by Michael Wolter

The Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International’s (AACE) annual conference was held in June of 2016 in Toronto. Jax Kneppers, founder and CEO of mobile property management software Imfuna, presented Mobile Collection Technology to Create Accurate Cost Estimates, which focused on the Imfuna apps and their ability to collect field data using “database-driven technology for the efficient organization of data.”

Survey results put Kneppers in first place for the AACE annual conference in the category of attendees’ likelihood to attend a presentation again. All of the survey respondents said they would return to hear him speak, giving him top score in the category.

Kneppers encouraged conference attendees to use methods of data collection that employ cloud-based mobile collection technology. Based on his research, Kneppers has found these methods are a more efficient way to conduct inspections and produce inspection reports. Kneppers reported a 64% improvement in the length of time it took to complete an inspection and publish a report.

The presentation was co-authored by Dr. Borja Garcia de Soto and Matthew Dick. Dr. Garcia de Soto holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, and has had extensive experience in civil engineering, project management, schedule analysis, cost estimating, BIM, and forensic engineering. Mr. Dick started as a construction consultant for Jax Kneppers Associates and then transitioned to software developer for Imfuna; he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in civil and environmental engineering from UCLA.

Kneppers also scored 5th out of 95 presenters in the category of visual aids.