Cat Adds busybusy

Caterpillar has made an additional investment in the “soft” side of its business, investing in another software company.  Caterpillar Venture Capital Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., announced a strategic investment in busybusy, Saint George, Utah, a software development firm that helps customers optimize operations, specifically addressing real-time tracking of jobsite labor costs.

“While we will continue to focus on driving productivity gains from equipment on the jobsite through our technology and services, we know this accounts for only a fraction of the costs our customers are managing,” said Caterpillar’s Construction Digital & Technology manager John Carpenter. “By leveraging the software developed by busybusy, we can now offer labor management services for our customers, which we know is one of their most significant variable expenses on the jobsite. This investment is a natural extension of the work we are doing to offer customers a suite of digital offerings to help them be more successful.”

busybusy’s technology will be offered to construction customers as a subscription based service, adding to the suite of offerings within Cat Connect.  Cat Connect Technologies and Services include hardware and software designed to improve customer operations, including Cat and non-Cat assets, as well as help customers leverage data generated by their assets to boost business results and strengthen their competitive advantage.

In April, 2015, to capitalize on the growing importance of data analytics, Caterpillar formed a new, Analytics & Innovation division.  Just prior to that ,Cat announced a strategic third party relationship with Chicago-based Uptake, for a technology and predictive analytics agreement. There have been other software and analytics-based announcements before and after the formation of the new division.