You may not have heard of Pointivo, but for many industries, this product is mission critical. Like the 1990s “Intel Inside” refrain, Pointivo is white-labeled software within the drone industry leader’s platform that powers leading commercial and residential property management companies and the largest and largest tower companies. Today, Pointivo works directly with customers to help solve their most pressing problems by providing his visually comprehensible, data-rich 3D models of physical structures.
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“We are moving the industry,” says Pointivo CTO Jacob Garland. “We are an AI-driven software platform that uses computer vision and machine learning to derive structural data.”
More than a digital model
Pointivo transforms images of physical structures into visually understandable 3D digital models. More than just a digital twin, Pointivo’s model is designed to deliver immediate business value. “For us, when we think of a digital twin, we think of a digital representation that can contain much more information than just a point cloud or mesh model,” said Jacob Garland, his CTO at Pointivo. says. “We can integrate our models with other data sources, such as backend systems, to synthesize all the important information about the asset.”
For companies in the business of managing geographically diverse physical structures, such as facilities management, commercial solar roofs, telecommunications, and oil and gas, data-rich digital models have become reliant on spreadsheets and images. It represents a leap from asset management systems with many accessories. Digital models integrated into business intelligence systems solve real problems, keep employees off the roof and towers, and deliver critical business information. “Without a spreadsheet, how can we objectively look at the state of 4,000 real estate chains and reconcile them?” Garland asks. “That’s where the ROI is.”
3D models and digital twins are commonly used terms, but not all products are the same. Pointivo was founded in 2014 based on research focused on shaping structured data from unstructured data. “Our product is vision oriented. We have a patent on the ability to take a 3D model and actually allow users to visualize it in a seamless way. Hundreds of miles away. You can be in place and virtually be dropped into the structure and see what’s going on,” says Garland.
meet where the customer is
Introducing new technology programs, especially those involving new data sources such as drones, can be challenging for large companies. Pointivo doesn’t hold customers back with implementation hurdles. Colin Blake is the company’s Director of Solutions Engineering.
“We approach the problem from the customer’s perspective,” he says. “The first time a customer meets us, we get the asset address and provide all the information they need in a .pdf. If we can show it, we can work with them to implement the software and get more benefits.”
The Pointivo platform is designed to be flexible, providing data that fits your customer’s needs. Drone data has pushed 3D modeling technology forward, but Pointivo is not tied to drones. “We are agnostic from a data source perspective,” he explains Blake. “We are not tied to manufacturers or sensors. We get data from any source to help solve customer problems.”
The platform can provide a reasonable level of accuracy for the problem. The company has developed a patented scale marker system that can be used for engineering grade accuracy. You can also create CAD drawings and locate locations as needed.
“Our overriding goal is for technology to fade into the background,” adds Garland.
New customer and new set of solutions
As a white label solution provider, Pointivo’s partner network is growing and the company is happy to continue powering the systems of global enterprises. But now we also offer solutions directly to our clients.
“We are happy to provide a solution directly to our customer’s needs,” says Garland. “This gives us the opportunity to explore new use cases that could address this kind of solution.
“We see so many people failing to get the capacity they need and we know we can solve these customer problems. We don’t believe in software for software’s sake.”
“We have a lot of building blocks that we’ve developed, and we want to talk to our customers and put those pieces together to build the perfect solution that solves their problem,” says Blake.
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Miriam McNabb, editor-in-chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of professional drone services marketplace JobForDrones, is a keen observer of the emerging drone industry and drone regulatory environment. Miriam is an international speaker and industry recognized figure, with over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and he has over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing new technologies.
For drone industry consulting or writing, email Miriam.
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