Hello, and welcome to the first monthly update post from BuildingIM. It’s been a busy month in our world, so let’s get to it:

Team Departures

This month was bitter-sweet with the loss of two of our founders. Both of the guys had commitments outside of the BuildingIM business that they felt they couldn’t fully commit to both of the roles; we made a mutual decision to part ways. We still keep in contact with both of the leavers and they are providing consultation to Calum and me when we need it.

We will miss both of the leavers, but we are also glad that they felt supported enough to talk openly about their decision. I believe that shows that our culture at BuildingIM is the right culture, where people can raise their concerns and discuss them without fear. I hope we can keep this feeling as we mature and expand the team.

Factom Operator Selection

While it technically happened before May, on the 28th April we were selected to be one of the Authority Node Operators (ANOs) for the Factom Blockchain. Factom is a blockchain technology that allows small entries into the chain for a minimal fee (currently $0.001 USD per “Entry Credit”) while rewarding the server hosts with a saleable token called a “Factoid”. The Factoids themselves are produced at a fixed rate and are converted by the purchaser into a number of Entry Credits based on their price. As usage of the Factom blockchain increases, the price of Factoids increases due to demand.

BuildingIM’s Construction Workflow Solution (CWS) platform will be built using the Factom blockchain to ensure all our stored information is verifiably correct, a key requirement in industries as complicated as construction. Using Factom allows us to provide our customers with the proof that a specific version of a file (document/image/chat log) was uploaded to the CWS servers at a specific time, with complete confidence that it has not been modified by comparing the file’s fingerprint (hash) with the fingerprint stored in the blockchain.

More information about the Factom blockchain can be found on Factom website FAQ.

Hosting

We are currently in early-stage discussions with a large cloud hosting company who are interested in expanding their blockchain hosting portfolio. In exchange for subsidised hosting and support, we will be become a case study for blockchain on their cloud, while also allowing the host’s operators to come up with use cases and tools to assist future blockchain technologies looking for a cloud hosting provider.

This is a very interesting development for us because a large player in the cloud hosting market will be talking about the Factom blockchain and the BuildingIM CWS platform. As soon as we can announce anything, we will!

CWS MVP

The size and scope of the BuildingIM Construction Workflow Solution (CWS) platform is immense, and so we are in the process of defining which part of the platform will be our MVP. Competitor analysis is being undertaken, and we are having discussions with many people from the construction industry to find out what their pain-points are in today’s construction process.

The research is throwing up some interesting competitor features but also pointing out the gaps where current tools are failing to meet the requirements of our future users. We can’t wait to announce our MVP in the coming months, alongside our first customers.

In Closing

Everything right now is going so fast we barely get time to sit back and see how far we’ve come. I have fully enjoyed writing this update because it has shown me that this month has been way more productive than I felt it had been. I hope you found this update informative and I look forward to reading your responses and questions in the comments below.