Jit Kee Chin doesn’t need the fanciest car on the lot, as long as he can get to work every morning.
Chin is the chief data officer of Boston-based builder Suffolk and is also the co-founder of Suffolk Technologies, the contractor’s technology-focused venture capital firm that completed its inaugural fundraising of $110 million this past summer
Here, Chin talks about Suffolk’s technology, how the contractor overcame hurdles in adoption and advice for smaller contractors looking to adopt new solutions.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Immersion in CONSTRUCTION: What technologies are you piloting in your workplace right now?
JIT KEE CHIN: At a high level, we have tested more than 50 solutions. We are using Newmetrix which is a security solution that has now been acquired by Autodesk. This solution was our security observation platform, but also the solution that provided us with predictive analytics for security incidents.
Here’s what you can really say, based on all the factors and based on your past history, these are the types of jobs that have the highest risk of security incidents in the coming week. This was one that we actually climbed all the way through the pipeline.
Jit Kee Chin
Permission granted by Suffolk Construction
OpenSpace was another. You have a 360 degree camera that you attach to a helmet or you can wear it in some other way. And as you walk around the site, which we have to do anyway, get a picture of what’s going on, the state of progress around you. Automatically download labels to the drawing so you know where it is. You can take before/after looks and you can check the progress.
We also really liked this AI-enabled water leak mitigation solution called Wint. It has a precise AI system that looks at flow patterns and combines it with the flow patterns you already have in your background library, tailored for your specific use. If it detects an abnormal flow pattern, for any reason, it will flag an alert.
What this solution has proven is that it can reduce the costs of damage due to water leaks by almost 90%.
What advice would you give small or medium contractors when adopting technology?
We have a lot of resources, so we look at a lot of cutting edge technologies. If you’re much younger, you don’t need to see everything or do everything.
My advice would be, what are your real pain points? What technology do you need to solve these problems? It is not technology for the sake of technology, but technology in the service of the core business.
The second thing is that you don’t always need cutting edge. Sometimes it’s great to be a fast follower. There are technologies that are further along the maturity curve. This is easier to deploy. They have more things sorted out.
The last thing I will say is that the ecosystem for the technology has been formed. Things like integrations with Procore, integrations with Autodesk, a lot of solutions now have that. The major players in this space have an ecosystem of solutions that they have integrated and are therefore simpler to deploy, depending on the enterprise resource planning you use.
What problems has Suffolk had in adopting this technology?
I wouldn’t call them “problems” but “obstacles”.
When you implement any technology, sometimes processes need to change. People need to understand the value they bring, so there is an education or awareness component.
Second, once they understand the value of what the solution can provide, you need to teach them how to use it, and that’s another educational component. And if you need to change standard operating procedures, if you need to put a new process in place, that’s another discussion.
The third piece you need to know is: Who is best placed to bear the cost of the technology? It’s a constant negotiation. Are you the owner? Is it the GC? Is it sometimes for insurance? Is it for risk mitigation? What’s the best way to accommodate cost while being aware of who gets the value?
Then there’s a whole bunch of what I call little tactical operational stuff that you just have to get through. Yes, this technology sounds great, but how do we set it up? When do I ship? When is the best time to deploy? It’s small things, but they make all the difference in the world.
What do you think of Suffolk’s use of technology? What do you think separates your company from others?
We are about to innovate. Our CEO, John Fish, is very passionate about the subject. He truly believes that due to a confluence of forces, innovation is thriving in the construction industry right now. And he doesn’t want to swoop in, he wants to go in there and make sure that we can capture the value that some of these innovative technologies bring.
The difference between Suffolk and others lies in the degree of focus, the resources that are used and the investment that has been made. If you look at the Suffolk Technologies fund alone, $10 million will go towards innovations at scale for the built environment.
Our CoLabs are dedicated technology spaces filled with people piloting and scaling solutions. Their job is to take technology that has proven value, but still requires a lot of work to adapt it so people can actually use it.
From 2020, we launched Boost as the flagship program of Suffolk Technologies. This is a unique program that brings together Suffolk Construction and Suffolk Technologies, where we match young companies that go through a rigorous screening process with our operational experts, based on what the young company needs. We help them in a very intensive period of seven to eight weeks, solve their next problem and accelerate them through the next obstacle in their development.
