Fast-growing iSqFt combines with 3 firms to form new company - ConstructConnect

This article comes from the Cincinatti Business Journal

May 13, 2016, 11:52am EDT Revised Date/Time Publish Updated May 13, 2016, 2:37pm EDT

Fast-growing iSqFt combined with three other companies to form a new firm called ConstructConnect.

Norwood-based iSqFt combined with BidClerk, Construction Data Co. and Construction Market Data to form ConstructConnect.

Dave Conway, who has been president and CEO of iSqFt, is president and CEO of ConstructConnect. The combined company is headquartered in its new offices at Rookwood Exchange.

Conway said ConstructConnect combines each of the unique benefits of the four companies.

“The whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” Conway said. “It made sense to create a new name that’s reflective of what the combination brings to the market, which is unprecedented.”

ConstructConnect provides construction professionals, including general contractors, subcontractors, design professionals and building product manufacturers with pre-construction solutions including data, content and insights, helping users to find and win new contracts.

ConstructConnect now has about 725 total employees, including about 300 at its headquarters in Norwood. The company still expects to grow quickly. Conway said the firm is currently looking to fill about 30 jobs.

Last year, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved iSqFt for a 65 percent, six-year job creation tax credit. The estimated value of the tax credit is $580,000.

In addition to ConstructConnect’s headquarters, the company has nine other locations across the U.S. and Canada.

Dodge Data & Analytics LLC, a major provider of construction project information, filed a lawsuit against the firms that combined to form ConstructConnect, alleging they are attempting to monopolize the nationwide construction project information market in the U.S. and Canada. At the end of April, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black rejected iSqFt's request to dismiss the lawsuit.

Conway said the firms have been focused on improving their easy-to-use software and providing even more relevant project data. It’s ConstructConnect’s combination of data, software and connections that make it unique, Conway said.

For Conway and what was iSqFt, the transition to ConstructConnect shows how far the company has come. iSqFt, which was founded in 1993 by Phil Ogilby as a job-estimating software firm, made its big breakthrough in April 2001. That’s when its then-new president Conway helped the company win a fierce competition against 200 other firms to become the exclusive national partner of Associated General Contractors of America, a trade group representing 30,000 commercial contractors.

“We were a small tech startup, and we’ve grown to be the largest company of our kind in North America,” Conway said. The combination of data, software and connections allows customers to better evaluate all opportunities and select the project with the highest probability to win that work using rich data, Conway said.

“You can’t construct if you don’t connect,” Conway said.