The CAN BE Innovation Center has a reputation for being dedicated to helping local and regional entrepreneurs launch their businesses. Now, the facility is gaining some international attention.

Construction software company build.works, which launched three years ago in Tallinn, Estonia by a group of SAP software consultants, recently moved into the CAN BE Innovation Center and plans to use its office space there to start the firm’s U.S. operations. The company provides a strategic cloud solution for Building Information Modeling (BIM)-based resource planning, scheduling, budgeting, procurement, manufacturing and construction of buildings.

Peeter Parna, build.works founder and CEO, said the company plans to use the CAN BE space as the home base for its international operations in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries, and added that the company sees Pennsylvania as a prime location to reach its customers.

“With the product use and connection to the players across the board in the AEC market, we have a tremendous potential to add value to our target audience within the industrialized construction industries across the United States, and with a large focus in and around the Pennsylvania area,” Parna said. “Modular construction is on the rise, as more and more developers target offsite solutions for the growing construction needs in today’s COVID climate. Our product specifically helps this industry reach target metrics through efficiencies and technological advances in coordination and collaboration amongst the trades internal and external to the client.”

Parna said CAN DO Director of Economic Development Jocelyn Sterenchock was a great help to the company as they worked to secure their CAN BE space.
“We connected with Jocelyn and the team through a mutual friend who works within education in the area and raved about the great things the team was doing,” he said. “It was great working with her. She was welcoming and attentive to all our questions, before and after the acquisition of the space. She is very knowledgeable and was able to connect us with key resources to establish our presence in Pennsylvania and at CAN BE.”

Parna added that the community and networking opportunities he’s already found at CAN BE have been a tremendous asset to the company. 

“There are several potential clients that are and/or have been part of this community. The great thing is that it’s like-minded folks with great products that can be enabled further through this collaboration and community development.” he said.

According to its mission statement, the build.works goal “is to accelerate the world’s transition to a sustainably-built environment.” The company wants to bring the benefits of integrated business processes to the construction industry and aims to merge the BIM technology with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to bridge the gap between design and project execution. Parna said the company plans to initially concentrate on eliminating the gap between what he called the “archaic” construction and manufacturing industries and the more technologically advanced developers, general contractors and architect/engineering firms.

Parna said he recommends other companies that are looking to start or expand their operations reach out to CAN BE for help.

“There is a tremendous power in networking with those that have similar focus and views. With focus and dedication to each individual company’s mission, aligned with the values of growth and development within Pennsylvania, the sky is the limit with the resources and team at CAN BE. Help is only a mere shout away in this thriving incubator. It’s greater than a network of collaborative teams, it’s a community,” he said.