes all the approvals within and outside of the organisation.

“Yovza was a result of 500-odd hours of brainstorming sessions of professionals with track records of years of experience in the construction field. More than 200 architects and engineers from the region, with the sole mission to come up with an effective tech-enabled platform, came together for several months to find an efficient and time-saving interface to connect all the key stakeholders,” Kumar says.

The end result – after many iterations and case studies – was Yovza.

So what are the pain points in the construction industry that Yovza solves?

Kumar points out that in a conventional environment, many project teams still heavily depend on old-school Excel spreadsheets to manually manage every essential aspect of a project, from tendering, distribution, to storage and retrieval of project information. This involves a lot of paperwork and approvals from various parties. Organisations that lack expertise in these areas face the increased risk of budget overruns, disputes, and litigation.

“Over the past few decades, we have witnessed huge investments in residential, commercial and industrial construction. Managing huge projects on a large scale with several approvals on paper, and efficiently managing day-to-day routine operations became a humongous task for the key stakeholders. Be it getting approval of the materials being used in the projects, or the shop drawings, or a purchase request, or a delivery note received at the project site, the paperwork had to be filed systematically in order to obtain approvals. These resulted in a number of box files which had to be carried to and from engineering consultants’ offices and kept updated at every stage of every project,” he explains.

Having gone through these manual processes themselves, some of Yovza’s engineers and architects decided to develop a single platform that would reduce the number of printed documents and set up most of the processes on a digital scale – which led to Yovza.

Yovza Technologies aims to solve the grave issues hounding the operations side of the multi-trillion-dollar global construction industry providing an end-to-end solution to everyone involved in the business chain at a budget-friendly price.

“Because of the intensity of the paperwork involved, most of the time the projects run late, resulting in collateral damages for contractors. Every year, they lose billions of dollars in legal battles, reputation damage and lost new opportunities. Yovza digitalises all these actions between person to person and even company to company – all actions can now be processed without involving any paper. This saves up to 70 per cent of the turnaround time for every action,” Kumar claims.

“In addition, Yovza also automatically keeps a track of allocated and spent budget, the number of materials and even man-hours in real-time, which in turn helps every engineer to stay on top of his construction schedule.

“Put simply, engineers can now experience the most convenient and efficient way to manage their projects on Yovza,” he adds.

Being a construction engineer himself, Kumar was well aware that Yovza needed to be affordable for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within the industry. “Hence, our pricing is very economical. Companies can avail access to our solution with a very low investment a month and they can immediately switch to the new digital age of executing projects followed by inviting other stakeholders at real-time too. The platform is flexible and can be adopted for projects and teams of any size,” he says.

Yovza not only helps construction companies digitalise their approval workflow seamlessly across the stakeholders, but also helps them increase their brand awareness by giving them an opportunity to become a part of the exclusive construction digital community, Kumar adds. It offers a range of benefits to different stakeholders.  For instance, the cloud-based platform allows remote working, enabling the user – whether an engineering consultant or a project site engineer – to access his work from anywhere. It helps the improved information flow which leads to better and precise decision-making and better deployment of resources.

Another benefit is real-time tracking, enabling companies to oversee and manage their projects with data on the go. The platform assists in preparing more accurate forecasts, generate reports, maintain logs, all with just a click of a button.

Kumar says the company’s short-term strategy is to bring as many companies as possible together and help them streamline their workflow process while helping them increase their brand awareness.

“Our overall long-term strategy is to expand our footprint in the Mena region, deepen our product capabilities and expand our team. We would like to see Yovza as a part of every engineer’s day-to-day routine across the region in the near future, helping them achieve more in considerably less time,” he concludes.