A construction and civil engineering specialists has selected Manchester-based WorkMobile’s award-winning mobile data capture solution to assist with a new project in the Antarctic.
BAM Nuttall will develop a new wharf in the Antarctic, as part of a £100 million upgrade of the Rothera research station.
The 50-strong team will spend two Antarctic summers dismantling the old 60m wharf and building a new 74m wharf to house a new vessel, on behalf of the British Antarctic Survey Expedition.
BAM Nuttall adopted the WorkMobile tool to replace paper-based methods of data collection with mobile form solutions, in order to improve efficiencies and productivity.
“Site inspections and reports are crucial to ensuring projects are completed, in line with contractual obligations,” said Colin Yates, chief support officer at WorkMobile.
“But when operating in parts of the world like Antarctica, it makes the job of collecting this information troublesome and can present problems when providing evidence of the work that has been delivered.”
Field engineers will be able to capture data in real time, such as completing digitalised forms, taking photographs and videos and capturing signatures, all while out on site.
Using a localised WorkMobile server, workers will be able to collect and store the information in the cloud for the duration of the project.
When the team returns to the UK, they will be able to download the data and automatically generate the necessary reports and compliance documents needed for the work that was undertaken.
Using a digital form to capture the information for these essential documents reduces the risk of data being lost or incorrectly collected, enabling businesses to meet compliance requirements. The app, which allows workers to capture data in real-time, can be accessed via the users’ smartphones, tablets, laptops or PCs.
Rob Youster, director of ICT at BAM Nuttall, added: “In my 30-year career at BAM Nuttall this has been my most challenging and exciting ICT project. A first for my team too – we had to configure and design a computer environment for our Antarctica project in the South Pole.”