How Horizon went from six weeks to 48 hours to model a property
How Sync Technologies made a 20x faster turnaround for a multi-award winning master builder happen.
Horizon is a multi-award-winning builder, gaining 20 awards over the last 12 years, including NSW Master Builder of the Year.
"Horizon was formed in 1989 and we are still going strong,” says Managing Director, David Moses. “We are a professional services firm that deliver end to end construction services, focusing on commercial and residential projects. We work mostly on new builds or renovations of high-end homes in Sydney.”
“The property market has sky-rocketed with low interest rates and overseas buyers,” says Moses, In order to take on more projects we need to work smarter and overcome challenges like limited time onsite at the tender stage, but also improve the post construction view during various stages.”
“As an example, we used Sync Technologies Digital Twin as a Service (DTaaS) to reverse engineer plans of a house that we were renovating,” says Moses, “It would have taken a surveyor five to six weeks to draw the property, but Sync Technologies built the model in 48 hours. It was quicker and more cost effective.”
“The owner of this particular property lives overseas and has never physically seen the property and there were problems with the house that needed to be fixed,” says Moses, “There’s only so much that they can see on FaceTime or Zoom. We shared the Sync Technologies model of the house so the client could walk around visually and be shown the place. The client absolutely loved it and through this process we were able to resolve questions quickly and non-invasively.” The client has requested for the twin to be updated at regular intervals, so she may be able to keep in touch with progress on site, especially in a different time zone.
In this way, DTaaS is extremely useful for collaboration with owners, designers and other stakeholders as it enables consistency of information sharing.
“DTaaS maps the existing property and is a much smoother process than getting a surveyor in,” says Project Manager Tom Richards, “It enables an easier work flow for the design team, who were able to send the measurements to the Philippines to produce rendered concept drawings.”
Horizon has been working with Sync Technologies since January 2021, with great results for both the company and its clients.
“I would recommend Sync Technologies DTaaS to new clients for the pre construction concept/design phase,” says Richards, “The technology is better to use than surveys and so much faster to obtain. I also like to use the add-ons, like mapping, which helps to see what is needed for a renovation.”
“It's a new technology that we haven’t used before, but this type of technology is the way to go for the future,” says Richards, “So far, our clients have loved it. It makes it a lot easier for us and them to visualise properties, and be able to gain a proper understanding of the outset situation.”
“I can see Sync Technologies DTaaS having further possibilities for Horizon, and the industry,” says Richards, “Internally at Horizon, I think we can use this technology to mark up where issues are and renovations are needed on screen, such and damp flooring areas.”
“I think the Sync Technologies tools have lots of uses that each project and business would be able to use differently,” says Moses, “There is lots of potential as it also supports with validating construction site progress and as a digital record-keeping.”
Most of all, the partnership between Horizon and Sync Technologies is one that has grown through trust and forward-thinking vision.
“The team at Sync Technologies have always been responsive and working with them has been very good,” says Richards.
“Sync Technologies are the kind of people we want to work with,” says Moses, “They do what they say they are going to do and mean what they say. We will definitely continue using them and are happy to look at their new products as they emerge.”
