MANAGEMENT By Niko Suvorov
Stop Guessing: A Practical Tech Roadmap for Steel Erectors Creating a tech stack that actually works
Versatile's AI-powered solutions deliver insights from every single crane pick, helping construction pros make data-backed decisions.
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teel erector profits are under pressure from every direction. Owners show up with their own consultants and tracking tools. GCs pass that pressure downhill. Designers and fabricators who didn't invite you for a single constructability review protect themselves with contract language. And when structural steel slips, the erector is the last one standing, carrying the risk, defending the schedule, eating the costs for mistakes made upstream by others. Niko Suvorov is the VP of Sales at Versatile, where he leverages over 20 years of experience to scale AI-driven construction technology. A former CEO of a few startups and Hilti veteran, Niko specializes in using data to optimize jobsite performance. He was recognized as a 2023 BuiltWorlds Adoption Leader for driving digital transformation in the AEC industry.
You're running your most complex scopes ever. Competing on big box jobs where the only differentiator is price. Staffing the site is harder than ever. With more remote locations and an uptick in inexperienced young PMs—who, as one executive put it, “Never had the ass-whooping of a $20 million structural steel erection scope”— taking control and staying in control has become more challenging. So when a fresh-out-of-college project engineer from the GC shows up waving the owner’s data and pins the delay on your crews, you have nothing to fire back with. You lose margin, you lose retainage. It does not need to be this way. The fix starts with understanding three things that actually matter on a steel erection job:
18 | THE STEEL ERECTORS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
Feeding the Machine: What percentage of materials is delivered and how much on-site materials are converted into erected steel? Flow: How does material move through your operation—from delivery, to shakeout, to on the hook, and erected; and where does it stall? Handover: When are specific areas of the building ready, and which trades are next in line? If your technology can’t answer those three questions without a phone call to the site, you have a problem. Here’s how to fix it.
Step 1: Audit Your Digital Ecosystem. In a Day. Most steel erectors have some version of the same lineup of software tools: a project management platform, a timekeeping tool, a safety app, fabrication tracking, document