NOTEVAULT™

NoteVault was founded to develop and deploy innovative service solutions for construction.

In 2000, Peterbuilt Corporation (a construction firm founded by Peter Lasensky, a NoteVault principal) experienced a construction dispute with one of its customers. The dispute arose with a client who had ordered a "no cost" change in a paving specification from asphalt to non-reinforced concrete. The work was completed without executing a change-order. Shortly thereafter, the concrete cracked and the client withheld final payment claiming that he had not approved the change of specification. This seemingly simple "no cost" change became a major point of contention and a legal nightmare.

As Peter Lasensky states, "In arbitration, two years after the fact, memories were fuzzy. I can’t say for sure that my customer's facts were incorrect but it certainly seemed that way. I guess he could have just forgotten the circumstances, but I suspect not. Sometimes people simply don’t want to pay and will do or say anything to avoid it."

"You’ve probably heard the axiom, "Necessity is the mother of invention". In my case, pain was the mother of invention. I was completely frustrated. Not only was this customer refusing to pay, I had the burden of proof - and yet I had none. I was forced to spend all day in arbitration, which left little time to land new projects, collect money or attend to the daily administration of my business. The project superintendent had to be there every day, too."

"After several days of miserable arbitration, and with no end in sight, I was really upset and angry. While sitting with my superintendent, I started to shake my hand up and down, while holding my mobile phone, and said, "How can I make sure this never happens again?". At that moment, I looked at my phone and thought, "Hey, how about using a mobile phone to capture events on the project in voice?". The very next thought was, "...and since the voice is going over a cellular network, there is a time stamp by a third party". My superintendent added, "That would be great. I could document what happens on my job from anywhere on the site. Quite honestly, I sometimes forget to write things down by the time I get to the trailer."

The benefits became immediately obvious. The solution is now NoteVault.