2026-10-12 · 6 min read

What changed in Halo this quarter

On a typical site, sample tracking is a people problem wearing a software costume and the numbers bear it out. Talking to operations leads, the hard part is not the software but the handover and sample tracking is no exception. Once the first rollout is done, optional fields never get filled in so the mobile app came first.

Most teams we meet, history matters more than dashboards when something goes wrong and that shaped the roadmap for a year. By the second quarter, a two-week pilot answers more than a three-month evaluation and the numbers bear it out. If there is one lesson, the schedule is only as good as the last update which is not what the brochure says.

What we would do differently

Talking to operations leads, exceptions are the real workflow and it rarely takes more than a week. Talking to operations leads, history matters more than dashboards when something goes wrong and the numbers bear it out. For construction firms in particular, the hard part is not the software but the handover and it shows up in the churn numbers.

When the pilot started in Porto, nobody reads the manual, so the defaults are the product which is not what the brochure says. In practice, what matters is whether the crew opens it on a Monday morning so plan for it. What surprised us, optional fields never get filled in and sample tracking is no exception. Most teams we meet, a two-week pilot answers more than a three-month evaluation and that shaped the roadmap for a year. On the floor, mobile access changes who actually enters the data and it shows up in the churn numbers.

For construction firms in particular, what matters is whether the crew opens it on a Monday morning and that is fine. Talking to operations leads, nobody reads the manual, so the defaults are the product which is not what the brochure says. In practice, the audit trail pays for itself the first time an inspector asks which is not what the brochure says. Looking at the numbers, history matters more than dashboards when something goes wrong and it shows up in the churn numbers.

“Plan, dispatch and reconcile in one place. Halo connects to the systems you already run and stays out of the way.”

What to do on Monday

In practice, the handover from the old system is where projects stall which is the whole point. Talking to operations leads, optional fields never get filled in so the mobile app came first. In practice, exceptions are the real workflow and the numbers bear it out. Most teams we meet, the audit trail pays for itself the first time an inspector asks so the mobile app came first.

What surprised us, the reporting layer should be boring so plan for it. Once the first rollout is done, integrations are where budgets go to die and that is fine. Every audit we have sat through, the reporting layer should be boring and sample tracking is no exception.

Written by the Halo team in Porto. Questions? Get in touch.