From idea to reality

Over the next few months, in a series of blogs, we will take you through the developments we are going through as supRmen. From the original idea, the (continued) development of our platform, to the development of our Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the continued growth of the company.

This week we start at the beginning.

Now, almost 4 years ago, two enthusiastic entrepreneurs met. One, full of creativity, had had an idea for years. The other was well versed in establishing structure and creating an environment for growth. From this emerged the current supRmen, which mapped housing corporation complexes via drone inspections. But they thought bigger; they had a dream:

"How great would it be if you could use photos (including via drones) to create a report in less than a minute that shows the numbers, dimensions, maintenance status and damages of the building. Not just of the roof, but also of the facade and inside!"

They saw a way to improve current, traditional practices. A new approach to make inspection, maintenance and renovation safer, more efficient and cheaper. No physical roof inspections, where not all nooks and crannies are visible in the end anyway, but a photorealistic 3D model in which the building envelope is mapped in detail. The result: making decisions based on objective property data and information instead of making assumptions for budgeting maintenance and renovation costs.

Due to a lack of objective and accurate information, practice showed a margin of error of up to 60% when estimating the surface area of roofs and facades, the status of the paintwork of window frames or the number of meters of jointing that needed maintenance. The result is quotations that are many times higher than budgeted because of additional work.

After many conversations and research into the possibilities of AI, they created a plan to solve this pain point. With the development of the AI in full swing, we are currently able to detect and automatically measure 17 building elements (linear meters and surface areas). We are building this out in the coming time to achieve that aforementioned dream.

All facets eventually come together on a single platform, on which, in addition to the assistance of AI, users easily share information with other stakeholders, such as roofers, (sub)contractors and inspection agencies. The platform serves as an information hub between our gold mine of real estate data and the customer's ERP system, for example. Not 'just another software tool', but part of the total solution. The right integrations play a crucial role in this.

In a monthly blog, we will keep you updated on our progress. Want to stay up to date? Then follow us on LinkedIn for the latest updates.

Next month: Developing a platform with the right partner.