Dome Connect and iSnag

London-based project commissioning management consultancy Dome Consulting offers two related software products. It says its Dome Connect software is used for project collaboration, BIM management, snagging and defect management, commissioning management, and operation and management (O&M) manuals. It also offers a mobile snagging and defect management tool, iSnag, which “leverages the powerful functionality of Dome Connect,” and is used from Apple iOS devices. Both products were up for awards in the 2012 Construction Computing Awards (post).

Dome Connect

Dome Connect is a web-based project collaboration tool targeted at users within the construction and property portfolio industries. It appears to be an extension of Dome Consulting’s expertise in certification and commissioning management; the company offers support for documentation and technical authoring, including management, collation, writing and delivery of electronic template O&M manuals, health and safety files and energy log books, project completion files, BREEAM and LEED certification, tenant handbooks, etc.

In these respects, it is competing with the documentation modules offered by SaaS construction collaboration platforms such as Conject, or Aconex – which last year acquired Grazer, whose technology offers similar capabilities to Dome Connect. The latter’s strengths would, however, appear to be more focused on in-house estate management and facilities management, rather than on multi-company, geographically distributed collaboration throughout project delivery. Browsing the Dome Connect web pages, I noticed talk of an automated indexing engine – immediately reminding me of Newforma’s Indexing Server which can be used to sort, search and manage large volumes of unstructured information (post).

iSnag

In November 2012, Construction Enquirer reported various contractors had signed up to use Dome’s iSnag tool (which was released in February 2012 and formally launched in July), mentioning Lend Lease, Mace, Sir Robert McAlpine, Canary Wharf Contractors, ISG and Overbury. It says:

“Main contractors licence the use of Dome Connect across a project then the App is free for subcontractors, consultants and any other authorised members of the project team to download and use.”

There is certainly a lot of interest in mobile tools and Dome’s iSnag is one of several I’ve written about over the past few years, and while smartphones and iPads are a currently hot topic, mobile snagging functionality has been around a long time:

• Back when it was known as BIW Technologies, Conject launched its own mobile defects management in 2006
• rival BuildOnline (later CTSpace, and now owned by McLaren Software) had its own mobile offering around the same time
• launched three years ago, Asite‘s AppBuilder platform enabled firms to create various tools including snagging systems (post)
• almost two years ago, I wrote about SnagR
• three months later, SmartBuilder1 was launched (post)
• in January 2012, I wrote about Docia Deficiency List on Droid
• in May, it was SnagList‘s turn (post)
• late last year, I talked about Aconex’s latest iPad offerings (post), which included an inspection and snagging application, Aconex Field
• and the afore-mentioned Newforma also has its own snagging app, launched in 2011.

Some are clearly integrated with Software-as-a-Service platforms, others synchronise with in-house systems, while others are mainly cloud-based solutions – it’s something of a confusing and noisy market at the moment.

iSnag won the judges’ award ‘One To Watch Product Of The Year’ at the 2012 Construction Computing Awards. Over the past two months, I have tried several times to contact Dome to talk about the products but the relevant director has so far not returned any of my calls. If he does, I hope to add some background information including hosting, licensing and pricing details.