Like today’s mega-marts that offer consumers everything in one place, the “one-stop” concept has proven to be successful in various ways and for various audiences--including contractors. Combine this concept with the technological advancements the construction and positioning markets have experienced in the last decade, and for many contractors, the “one-stop shop” is worthy of consideration. Like many other industries, the construction markets have experienced a trend from the physical laborer to an automated world. The advent and advancement of the Global Positioning System (GPS) alone has set a new precedent for precision and automation. Today, many surveyors find themselves not placing red tops and blue tops, but rather providing calibration and localization services, and overseeing the critical task of preparing data for use in heavy equipment cabs for site preparation jobs. Contractors are working with automated systems. Supervisors view jobs from their worktrucks. The construction flowchart has changed as have the options for instrumentation. These advances and alterations call for sophisticated equipment installation, and in-depth training and support.

The training curve for today’s advanced site preparation positioning tasks involves not only the knowledge of taking x, y and z measurements, but also the understanding of the specific equipment components installed on heavy machinery. Now more than ever, the installation and training of heavy equipment guidance instrumentation requires an experienced team, both on the service side and the user side.

When all or most of these aspects--instrumentation, installation, training, and oftentimes data preparation and support services--are provided from one source, customers experience the advantages of the site preparation “one-stop shop.” One-stop shops for the site prep market are few and far between, but they are gaining prominence as a welcome option to many contractors.

Who are some of these players of one-stop shops, what do they have to offer different from the equipment manufacturers, and what do their futures hold?

Who Are These Guys?

API equipped this Caterpillar D6R dozer for a small contractor to conduct grading on an interstate ramp in Edwardsville, Illinois.

Associated Professionals Inc. (API, www.apisurvey.com), an engineering and surveying firm based in Nashville, Illinois, has specialized in machine control sales and service since 1992. API’s engineers and surveyors have strong backgrounds in construction surveying and GPS technology. In 1998, API became a machine control dealer for Spectra Precision (now Trimble, www.trimble.com) and began preparing data for use on the Trimble BladePro 3D machine control system. Now API is a dealer for the Trimble machine control product line covering Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, and has a full division dedicated to data preparation for all brands of machine control products. API prepares data from coast to coast with a specialty in heavy highway data preparation. “Our company got into this business from the other side of the tracks,” says John Simmons, EIT, SIT, API’s data preparation manager. ”Our company was in the business of aiding contractors, giving the information needed in the field to complete the project. Machine control was going to take our job away. We wanted to get in the middle of it and aid contractors in project completion. Our business now involves installing the system, providing site calibration, preparing the data and training the contractor. We still are in the survey and engineering business--we just focus on aiding the contractor in the end product.”

Earthwork Calculation Services (ECS) of Anaheim, California, has been in business for more than 10 years. The company specializes in calculations of earthwork quantities for bidding, estimating and dispute resolution. ECS completes more than 150 projects per month. A substantial portion of the work done by ECS was 3D space for earthwork, which drew the company to the GPS market and created a new company called GPS West (www.gpswestinc.com). “[Four] years ago I was asked if I could produce a model for GPS grading,” says Marty Schmidt, owner of ECS and GPS West. “[I] completed the project and the grading contractor had success with it. From that time, many of my existing clients [have] used [my] service for modeling and technical advice on GPS issues.” GPS West offers hardware and software options, training and data prep services.

Since the early 1990s, Geologic Computer Systems (GCS, www.geologiccomputersystem.com) has been providing the whole array of products and services to customers: hardware, software, installation, data prep and support for agricultural, site construction, road/highway, energy and waste disposal applications. Before going public, they designed several hardware and software systems using laser and GPS technologies. “It was more or less testing rather than commercializing it. [Then] we started selling systems in 1995: GPS units, computers, machine control hardware (hydraulic valves and computers) and software,” says Mark Williams, one of four GCS co-founders. “Alan [Williams, another co-founder] was a software engineer, and I had been in the construction business as a job superintendent. I had run into problems with layout not being correct, and volumes and topographic maps not being correct. That drove us to get into this [business]; we soon found we could use this [technology] for machine control.” Williams says the four guys essentially began working with systems in 1989, beta testing them on their own and preparing them for commercialization. Then in 1996, Chuck and Frank Julian, manufacturers and owners of City Aluminum of Waterford, Michigan, got involved. They made the hardware GCS used in its initial systems. “We have an understanding [of systems] from data to as-built. People here [employees] have come from those businesses. They understand heavy equipment, hydraulic systems, how to do site work, the whole lot,” Williams says.

More than 10 years old, Take-off Professionals (TOPS, www.takeoffpros.com) of Peoria, Arizona, is a one-stop shop pertaining to all things data and software. Its workers have experience with all types of machine control, rovers and optical positioning systems. TOPS has been in the business of preparing data for its clients with machine control since the early 1990s. It has no association with any manufacturer or system type. “We don’t really care what you own [but] we know how to make data work in your system,” says Marco Cecala, TOPS president. “We sell a service and that is all. Whatever type of equipment you have, we have experience with the latest innovations for your application. We can give you the correct information to go back to the source and prove your case. We will stick with you from your initial meetings to expert witness testimony if need be. Whether it’s one of our training classes or custom training at your location, TOPS will get you up and running. We offer training classes based on real-world plans and projects.” TOPS’ referral network of dealers offers installation support.

What Makes These Shops So Enticing?

Enlarge this picture TOPS works on three levels with its clients: training engineers to prepare data to self-perform their work; stepping in when a company capable of preparing their data gets busy; and fully preparing data for loading on clients' machines.

So what makes these shops viable options for instrumentation, training and support? Don’t many of the manufacturers of positioning and machine control equipment offer these same services and opportunities?

GCS’ Williams says he has found some manufacturers to be generalists. “We look at each kind of thing we do as a specialty,” he says. “Drainage is different than landfill, for example. Even though our programs all run the same, we have built them specifically for each kind of work [and] the systems can be moved to different kinds of machines. An operator would look at a screen and see the same things in each program, but the data [produced is more valuable in our systems]. The programs basically take that information and make it usable by an operator.” Williams notes that the real specialty parts of the programs are evident behind the scenes. “We are specialists. We hire people that understand the different kinds of [applications].”

Like the quaintness of the “mom ‘n pop” shops from the days before the conglomerates, the one-stop site preparation firms offer intimate quality service and products to their customers. It’s not to say that larger manufacturers and firms don’t or can’t provide equal offerings; some contractors simply prefer the attention of the smaller, independent providers.

“We look at whole packages. They put the whole package together. They know all about that community [products for machine control] as far as the latest and greatest technology, and how to integrate [it all],” says Kurt Cutler, project manager for Southern California Grading of Irvine, California, a customer of GPS West. “[And] if we have an issue, they’ll try hard to accommodate us. Where with the other [the larger manufacturers], if they have it, they have it; if they don’t, they don’t. They may change it down the road, but they’re so large it might take six months to a year to implement these things because they’ve got their procedures.”

“[Other companies] generally work through dealers,” GCS’ Williams says. “We used to have dealers ourselves, but they couldn’t handle it. They struggled with every system. You can’t let that happen. Our theory is to have all these things available or the customers get short-changed.” Williams adds that providing open, non-proprietary systems allows GCS to be flexible with customers. “We can use just about anybody’s valve drivers and GPS. We can use Trimble, Topcon, NavCom, Leica Geosystems, John Deere and NovAtel. We have an alliance with several of them.”

“Many of the local dealers in both California and around the U.S. have been only selling GPS and failing on the support issues,” GPS West’s Schmidt says. “Supporting GPS technology is very expensive and a typical dealer can go broke on a single customer.”

Schmidt says he thinks this is because “so few people know both the technical and practical application of GPS. I have a mix of both field-hardened employees (people who have actually had blisters from a hard day of shoveling dirt or working on heavy equipment), and the technically trained computer modeler who understands both the office and the field needs. I also have an employee who understands radio and electrical, both of [which] are important to selling a system and setting up a machine in the field. As far as we are concerned, this is one service. We are engineers who started in the dirt, and know how jobs are to be done in the field.”

Most would agree that having the right people--that is, trained and experienced employees--to sell contractors instrumentation is an advantage over the unseasoned salesperson. But selling products is only part of the puzzle. Installation of that equipment for efficient use is another major concern for buyers.

“Companies who do not offer installations are most likely lacking a person capable of installing a 3D system,” says API’s Simmons. ”We had one [person] and trained two. All three are capable of installing [equipment] on any type of machine with any of the Trimble systems. You will find [that] most of the top tier machine control dealers in this Midwest region do their own installations. This is the main reason why we are a one-stop shop. We can troubleshoot any part of the system from [the] hydraulic-installed components to [the] data. Most of our customers have a better feeling going into the deal knowing we have the knowledge to handle all parts of 3D machine control.”

And what about the costs associated with these site prep components? That’s another advantage for the one-stop shop, according to TOPS’ Cecala.

“Our motto is, ‘We can do it less expensively than you can’,” Cecala says. “Consider the learning curve and the fact that the average contractor will have five jobs prepared by an engineer in any given year. Our client will pay us about a third of what it would cost to have this engineer on staff. The contractor can keep [his] eye on the ball without the worry of also building data for the job. Without the distraction of jobs in progress, we stay on top of plan changes, updating the field files to stay current. We prepare data to suit the different field crews within a company, something the office may not have time for.”

To Southern California Grading’s Cutler, the knowledge GPS West has of the products available for effective and efficient construction jobs is worth more than dollars. “We did some shopping around. They [GPS West] seemed to be the most versatile and the most knowledgeable about the GPS system,” Cutler says. “It’s very complicated. You have certain radio languages to interface with the computer as well as to interface with the GPS. There’s also FCC regulations. They get you registered with all that.”

Who Benefits from One-stops?

GPS West equipped this Yamaha ATV with NavCom GPS, a Walkabout Computer and ancillary supplies.

The offerings of one-stop shops are impressive to many contracting companies, but who is really benefiting from these multi-faceted firms? Construction companies big and small are, according to API’s Simmons. ”We have large clients like The Walsh Group in Chicago, and small clients like Guinzy Construction who work locally in Mount Vernon, Illinois.” GCS’ Williams concurs, noting that his customers include “everything from very small to very large [businesses]: companies that have 1,000 employees and companies that have three employees.”

On the site of the new World Shooting Complex in Sparta, Illinois, Brian Dorris, operations manager for E.T. Simonds Construction Co. in Carbondale, Illinois, has experienced the benefit of API’s services, including training and support.

“They provide onsite training and [training] at their office facility. We buy the equipment from them and [if] anything [goes wrong] we can call back with problems,” Dorris says.

Simmons echoes Dorris: “If there is a problem we have the [solution].” Simmons notes, “We have some of the best field technicians in the business because we use the equipment in our daily activities. Our knowledge in GPS, robotic total stations and data preparation set us apart.”

This knowledge and expertise leads many customers into substantial purchases, which, in turn, provide for a more well-rounded business offering.

“We bought an electronic grade control unit for our motor grader, and we started dealing with them [API] on some of the file preps for that grade control motor grader,” Dorris explains. “Since that time, we’ve purchased some GPS equipment, a base station, a rover and three pieces of equipment with GPS capabilities on it. We currently use them for all of the file prep for the electronic grade control and the GPS.”

“We work on three levels with our clients,” TOPS’ Cecala says. “We train a company’s engineers to prepare data [and] they self-perform their work; a company capable of self-performing their data will have us do some of their work when they get busy; and we prepare data, send the customer an E-mail, and they load it and go to work.”

This last level is the area in which TOPS “tops out” above its competitors, according to Chris Kaufman, project manager/vice president of Northwest Excavating in Rogers, Arkansas, a company providing project takeoff for estimating since 1949. Kaufman calls on TOPS to provide him with GPS data files for the company’s GPS-controlled equipment; Northwest Excavating has one Caterpillar (www.cat.com) 12H motor grader and one Caterpillar 140H motor grader, a Topcon (www.topcon.com) HiPer+ integrated GPS receiver and a HiPer Lite cable-free integrated RTK GPS+ receiver. TOPS works with equipment and software offered by Carlson Software (www.carlsonsw.com), Leica Geosystems (www.leica-geosystems.com), Topcon, Trimble and Tripod Data Systems (www.tdsway.com).

“We’ll send Marco electronic files of the proposed projects we’re bidding, and he converts those files so that we can run those on our systems,” Kaufman says. “That was the key component in our decision to purchase GPS--the fact that we could hire the file conversion process that you can actually use in your GPS system. That whole process was something that we did not want to self-perform. We basically would have had to hire techs and have a surveying department.”

Kaufman’s first experience with Cecala’s data files proved triumphant. Northwest Excavating performed mass grading and site preparation tasks on a 20-acre retail center beginning last March. “It went very smoothly. I could E-mail him [Marco] the CAD files for the project and he manipulates all the data and builds our 3D models, then E-mails the file back to me. Then I download it onto a Flash card and it’s in the field.”

GPS West currently works with NavCom Technology (www.navcomtech.com) and Thales (www.thalesnavigation.com) for its GPS solutions, but Schmidt says this does not preclude them from going to others in the future. GPS West is the first company to apply NavCom’s products in the field. Schmidt believes in the company’s products, both from an instrumentation standpoint and a pricing standpoint, and he believes in the company’s future. “NavCom is a John Deere company. This means that they are well-financed and well-educated. NavCom has helped in programming and troubleshooting for us to bring our latest products to market. We have experienced no delays when we order equipment from them.”

On a prison project in Delano, California, Southern California Grading’s Cutler says the GPS equipment that GPS West outfitted his crews with proved itself in a different way. “Our GPS system found a bug on a 100-acre site that the surveyor made in his calculations,” Cutler explains. “He was shooting too far. If you go a mile down the road, there’s the curvature of the Earth to correct for. He did not correct for it. Our GPS caught it all by itself. That was a big help.”

What’s Their Future?

Looking ahead, the one-stop shops plan to expand and expect to see continued growth. At GPS West, Schmidt says, “Right now our major local focus is in southern California from Bakersfield to the Mexican border. I have plans to expand our philosophy to other major cities. We are looking for dealers or individuals who either want to sell our products and we will carry the support, or firms who want to be trained with our philosophy and we will sell to them as master distributor.”

“[Machine control] is still in the early stages, [but] it certainly has a growing acceptance,” GCS’ Williams says. “I see it definitely on the increase. Like other kinds of work it could be compared to the machine tool business, which is [now] almost 100 percent automated. We’re on the cutting edge of machine control and it will follow as it has in other industries.” He adds: “When we started, nobody thought it would work. Contractors and surveyors are now finding more ways to work together.”

Williams might be right. And this might be a good indicator that as machine control develops and becomes more prosperous, these one-stop shops will thrive as well.

(Sidebar) Surveying: An Added Value

Prior to any grading or other construction activity, the site must be localized and calibrated. This requires the expertise of a surveyor. API believes it provides its customers this advantage. “We feel surveying is a key benefit in this business,” says Simmons. ”Surveying has two areas that are key: site calibration and data. We get onsite to do a site calibration [and] 70 percent of the time the horizontal and vertical control on the jobsite has problems. It takes a surveying background to determine the problem and find a solution. Dealers without this background are waiting for the solution to get fixed. It is very rare [that] we have a set of plans without mistakes, [so our] surveying backgrounds aid us in finding these mistakes.”

GPS West performs pseudo-surveying and as-built work. “Part of our training and support also includes localizing a site for use of GPS,” Schmidt says. “We do not set control for a site, but we have been called upon to double-check the surveyor when things do not seem right. We are not currently a survey firm and when we shoot topos it is with the understanding that our data is not coming from a surveyor but rather from GPS [use].”

Does this extended service threaten the role of the surveyor in construction activity? Doesn’t surveying require a licensed surveyor in most states? It depends on the extent of the work, according to Schmidt.

“I have had several conversations with surveyors about GPS and how a grading contractor can do his own staking with GPS and be correct even though he is not a ‘registered’ surveyor. The fact remains that if a site has control [set by] a surveyor, the site has been localized with GPS, and the localization is correct and checks out, then the contractor can survey and all of his points will be correct,” Schmidt claims. “I think we have a battle brewing between the contractor and the surveyor on the basis of licensing. Surveyors don’t want to lose contracts but the contractor [often] has the tools to be correct. Those tools do not require a license.”

“We actually have done surveying services in the past,” GCS’ Williams says. “If that becomes something people want, we’ll be happy to provide that for them. That’s how we began.” He continues: “Ten percent of our clientele is surveyors and we try not to compete with them. Quite a few of our clients have surveyors [on staff]. Surveyors have that unique knowledge on how to do layout and understand the control side of the job. They should sell their expertise.”

Cecala used to offer surveying at TOPS, but the multitude of data preparation jobs he’s received has made it impossible to perform surveying as well. Now the company consults with local surveying firms, providing the surveyors with their data to keep the tasks consistent.

“Survey[ors] will often send us as-builts and we plot them for the contractor to submit. No job is successful without cooperation with survey[ors],” Cecala says. “When contractors were given the same control accuracy that surveyors had, some surveyors felt their livelihood threatened. This could not be farther from the truth. True, the surveyor may not have to do as much rough grade staking, or turn the truck around to replace a freshly trashed stake, but that will free them to perform all the other tasks that are required of them.”

And this, most contractors agree, is the measuring expertise needed for every job.