By mid 2002, Ray Steeb (Founder and CEO of FASTTAC™) had become increasingly frustrated with the way construction documents were handled on site. He found it increasingly time consuming to keep several sets of drawings needed for a building current and up to date. It was even more challenging to update the drawings remotely when a change was made to some or all of those drawings, and nearly impossible to ensure that every document set was current, up to date, and reflected all the latest notes and changes.

At a function during that same year, Mr. Steeb and Jared L. Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University, struck up a conversation about how to improve technology in the construction industry. Mr. Cohon suggested that Mr. Steeb capture his 20-plus years of construction experience and work with the university to share it with others. Mr. Steeb relished the opportunity to further develop his ideas for a solution to managing construction drawings.

With the help of James H. Garrett, Jr., professor and head of civil and environmental engineering at CMU, Mr. Steeb enlisted the assistance of engineering students to shadow and interview hundreds of construction superintendents to determine what their needs were. The result was a way to have access to current construction documents without running back and forth to the field trailer.

The idea to digitally access and manage construction documents underwent extensive software design and proof-of-concept testing in the computer schools at CMU. By the spring of 2004, a software prototype was completed which allowed for users to navigate from one set of drawings to another, create mark ups on drawings, and update and share drawings via email as well as request information from other members of the project team.

The software, formerly known as FAST-CAT™, became a working prototype which was tested in the field during 2006. These early users found that the software was easy to use and the real payoff was in their increased productivity and accuracy. With suggestions and improvement ideas from our Beta Testers, the software was further refined, resulting in the initial rollout of Release 1.0 in March 2007.

Driven to further improving productivity and accuracy for our customers, our software team developed Release 2.0 with a completely new look and added functionality. Release 2.0 was launched in March 2008 and was soon recognized as a ConstrucTech 2008 Top Product for Commercial and Residential construction. During this same time, the company was renamed FASTTAC to more accurately reflect our products, and our software products became known as FAST DCMS™ (Document Control and Mobility System) and FAST Bid™.

FASTTAC software products are being used every day by contractors and building teams on projects across the United States. As FASTTAC continues to grow, we look forward to further supporting the A/E/C industry in making significant productivity and accuracy improvements through the use of our software products.

Learn more about FASTTAC DCMS and FASTTAC Bid...