How Summit Infrastructure Cut Inspection Reports from Days to Minutes

The Challenge

Summit Infrastructure is a civil engineering firm specializing in large-scale infrastructure projects—bridges, roadways, water treatment facilities, and public buildings. Their 80 site inspectors are responsible for conducting routine inspections, documenting compliance with engineering specifications, and generating detailed reports for clients and regulatory agencies.

The company's inspection workflow was broken:

Time-Consuming Report Generation

After completing a site inspection, inspectors would return to the office and spend 2-4 hours writing up a formal inspection report. This involved:

• Transcribing handwritten field notes into a Word template
• Manually inserting photos and labeling them
• Cross-referencing specification documents to verify compliance
• Formatting tables and checklists
• Getting manager review and approval

For a single inspection that took 90 minutes on-site, the follow-up reporting work often took longer than the inspection itself.

Compliance Gaps

Site inspections followed complex checklists based on engineering specifications and building codes. Inspectors using paper forms would sometimes miss items or mark them incorrectly.

During a 2025 audit, the company discovered that 8% of inspection reports were missing required compliance items. This created legal risk and forced the company to re-inspect multiple sites at their own expense.

Poor Photo Documentation

Photos were critical evidence that work met specifications. But the photo workflow was chaotic:

• Photos were taken on personal phones or digital cameras
• Inspectors manually typed photo captions and matched them to inspection reports
• Photos were often mislabeled or missing context (e.g., "What part of the structure is this?")
• Photo uploads happened days after the inspection, making it hard to remember details

Slow Client Deliverables

Clients expected inspection reports within 24-48 hours of the site visit. Summit Infrastructure frequently missed these deadlines because the manual reporting process was so time-consuming.

Delayed reports frustrated clients and created bottlenecks in project timelines. If an inspection flagged an issue, the contractor needed to know immediately—not three days later.

Limited Visibility for Project Managers

Project managers had no real-time visibility into inspection status. They couldn't see what had been inspected, what issues had been flagged, or whether inspectors were on schedule. This lack of visibility made it difficult to allocate resources and manage client expectations.

The VP of Field Operations knew that the manual reporting process was costing the company time, money, and client satisfaction. They needed a solution that would allow inspectors to generate reports in the field, not days later at the office.

The Solution

Summit Infrastructure evaluated several construction management platforms, but most were designed for general contractors (tracking work orders and schedules) rather than third-party inspection firms. The company needed a tool focused on inspection documentation and compliance.

Mapalyze provided exactly what they needed:

Pre-Built Inspection Checklists

Summit Infrastructure created custom inspection forms for each project type:

• Concrete inspections: Slump tests, rebar placement, curing conditions, compressive strength
• Steel structure inspections: Weld quality, bolt torque, alignment, coating condition
• Roadway inspections: Pavement thickness, grade, compaction, drainage
• Building envelope inspections: Waterproofing, insulation, flashing details, window installation

Each form included required compliance items based on engineering specifications and building codes. Inspectors couldn't submit the form until all required fields were completed, eliminating the risk of missed items.

Real-Time Report Generation

The breakthrough was that the inspection form essentially became the report.

When an inspector completed a form in Mapalyze, the data was structured and complete. The company set up export templates that automatically formatted inspection data into client-ready PDF reports with one click.

What used to take 2-4 hours of manual work now took 30 seconds.

Integrated Photo Documentation with Context

Photos were captured directly within the inspection form. Each photo was automatically tagged with:

• The specific inspection checklist item (e.g., "Foundation rebar placement")
• GPS coordinates
• Timestamp
• Inspector name

Inspectors could add voice notes or text annotations to photos while on-site, capturing context they would have forgotten by the time they returned to the office.

When the PDF report was generated, photos were automatically placed in the correct section with proper labeling. No manual insertion or formatting required.

Offline Reliability for Job Sites

Many construction sites—especially in early phases—have no WiFi and unreliable cell coverage. Mapalyze's offline-first design meant inspectors could work all day without connectivity and sync data when they returned to the office or truck.

This was particularly important for remote infrastructure projects like bridge construction in rural areas.

Instant Issue Flagging

When inspectors marked a compliance item as "fail" or "needs correction," they could add detailed notes and photos explaining the issue. This data was immediately available to project managers via data export.

Project managers could now identify issues the same day they were discovered and coordinate with contractors to fix them. This dramatically reduced rework and project delays.

Location Mapping for Large Sites

For large projects spanning multiple acres (e.g., highway construction), inspectors could use Mapalyze to capture GPS coordinates for each inspection point. This created a map of exactly where inspections occurred.

Project managers could see at a glance which sections of the site had been inspected and which still needed coverage.

The Results

Summit Infrastructure rolled out Mapalyze to all 80 site inspectors over a three-month deployment. The impact on report turnaround and compliance was dramatic:

95% Reduction in Report Generation Time

What used to take 2-4 hours of office work now took minutes. Inspectors completed the form on-site, exported to PDF, and emailed the report to the client before leaving the job site.

At 80 inspectors conducting an average of 3 inspections per week, the time savings added up to approximately 960 hours saved per week. That's 50,000 hours per year—the equivalent of adding 24 full-time employees without hiring anyone.

Zero Missed Compliance Items

Since deploying Mapalyze, Summit Infrastructure has had zero inspection reports flagged for missing required compliance items during audits.

The structured forms and required field validation ensured that inspectors couldn't skip critical checklist items. This eliminated compliance risk and avoided costly re-inspections.

$80K in Annual Cost Savings

The efficiency gains translated directly to cost savings:

• Reduced overtime hours for report writing (~$45K/year)
• Eliminated third-party report formatting contractors (~$18K/year)
• Avoided re-inspection costs due to missed compliance items (~$17K/year based on prior years)

The Mapalyze subscription cost was less than 20% of these savings.

Faster Client Deliverables

Inspection reports were now delivered same-day or within 24 hours. This met (and often exceeded) client expectations, improving client satisfaction scores.

One major client specifically praised Summit Infrastructure in a project review: "Your team's responsiveness and report quality have been outstanding. Issues are documented and communicated immediately."

Better Project Oversight

Project managers could now export all inspection data for a project and analyze trends. They could see:

• Which contractors had the highest failure rates on compliance items
• Which inspection categories flagged the most issues
• Where inspections were clustering geographically

This data helped the company provide better feedback to contractors and improve quality control processes.

More Inspections Per Day

Because reporting time dropped to near-zero, inspectors could schedule more site visits per day. The company increased inspection capacity by 25% without hiring additional staff.

This allowed Summit Infrastructure to take on more projects and grow revenue without proportional overhead increases.

What's Next

Summit Infrastructure has integrated Mapalyze into their core operations and is expanding its use to additional workflows:

• Pre-construction site assessments
• Environmental compliance monitoring
• As-built verification and closeout documentation
• Punch list inspections

The company is also exploring Mapalyze's API to automatically push inspection data into their project management system, creating a seamless workflow from field inspection to client billing.

"Before Mapalyze, our inspectors would finish a site visit and then spend hours writing up the report back at the office," says James T., VP of Field Operations. "Now the report is essentially done when they leave the site. That's changed everything about how we operate."