Another Earthquake

I was out for lunch with two colleagues, Mark and Tom, on Feb 22, 2011 when the small in scale yet giant in impact earthquake hit just 5km below our hometown of Christchurch.

We couldn’t stand, couldn’t even stay seated. My recollections are staccato, like a strobe light giving glimpses of a violently moving scene: 100 patrons and staff on hands and knees on the floor; my bag sliding away from me; half of the people under the tables; the concrete floor moving back and forth up to 1 metre right in front of my eyes; all of the people under the tables; rain falling outside seen through the windows near the ceiling of the vaulted restaurant.

Hang on, it’s a clear, sunny day outside, that’s not rain! It’s glass falling from the windows of the building we’re in and those around us.

We were meeting to discuss a new business venture we had in planning. The earthquakes however put our plans on hold for a couple of years. Instead Mark and Tom nearly burned themselves out putting together a claims remediation system for an insurance company in record time as well as helping the company we all worked for through a tough time.

But when it was time to leave, it was the earthquakes that gave us real impetus. We wanted to create a mobile based software system that enables professionals to rapidly complete on-site inspections and just as rapidly print the reports without all the laborious secretarial work involved in transcribing handwritten notes, downloading and placing images, and fighting with clunky report templates.

Nearly 6 years after that day we’ve completed the task! Tom left us to go overseas but Mark has been working on the project full time for two years and we are proud to have professional assessors in engineering, health and safety, and wellness all using our software every day and saving themselves hours on every report.

Engineers use our app to complete onsite inspections ranging from geo-tech discovery, passive fire engineering, structural inspections in new builds, structural inspections in existing buildings, quotes for remediation work, retaining wall and bridge inspections.

Last week we had another earthquake in the region. A major earthquake in North Canterbury, nor far from our head office in Christchurch.

And this time we can help.

Today we are proud to release a full suite of Earthquake Rapid Assessment forms based on the standard forms produced by MBIE (Ministry for Building, Innovation and Employment) and used by engineers all around New Zealand. 

And they are free! Clarinspect maintains a library of forms available to all users of the software (customer development of a form may cost several hundred dollars) and these new earthquake rapid assessment forms have been added to the library already.

Actually, we are releasing two sets of collateral to make the task of those assessing buildings in the North Canterbury and Marlborough area simpler and more productive. This means that home and building owners will get a faster response and can start the rebuild process earlier.

Firstly, all of the printed forms have been adapted for a mobile device - making it easier to use elements like click buttons, drop down menus and the camera to record the information.

Sample of Rapid Inspection form (c) Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Damage Assessment from Rapid Inspection form (c) Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Clarinspect Implementation of Rapid Inspection Form

Clarinspect Implementation of Damage Assessment on Rapid Inspection Form

You can also use automated time & date stamping, GPS co-ordinates automatically inserted, and even get to the level of time, date and geo-locating your images! The photos are taken “in line” meaning they are contextual to the other information being gathered and can be printed out in context also.

Our users often tell us that the quality of the information they record is higher using the mobile device, sometimes they don’t save a lot of time in the actual assessment phase but that is not such a problem, most of the inspectors using Clarinspect are highly trained and these assessments are a vital part of their profession.

Not such a vital part of their profession is re-typing field written notes, and cutting and pasting photos into spreadsheets or word processing programmes. Sometimes other members of staff can do it but there is the inevitable re-editing, and only the person taking the photos knows what the photos are meant to signify!

This is where the second, super smart part of the Clarinspect collateral comes into focus.

When the inspection is completed and the device has access to the internet, the information collected is uploaded to the Clarinspect Hub. There the data is paired with the relevant document (spreadsheet, MS Word document, Google doc, pdf) and emailed to the appropriate person. It may be the inspector for proofing, the departmental manager or secretary, or it may go directly to the client.

Whatever format you use currently - be it a Government form, a report on your own letterhead or a spreadsheet - Clarinspect replicates the form exactly with professional attention to detail including pagination, page numbering and ensuring there are no “intentionally blank” spaces.

Cool elements like context based text - if there is a specific recommendation made, an associated disclaimer will be printed with the recommendation (for example) - can be incorporated into the report format.

You get the finished report back in less than a minute. Customer feedback suggests that most companies save between 2 - 4 hours per report. That is huge!

No-one in Christchurch or Canterbury is anything other than devastated about the the latest earthquakes. Our hearts go out to those suffering loss and displaced from their houses.

Our experience of the last series of earthquakes however has driven the development of software that can greatly assist the professionals who are a core part of the recovery efforts. We know that many engineering companies already using Clarinspect will gratefully get to work with these new templates. Other consultancies are encouraged to start.

Paul Sapsford, Co-Founder and Director