Late in the year 2000, Weitz Co. Inc. approached Emerging Growth Group about a partnership. Weitz, a Des Moines-based national construction company, had invested in a Chicago company called Property Technologies LLC to create a product that would store documents digitally. Property Technologies developed a product to digitally store information, but eventually the company “stalled out,” without further significant development of the product or its customer base, according to Erich Lemke, chief information officer for Data Builder Inc., a provider of construction documentation products and services.

Craig Damos, chief financial officer of Weitz, asked Emerging Growth Group, a Des Moines-based company that develops start-up technology ventures, to look at Property Technologies and help it take off. The company suggested Weitz restart the venture here in Des Moines. Weitz parted ways with Property Technologies, and Data Builder Inc. was born as a joint venture between Weitz and EGG. Data Builder now makes a product based on the old technology, but is in the midst of developing new software that its’s leaders say will revolutionize the industry.

Whenever a construction project occurs, rooms full of paper are produced, including boxes of operating manuals, printouts of e-mails, notes between contractors and subcontractors, and blueprints. Each document has a lifecycle, a period of time the construction company or building owner is required to keep it. Building owners spend 40 percent of their time looking for information on their buildings, said Gregg Barcus, president of Emerging Growth Group. Their new service would compile all documentation and information about a construction project in a searchable archive.

“This project will improve time management and morale,” he said.

Now documents are boxed up and given to a service bureau to scan. In Data Builder’s system, digital information would be sent directly into the archive, and papers would be scanned and placed in the archive the moment they arrive at the construction company’s office. For some data, the software would be integrated so computer programs would automatically store information in the system.

Data Builder plans to provide its core construction documentation product, data center capabilities (which would provide access to stored information through a Web site), implementation, support and training.

The fledgling company recently completed two test projects, Valley Stadium and Stilwell Junior High in West Des Moines. Barcus and Lemke say the response has been very positive and they have a few prospects for summer projects. They hope to begin marketing the pilot project by the end of the year.