Do you remember the days before Uber revolutionized the transportation service industry? Taxis, buses, subways, and private drivers dominated the market for people who needed a ride from point A to point B. Now, we open our smartphones, click on our Uber app, and call a driver to pick us up in a few short minutes. We pay and tip drivers through the app, and there’s even a rating system for both drivers and riders, allowing both parties to be selective about the people with whom they choose to do business.

Similarly, iVueit is successfully changing the landscape of facilities management services across the country. Mike Popadak, the CEO and co-founder of iVueit, joined Shawn Black on this week’s episode of FM Evolution to talk about his business and how it will continue to revolutionize the facilities management industry.

Mike and his co-founder Matt both started their careers in consumer packaged goods. After working for companies like PepsiCo and FritoLay, they transitioned toward the facilities management world for various reasons. As they shifted into their new roles, they found themselves frustrated by the lack of information they regularly possessed. In their previous positions, they commonly had all the data they needed to make progress and decisions. In the facilities management industry, they found it difficult to manage properties across the country without having access to real-time data on each individual property.

Struggling with their newfound problems, Mike and Matt decided that they would create a solution. They found it in the growing gig economy. With the gig economy thriving and becoming more popular each day, the founders decided to use everyday people to crowdsource information about properties across the country.

iVueit works within a simple process. FMs send project requests that include a location and project description to iVueit. A Vuer near the location in question will stop by the site and document whatever information is asked. Their photos and completed survey are submitted to an iVueit Team Member for verification. The report, which is geotagged and time-stamped, is uploaded to a client portal for the FM to view.

Quotes

“Imagine having to go to 700 retail locations to order parts, but you don’t need to, right? I just need to know what the assets are. Tell me that quickly and I can order it from here instead of tying up my technicians or bothering someone else in the field. And that’s what we do everyday.” (12:22)

“If someone wanted us to see 1,000 of their properties in the next two days, we’d probably have 80% of them done the first day and the stragglers cleaned up the next day.” (11:16)

Prepared and written by the team at CGP Construction