Buyers Guide
Inspection Software
Table of Contents
- What is Inspection Software?
- The benefits of Inspection Software
- Typical features of Inspection Software
- The Cost of Inspection Software
- Considerations when Purchasing Inspection Software
Relevant Inspection Software trends
What is Inspection Software?
Inspection software automates data collection, inspection reports, appointment management, and other processes associated with residential or commercial inspections. Inspection professionals can use this software to automate routine tasks, increase work efficiency, manage appointments, and improve customer retention.
The benefits of inspection software
- Automate routine tasks: Inspection software can save inspection professionals time by automating routine, administrative tasks such as data collection, reporting, and appointment management.
Optimize revenue generation: One-way inspection software can help optimize revenue generation is through automatic appointment management. These tools can easily schedule appointments and automatically replace cancellations so you never miss out on booking a client.
Typical features of Inspection Software
- Appointment management: Schedule, change, or cancel appointments easily.
- Checklists: Create checklists and to-do lists that can be marked during inspection to ensure nothing is forgotten.
- Reporting/Analytics: View and track metrics for insight into how your business is performing and where it could improve.
- Dispatch management: Send personnel and resources to a site as needed.
- Image capture: Process images and automatically scan for data to easily store information.
Mobile access: Access the software remotely via mobile devices so inspectors can access software in the field.
The Cost of Inspection Software
Most products in the market are priced on a per-month, per-user basis. Pricing can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price:
Price ranges:
- $10 - $19
- $19 - $25
- $25+
The above list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or premium product that is priced higher may include additional features such as mobile access, and security features such as single sign-on, and may support larger teams.
Considerations when Purchasing Inspection Software
- Free trials: Many inspection software solutions, including home inspection software, offer free trials, allowing professionals to try before buying. If you’re not sure which inspection solution is right for you, consider a free trial before locking in your decision.
- Frequency of use: Most inspection software solutions are priced per user, per month, however, there are a few options that allow for a one-time license fee, typically for one user. The cost of the one-time fee will be higher than the per-month rate, but may pay off in the long run if you plan to use the software for an extended period of time.
Access to software in the field: To do their job, inspection professionals have to leave their desks and computers to visit inspection sites. Having mobile and offline access to inspection software ensures inspectors can access checklists, get signatures, and update the system when they’re in the field.
Relevant Inspection Software trends
- Unmanned inspections: Brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Huawei announced it is conducting unmanned onsite inspections using artificial intelligence. This technology could not only protect inspectors’ safety in the field, but also give inspectors more insight into the buildings and sites they assess.
- Predictive analytics and robotics: Inspectors can gather more data using artificial intelligence. In turn, this data can be used to build predictive algorithms that can improve structural health and design by generating better visuals, reducing costs and human error, enhancing 3D modeling capabilities, and protecting both ecosystems and infrastructure.