Developing systems for a more profitable construction space
– In comprehensive construction projects, there are many professional third parties involved in the planning process. When the project starts up, chaos happens – trucks are crossing everywhere and so are people – who will do a lot of work in a short period. In what can be perceived as chaos, it is very difficult to capture what is happening – and it can make it difficult for the entrepreneur to find out whether he earns or loses money on the project.
It may be difficult for the contractor to see what work is contract-related, and what is additional. Occasionally, disagreements arise, as it is hard to determine exactly what has actually happened. The construction industry is a frequent user of the judiciary because of this. A lot of what one discusses is the things one has dug into the ground, so it is very hard to see what has happened. This can result in conflicts where people argue – and everyone is looking out for their money.
– People who are in the same business have very different approaches. Our approach is very project-focused, where we support the operation of the projects as much as possible. We work by the knowledge that all companies live off production, not of administration.
What is your goal?
– Our overall goal is to capture what really happens in our customer’s construction projects. If you know what actually happened, you can check whether it was according to the contract or not, if the quality is correct, how much money you spent on the job and how much you earned. If you are in control of what is happening in your projects, you have control over your business – which leads to good profitability.
What is the biggest mistake you have done and what did you learn from it?
– That must be sitting in an office guessing what our customers wanted. The worst mistake is developing functionalities that are not good enough – or a mismatch between what we thought the market wanted and what they actually want. We have spent a lot of time on things we have scrapped. Pre-optimization is a bad idea, and we will try to never do it again. Everything we do today is rooted in our customers needs. We are always receiving requests from customers, and if many are concerned with one thing, it may be important to prioritize this.
Have you learned something new in the start-up process?
– The learning curve is incredibly steep. You have to learn a lot in a short period of time. It is surprising how much we have managed to achieve with such limited resources.
Does anything special inspire or motivate you?
– If I focus on our team, Jacob Døskeland is fluent and creative and I am conservative. Therefore, we complement each other well. One of our owners is very creative and spreads a lot of energy – you get a lot of inspiration from working with such people.
What does the incubation program in Nyskapingsparken Inkubator mean to you?
– It is good place to be as it delivers the framework that allows us to think about what we have to do to be successful. Torstein Skage, Business Development Consultant in BTO, helps us with his knowledge and know-how as we are growing.
On the road
Right now, Ditio is working on different major road projects. They are looking forward to further development in these areas – and get driven to get better.
– Riksvei 3 Løten – Elverum is the most exciting for us. This is the biggest road contract ever in Norway.
This project will start full on after this autumn. We are talking extremely big money, and huge number of people – a place we can show what we got. This project is prioritized, but we are rolling out to a number of large, exciting companies in Norway. Ditio is currently developing a new version of mass transport, which they will release within this project. This will work even better on larger projects.
If you were to predict the future, how would it look like in two years?
– We deliver to an international market, which is very exciting. We probably have a lot more employees. We will apply the newest technology. Life is even more hectic than today. We are aiming to be a software company who has a turnover of one hundred million, where the biggest chunk of it will come from license revenues.
What now?
– We are growing and we have many good customers. Capacity is a challenge, and therefore we need to recruit new people to our team. We are looking for people who want to be central in building a market-leading technical solution. We will strive to find key resources that may involve taking Ditio globally.
– The latest addition to the tribe is a back-end developer who will work with mass transport, and artificial intelligence – an improvement of structures for the major projects. Ditio’s customers are sending the signal that artificial intelligence and machine learning will be the big thing in the future. We agree.
Ditio won Founder of the Year at Bergen Awards. You can read more about it here.
Read more about Ditio and check out their supercool website here.
Ditio is a part of Nyskapingsparken Incubator, at Bergen Teknologioverføring.