gNext Reduces Risk for Building & Structure Asset Owners and Insurers
The oldest high-rise building in America is located on the corner of Adams and LaSalle Streets in Chicago. Constructed in 1885, The Home Insurance Building was known as the world’s first modern skyscraper. You can find other high-rise structures built in the 1800s in Boston, San Francisco, New York City, Rochester, and Washington, D.C. However, in places like New York City, inspections only happen every five years and there are only about 500 engineers qualified for the job. The city has a lot of square footage to cover with very few people qualified to do it.
In June 2021, the sudden collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida — crushing 98 people inside — sparked serious conversation around the country about the state of inspection and maintenance on these large structures. The building had been built 100 years after the Home Insurance Building in Chicago and had seemingly no cause for the collapse — until investigators dug deeper.
The signs were everywhere with cracks and sagging on the pool deck, plant roots growing through concrete. After 40 years of standing tall, the building collapsed in the middle of the night. Engineers at the National Institute for Standards and Technology are still investigating the collapse to pinpoint the myriad of mistakes that caused this tragedy, but there’s no time to waste making sure it doesn’t happen again.
The Implications of Crumbling Infrastructure on Insurance
These kinds of disasters are a nightmare for asset owners and their insurance companies. After the Champlain Towers collapsed, a judge ruled that the reported $48 million insurance coverage — $30 million in property insurance and $18 million in liability insurance — was “simply not enough”. The wider impact of the event caused insurers to send letters to owners of condos 40 years and older in South Florida, requiring that they prove their buildings have passed all inspections.
Now, asset owners and insurers all over the United States are scrambling to make sure their liability and risk are reduced through more inspections and updated policies. This has caused an overwhelming spike in demand for inspectors to provide in-depth structural analysis and reports.
In November 2021, the New York City Department of Buildings released a comprehensive report on drone usage for building safety inspections. The report found that drones could be used to collect significant amounts of visual data at angles that are more difficult to access using current methods of visual inspection.
Enter gNext.
gNext platform was built to bring the future of infrastructure inspection to the present. As a SaaS platform, gNext processes drone-captured images and video with machine vision and powerful analytics to help asset owners conduct inspections safely, accurately, and efficiently.
The use of drones in the insurance industry is a game-changer in terms of how properties are underwritten, risks managed, and damages assessed.
gNext for Building & Structure Risk Management
gNext is proven to reduce inspection time and cost for building and structure asset owners and insurance companies. As more and more municipalities and building owners are turning to drones to help make inspections safer and more efficient, gNext provides an opportunity to do so securely and remotely.
While the rise of drone usage is a step in the right direction, there’s still a critical need to access the computing power to process and analyze the data. gNext platform resolves that problem and more. Using highly accurate 3D, Mesh, and Point-Cloud models, inspectors can document, assess, and monitor the condition of buildings in a centralized, collaborative platform. With tools like Machine Learning and Computer Vision, automated analytics can make inspection reviews easier, and faster, and provides inspectors with visualization tools to support their report.
Additionally, those who use the gNext platform can count on their asset information to remain secure and protected in gNext’s cloud. A recent report published by Marsh & McLennan identified cyber security as a major risk for the infrastructure sector. Our platform solves many of the identified risks: data ownership, encryption of data, unauthorized access, deletion or corruption of data, etc.
You can count on gNext to keep your data secure and your inspections on time and on budget.
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gNext seeks to partner with asset owners and insurance companies to reduce the amount of failing buildings and structures, save lives, and protect companies from liability costs. Our platform can assist companies with risk assessment, claims adjudication, and fraud monitoring, amongst many other benefits.
Take your underwriting and claims adjudication to a new level with gNext. Reach out to request a demo today!