Startup creates digital assistant to assist save money and time on building

After living the complicated day to day on a construction site without technology, André Quinderé saw the opportunity to create a startup that digitizes civil construction processes. Founded in 2016, Agilean offers an application for managing deadlines and planning details, quality and construction costs. Today, the startup also has A-VAL, a virtual assistant capable of answering questions and delivering information in real time via WhatsApp.

Graduated in civil engineering, Quinderé worked in several construction companies and developers, participating in projects of different sizes. It didn’t take long for entrepreneurship to knock on the engineer’s door, in 2013. “I decided that I would undertake something in which I could make a difference. I had a lot of knowledge in planning, budgeting and controlling works. So we opened a consultancy called Aval Engenharia, focused on improving the productivity of the works based on analysis and data”, he says.

Quinderé opened the business together with partners Lucas Oliveira, Juliana Quinderé and Vitor Arruda. However, once they got the consultancy off the ground, they soon realized that they would not be able to achieve the desired impact. “Our work was very manual, we couldn’t handle many works. After 20 or 30 clients, my office was running out of capacity.”

Thinking that the best way to scale and differentiate the business would be to implement technology, the partners began to leave spreadsheets and manual processes behind. First, they developed software that tracked the progress of the work in real time. Then, they optimized the dashboards and automated the collection and management of data. With the new name, Agilean, the company was building its technological vein according to the needs that entrepreneurs found on a daily basis.

Another key point in the operation is the concept of Lean Construction – inheritance of a Japanese process used in the automobile industry –, whose principle is the planning and control of processes to avoid expenses and increase productivity. From it, the startup assembles an intelligent construction schedule, which helps to predict problems that cause delays in delivery or make the project more expensive.

By accessing graphics and information that indicate non-conformities in the works, the startup estimates that it is possible to generate savings of 5% in the total cost of production. In a project worth R$ 30 million, for example, costs can be reduced by R$ 2.4 million, already considering the expenses with the implementation of the system.

To facilitate the daily use of the platform, the startup also developed the virtual assistant A-VAL. Working via WhatsApp, it provides data that previously would have had to be accessed manually. Each project participant is invited to share their ongoing processes through a task distribution system. Data is available 24 hours a day on the platform and WhatsApp. According to Quinderé, the use of the messaging application helps to meet those who prefer not to create a login or are not familiar with other technologies.

The Agilean platform also allows you to create inspection checklists, which are sent directly to the person responsible for the quality of the work on WhatsApp. When the process is pending, the contractor is notified and receives photos of the disapproved items for evaluation. Faced with problems, the company’s virtual assistant can also suggest alternatives so that the deadline for the work is maintained. “Our solution has a whole spectrum of management. We seek to develop something simple and adherent to the reality of the works, so that the owners of the companies and workers have time and can interpret the information in a way that optimizes their time and facilitates their daily lives”, explains Quinderé.

The goal for the future is to expand operations to other areas of support for the work, such as supplies. With more than 6 million square meters digitized in the country, the startup recorded a 300% growth in 2021 and expects to grow five times in 2022.

Source: PEGN Magazine