Data center construction is under pressure like never before. What used to be a 24-month build is now being squeezed into 12–18 months and sometimes less. Owners want power online faster to start earning revenue. GCs are juggling overlapping trades and compressed schedules. And structural steel crews are being asked to build faster, safer, and smarter, all while keeping precision and safety intact.
The difference between projects that hit their deadlines and those that fall behind often comes down to one thing: how well teams capture and act on data from the field.
That’s how Versatile helps change the game. By turning the crane hook into a smart data source, Versatile gives steel erectors the visibility they’ve been missing without adding a single step to the crew’s workflow.
The data center boom shows no signs of slowing. Global spending has already surpassed $40 billion and is expected to exceed $1 trillion annually by 2029. Much of that growth is driven by the explosion of AI computing, which has pushed demand for new facilities far beyond traditional timelines.
Projects that once allowed months for design development are now being turned around from concept to construction in as little as 10 weeks. Crews must mobilize earlier, coordinate faster, and hit milestone dates with no room for drift.
In this environment, steel erection becomes the heartbeat of the schedule. When raising gangs fall behind, every downstream trade from electrical, mechanical, envelope, to commissioning, gets squeezed. Yet, despite this critical role, many steel contractors still rely on spreadsheets, daily phone calls, and guesswork to gauge progress.
As one project executive told us, “If the steel’s late, everyone’s late and everyone pays for it.”
It’s rarely the big mistakes that derail a data center schedule. More often, it’s the small ones. The ones like a few extra minutes per lift, a mis-sequenced delivery, a short delay getting a truss in place. Those micro-delays compound into days lost before anyone notices.
Traditional tools make it nearly impossible to catch these early. Weekly reports and field updates are always a step behind. By the time a GC realizes steel progress has slipped, float is gone and recovery means overtime, added cost, and pressure on every trade.
Rework is another silent killer. A beam placed out of sequence or a column picked twice can cascade through the schedule. The cost is the extra labor AND it’s the ripple effect of other crews waiting.
“The more projects we use Versatile on, the better we get. The data tells us where we’re strong and where we can tighten up. That’s how we improve job after job.”
This is where jobsite intelligence, real, objective data from the field, becomes a competitive advantage.
Versatile’s device mounts directly to the crane hook, automatically capturing every lift. It tracks pick time, placement, and cycle time without any manual input. The result: a digital record of jobsite activity that turns into insights your team can actually use.
That data feeds into Versatile’s Control Center, where project leaders can:
No extra sensors. No chasing updates. Just digital truth from the hook.
For steel erectors, it means crews stay focused on production while the system quietly builds a clear picture of progress. For GCs, it means visibility into where the project really stands. And for owners, it means confidence that the investment is tracking toward revenue — not delays.
“We didn’t change our workflow; we just started seeing everything more clearly.”
Steel crews live by rhythm and reliability. Versatile helps maintain both. By tracking each pick automatically, the system highlights inefficiencies before they turn into overtime.
And when project disputes arise, that same data becomes proof.
GCs can finally see what’s happening. Crane data gives them daily insight into sequence alignment and resource allocation.
Every day a data center sits idle costs tens of thousands in lost revenue. The sooner systems are online, the sooner the return starts. Versatile’s data gives owners objective proof of schedule performance and a transparent record of progress.
“Every day we save is money back in the owner’s pocket. For us, that’s not theory — we’ve seen it happen on real projects.”
Red Cedar Steel, a leading structural contractor, knows what it takes to deliver on high-pressure, hyperscale data center builds. Their teams have used Versatile across multiple projects where staying ahead of the curve wasn’t just a goal, it was a necessity.
With Versatile installed on their cranes, Red Cedar gained:
The impact was immediate. Crews could see where bottlenecks were forming before they cost time, and project managers had accurate forecasts to plan manpower and deliveries.
“We used to find out we were behind after two weeks. Now we know before the workday begins.
That kind of clarity transforms not just one project, but how an entire company approaches steel erection.
Construction has always been about execution. But as data centers become more complex and timelines compress, execution alone isn’t enough, teams need foresight.
Versatile provides that foresight by connecting the most important piece of equipment on site — the crane — to the entire project schedule. It turns hours of invisible work into measurable, shareable insight.
With this data, project leaders can:
The long-term effect is even more powerful. As more projects adopt Versatile, companies build a historical dataset that reveals benchmarks for efficiency and productivity by project type, crew, or even geographic region. That’s the foundation for continuous improvement in steel erection.
Every raising gang knows that feeling of momentum, when the picks flow, communication clicks, and the job just runs right. Versatile amplifies that rhythm. It doesn’t replace the crew’s instinct or experience; it enhances it.
The device captures what’s happening, but the insights empower the people making it happen. Foremen, superintendents, and project managers can make faster decisions, validate progress, and eliminate wasted effort.
When steel crews have accurate data, they can build faster and with less friction. When GCs can verify progress daily, they can schedule other trades with confidence. And when owners see transparent reporting, they can trust the project is moving toward revenue.
That’s what digital truth from the hook delivers: trust, alignment, and speed.
The next generation of data centers will demand even more speed, accuracy, and accountability. As AI workloads grow and hyperscale campuses expand, the construction industry will face increasing pressure to deliver more and deliver faster.
Versatile gives teams the advantage they need to stay ahead. By integrating objective field data into daily planning, construction leaders can make smarter calls, reduce waste, and shave days off the critical path.
Whether you’re leading a steel crew, coordinating a GC team, or managing an owner’s capital program, visibility is the foundation for success.
Data centers are the backbone of the digital world and building them efficiently determines how fast that world keeps moving.
Versatile helps make that possible by giving construction professionals a trusted source of jobsite truth. From the crane hook to the boardroom, every stakeholder can see the same data, anticipate risks, and stay aligned.
If you’re ready to build faster and eliminate bottlenecks in your next data center project:
👉 Download our Guide to Data Center Construction
or
👉 Schedule a 25-minute demo to see how Versatile helps leading crews turn every lift into progress.
Delays often stem from small, repeated inefficiencies that stack up over time such as idle crane time, double handling, and sequencing gaps. These micro delays compound into days or even weeks lost. Traditional tools like spreadsheets and emails make it hard to see issues early. Using a jobsite intelligence platform like Versatile helps capture lift-by-lift data from the crane hook, giving teams the visibility to detect and correct bottlenecks before they grow.
Versatile tracks every pick automatically through a device mounted on the crane hook. It shows how lifts compare to the plan, highlights idle time, and forecasts when milestones will be reached. Steel crews and raising gangs can spot delays early, stay aligned with the GC, and adjust manpower or sequencing before losing time, all without changing how they work.
The crane is the heartbeat of steel erection. Every beam, truss, or column passes through it. By capturing data directly from the hook, Versatile turns crane activity into an objective record of jobsite progress. This helps project managers and GCs measure utilization, verify productivity, and forecast completion, giving them the confidence to plan next steps accurately.
Crews using Versatile often shave days off the critical path by catching inefficiencies early and preventing rework. That time savings translates directly into cost savings for GCs and faster time-to-revenue for owners. The system also creates a digital record that helps avoid disputes, improve forecasting, and strengthen owner trust, compounding ROI across multiple projects.
General contractors use Versatile to get daily, unbiased visibility into steel progress, helping them coordinate downstream trades and adjust schedules proactively. Owners use the same data to verify progress, evaluate performance, and ensure that the project is tracking toward revenue. It replaces subjective updates with clear, measurable progress metrics.