One of the many joys that construction professionals experience working in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is having the privilege of contributing to the built environment in a concrete way (sometimes literally).
Whether you're in the office working on plans and drawings or out in the field building the structure, many folks get a profound sense of accomplishment from contributing to lasting landmarks and infrastructure.
One such individual is Mark Dinius, VP of Innovations & Technology at Satterfield & Pontikes (S&P). Mark was drawn to the industry because of his interest in the visual aspects of construction and ultimately seeing the tangible results of his efforts.
Today, Mark leads the implementation and use of technology at S&P, ensuring teams are equipped with tools to bring projects to life in the most effective ways.
We caught up with Mark recently to gain insights into his experiences and perspectives. He talked about his career journey, the exciting things they're working on at S&P, and his thoughts on emerging construction trends and technologies.
Satterfield & Pontikes (S&P) is a family-owned and operated innovator in construction management systems and has pioneered numerous technological advancements across its broad portfolio of diverse projects. Our co-founder, George Pontikes, is still at the helm with us and is really into the tech scene, involved in various startups and investments. And so S&P, as much as we're a general contractor, sometimes feels like a technology company too, which is unique.
We have a handful of wholly-owned specialty subsidiaries that provide us with the ability to self-perform several essential construction activities. When you look at the entire Satterfield & Pontikes family of companies, we are right at a billion dollars a year, so we're growing rapidly, which feels good.
I specialize in looking at our software stack and how it fits within our entire ecosystem of products. I ask questions like, “What does it do? What's the value of it? Is it best in class?”
This focus is a direct initiative derived from our corporate strategy related to the analytical side of our business. We are trying to leverage many different types of data from different systems to help improve how we deliver on budget, on time and to be the best company we can be.
I got into the construction industry because it's quite hands-on. I started in engineering at Purdue, and ultimately, the theoretical side didn't speak to me as much as the practical side of application.
I got into construction because I wanted to be in a hands-on role and see the things that you're building come to life. Instead of the numbers and science behind it, it's more about the visual side of things, which really resonated with me. I actually started in the BIM and VDC space, graduating from Purdue with a construction graphics degree.
I started at S&P as a VDC engineer and saw all these aspects of the virtual side. Then, I got more into project controls for some of our bigger clients and worked my way into the IT and database scene. From there, I started up the analytics group.
I came out as a VDC engineer, doing a lot of coordination and model building. I ran our department for a couple of years and then had the opportunity to work with Delta Air Lines on a large job in Los Angeles. I spent a few years at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) managing the BIM group before taking on project controls for the program.
I got married, returned to Texas, and took on a role at S&P, overseeing the VDC group.
Then, IT came under my umbrella. They were looking for someone to focus on technology and to understand its applications a little better. From there, it grew into the database and systems admin groups.
As we started leveraging our tools better and streamlined processes, the company spun up a business intelligence group. That analytics group was started a couple of years ago and falls under the technology branch. As soon as I began to hire some good people across all those departments, I took on this vice president role where I currently oversee that larger team.
The commonality across everything I work on is that it's all technology-related. Whether it's in the preconstruction and conceptual phases or all the way through to turnover and leasing, there's technology in every step. Our major initiative is to see the continuity of data and information from beginning to end of that project’s lifecycle.
So, it's a pretty cool task. You've got all these different tools that are unique in the various processes of the construction life cycle, but trying to keep that data consistent throughout is a challenge.
The change management side of people is very difficult, especially in the construction industry. We've got one of the biggest gaps between this old-school knuckle-dragging type of mentality for the way things "should" be built and how things "should" be done based solely on that person’s previous experiences. The industry is evolving quickly – more and more investments are made in construction technologies. Now more than ever, our workforces need practical, efficient tools to ensure their safety and project success. Our teams have to be open-minded and willing to leverage new tools to help them execute in the field.
Change management with people is always the hardest thing. For example, we recently rolled out Autodesk Build’s Cost Management tools. It definitely shifted our entire operations. Many of the teams were resistant to change well before trying the tools.
The biggest way we've overcome that hurdle is by having peers train peers. We have superintendents train superintendents, project managers train project managers, etc. There is a mutual respect and understanding of responsibilities when peers train peers. They’re able to focus on efficiencies and their responsibilities, which helps build a strong relationship.
Secondly, you have to spend time with the team to help them understand why it's important. You always have to understand what they need, what they want out of it, and what their difficulties will be. We spend extra time listening and tweaking controls to ensure our teams have everything they need to be successful.
Whether it's old school or new school, everyone wants to be heard, and I think that's been our recipe for success.
Many people think that everything has to be perfect. They say, "It should do what I want it to do when I want it to do it, and that's it."
My perspective has changed in that there are many different ways to achieve your end goal, and it doesn't have to be a direct path. You could take whatever course you want as long as it makes sense and you're learning from it.
When you talk about social impact, technology will rarely be exactly the way you want it to be. And that's good because a lot of people learn technology by making mistakes. If you take the direct path, you don't understand all the pitfalls along the way.
As for innovation—it's always going to be important. I’ve focused my career on controlling innovation. My perspective has changed as I've delved into technology: While everyone strives for perfection, it's okay not to achieve it. Sometimes, the less traveled path is more impactful.
On the social side, as long as people pay attention to what they're doing, they develop a better understanding than they realize. Many people are too focused on “What button do I push?” when they should be focused on “Why do I push that button?” This holistic approach benefits both technology and innovation, fostering a deeper understanding.
AI is going to do a lot of good. I think people are overwhelmed by it right now, given that there is so much uncertainty and misnomers about it.
Do I think that AI will take over the world like in The Terminator movies? No. Do I believe that AI will significantly make our teams more efficient on a technology front? One hundred percent. All of the repetitive tasks that people have to do will be alleviated by AI.
When you think about these large language models, they enable normal people to interface with AI. That large language model bridges a communication and technology gap, so people can ask AI questions similar to asking another human being. This makes it easier for people to achieve some of the rewards that AI can bring without having to be tech wizards.
As long as people aren't trying to overwhelm the company with too much at once, emerging technologies are going to be huge. People just need to keep their feet grounded and recognize how it can help them.
The support, honestly. We've had some incredible people working with us, from our account rep to some of the folks who have come out and trained our teams and have been there for us.
We took on a mountain, and we climbed it faster than we were supposed to. From the point when we signed the contracts back in late December until about mid-February—so two and a half months—we stood up our entire environment. We rolled out eight projects on March 1st.
Our team of three could never have done that without support from the Autodesk folks.
The support has been incredible. We've been evaluating the product for well over two years, specifically the last 18 months, and we've seen so much investment in the product. We're encouraged by that. We hope Autodesk keeps investing in their core products.
The structured data is amazing. That's the stuff we have to live on. When you talk about business intelligence and trying to create standardization across a company with three locations and two major projects in different regions, developing standard processes and putting controls in place using the platform gives us confidence that we're steering people down the right road. We're building accountability and empowering people to make the right decisions.
We've done a great job setting this up to keep people focused on their tasks and their neighboring tasks without being overwhelmed by how they can execute. So, for us, the confidence is that people are in the right lanes of accountability to execute.
In addition (at least from my part of the back end), having all the structured data helps us make more informed decisions. We’re able to loop into that data and see anomalies that could impact a project and we’re doing that well before it’s a realized impact.
Autodesk helps us narrow down to specific areas, which could be RFIs, submittals, or change management. The point is to find out WHERE the issue is and then the WHY. Once you identify the issue and its cause, you can start to correct it. With structured data, you can look across your entire organization and find those "whys" much faster than with spreadsheets, Outlook, and unstructured data from undefined processes.
There are two. Earlier, we talked about how George has a couple of companies he's invested in, and I think they're onto something big. There's a ton of innovation happening, and I'm excited for the companies we’re advising.
I think what they're doing will be the standard in a couple of years from now, especially the components around data and recall of construction data.
On the S&P side, we're trying to be more of a leading edge than a bleeding edge these days. We're looking to find the balance between leveraging more out of Autodesk Construction Cloud and when to go and rely on other tools and products that may be more focused on a specific niche of our group. We'll strive to continue finding that balance. It's going to drive productivity.
We're also going to focus on this predictive aspect of the company. We want to understand what trips up projects and how we can turn that around. We want to use data and insights to create a predictable engine for managing jobs.
Let's say an owner is late on a payment. If an owner is late, have we historically had issues in those projects, and what kind of issues and where? We can then take that learning and apply it to the future.
We are focused on trying to do that from a prediction standpoint, whether for construction or preconstruction. Can we get to a spot where we don't need drawings or deep information to give an owner, project team or public entity a price and say, "We’re confident we can build your job"? By knowing the industry and learning from our historical data, we can say, "Here's your project, and based on inflation, here's your midpoint of the job," and be confident.
