We love hearing feedback from our users, and were very pleased to see Brandon Freeman’s excitement about Fulcrum when he reached out on Twitter. Brandon is a Civil Engineer with TREKK Design Group, and has been using Fulcrum for multiple projects.
User Highlight: Brandon Freeman, TREKK
Brandon has been utilizing Fulcrum for a while on his own, mainly to manage marketing contacts. Using Fulcrum as a cheap CRM system has been very usefully, since in his two months of working at TREKK Design Group, Brandon has visited 38 cities! With Fulcrum, he is able to keep track of whom he talked to in each city, what project(s) they have going on, who has been sent proposals, and more.
At TREKK Design Group, a majority of business revenue comes from inspection services for wastewater collection systems, and the company believes that their quality, field-collected data sets them apart from the competition. Brandon has more recently started using Fulcrum for internal projects and with clients.
One way Brandon has used Fulcrum at TREKK Design Group has been to prepare for a Sewer System Camera Inspection project that the company is bidding on. Using an app to simply tag a picture with the sewer system manhole ID and any relevant comments, Brandon was able to gather data on a Friday afternoon and instantly send it off to Kansas City before going home for the weekend. The very next morning, those colleagues were looking at the data and making decisions on TREKK Design’s bid.
Another way Brandon has been using Fulcrum is as a “beta test” for installing new inspection devices. Brandon notes: “Having the information on my tablet was so helpful on the initial install in finding the manholes that I was looking for. I did this at my desk before going out in the field. Fulcrum ensured that I picked up the right information at each site which has been helpful when going back and looking at the data that was picked up.”
Brandon has also been working on introducing Fulcrum to rural clients who are lacking in GIS implementation. Transitioning them out of the paper world takes some training, but once his clients get the hang of Fulcrum, they are excited about what a low cost option Fulcrum is for GIS data collection. Just last week, Brandon sent a proposal to a town involving the use of Fulcrum paired with QGIS (which is a FREE GIS program) to map out and inspect the town’s wastewater system. A colleague, Jared Carey from Tri-State Engineering, would provide training to the city’s employees should they accept the proposal.
@fulcrumapp Even small towns with small budgets can have data collection #rural #GIS #android twitter.com/IandIEye/statu…
— Brandon Freeman(@IandIEye) March 8, 2013
Brandon has been using Fulcrum on a Samsung Galaxy Note, and mentioned that he loves the ease with which he can share collected data with others in real time. He is hoping to continue to use Fulcrum, and in even bigger ways, in the future. We love to hear his feedback and especially love to hear about all of the innovative ways he is using Fulcrum. If you have a story about how you’ve used Fulcrum, let us know!
Update 2023:
Check out the TREKK Design Group customer success story to learn more about how TREKK uses Fulcrum in conjunction with GIS and 3D imaging software to provide comprehensive design, engineering, and inspection services for its municipal clients.