CivOps

CivOps · Engineers who build

Decades inside the biggest plants. Now working for yours.

We are lifelong engineers, each with decades in Fortune 100 manufacturing and software. We got tired of how slowly big companies move, so we left to put what we learned to work for small and mid-size businesses, with AI built the right way.

Find your pathSee the evidence

  • As many as 152

    separate software subscriptions run by companies with up to 500 employees.

    [2] Zylo, 2025

  • 70%

    of manufacturers still type data into spreadsheets by hand, and 68% still analyze it there.

    [1] NAM Manufacturing Leadership Council, 2024

  • 26%

    of employees are considering leaving their job because of the technology their employer gives them; 49% are frustrated by it.

    [6] Ivanti, 2022

Who we are

Engineers first. We have run the plants, written the software and lived with the results.

Decades each, on the floor and in the code

Our founding engineer brings 34 years of manufacturing operations across discrete, process and batch environments, and the team behind him has spent decades in industrial technology and plant operations. We know what a real shift looks like, and what makes people trust a system or ignore it.

Tired of waiting

Inside big companies, a good idea can take two years and three committees. We watched small and mid-size businesses wait even longer for software that was never built for them. So we left to build it.

Big-company playbook, small-company speed

The disciplines that make the largest plants run (one source of truth, clean data, decisions from evidence) without the price tag, the consultants or the 18-month rollout.

Meet the team →

Does this sound like you?

If one of these is your week, you are not alone, and it is not your fault. The research says it is the tools.

  • Plant manager

    “You spend Monday morning pulling last week's numbers out of three spreadsheets someone typed by hand, and by the time they agree, the week has moved on.”

    70% of manufacturers still enter data by hand.

    [1] NAM Manufacturing Leadership Council, 2024

  • Engineer

    “You know which line will cause trouble next month, but the data to prove it sits in a system nobody can query, so you go with your gut.”

    Only 30% use their data to predict performance.

    [1] NAM Manufacturing Leadership Council, 2024

  • Supervisor

    “Half your shift goes to hunting for the latest version of the schedule, the spec or the count, then asking someone who might know.”

    47% of workers struggle to find the information they need.

    [4] Gartner, 2023

  • Business owner

    “You pay for a dozen subscriptions that don't talk to each other, and you still answer the big questions with a hunch.”

    Companies run as many as 152 subscriptions.

    [2] Zylo, 2025

  • Office manager

    “You copy the same customer from the estimate app to the scheduling app to the invoicing app, and one of them is always out of date.”

    53% of small and mid-size business leaders report inconsistent data across their tools.

    [5] Salesforce, 2025

What's broken

Software was supposed to fix this. Instead it became another thing to manage.

Today's software is built for everyone, so it fits no one. It is static and slow to change, so a business ends up stitching together a tool for every job. The data scatters across them, people retype it into spreadsheets, and almost nobody gets what they actually need: clear analytics to make the next decision with confidence.

What it costs you

Your best people feel it first.

Engineers, supervisors and plant managers lose hours every week to hunting, retyping and reconciling. That drudgery wears good people down, and frustrating tools are a reason they start looking elsewhere.

At companies with 100 to 500 employees, 71% of leaders say staff will look for a new employer if they don't have the tools they need, and slow speed is the top complaint about the tools they have. [8] Freshworks, 2022

  • 26%

    of employees are considering leaving their job because of the technology their employer gives them; 49% are frustrated by it.

    [6] Ivanti, 2022

  • 56%

    of U.S. factory workers would take a pay cut to work for a more technology-driven company.

    [7] Epicor, 2024

  • 47%

    of workers struggle to find the information they need to do their jobs.

    [4] Gartner, 2023

  • 80%

    of the workforce say they lack the time or energy to do their job.

    [9] Microsoft, 2025

AI, done the right way

AI can take the drudgery away. But only if it is built the right way.

Most small businesses have not started, and many larger companies that did are scrapping projects that never paid off. The difference is not the technology. It is how the work is done.

What “the right way” means to us

  1. Start from a decision, not a demo. Name who decides what, how often, and from which data, then build only what serves it.
  2. Fix the data first. Poor data quality is a leading reason AI projects are abandoned after the pilot. [13] Gartner, 2024
  3. Your data and your platform stay yours. On your own accounts, with nothing to export and no vendor to leave.
  4. People approve every change. AI proposes; your team decides. Every action is logged.
  5. Measure the return. Every tool is tied to hours saved, money saved or a better decision, and we show the cost of every choice up front, the free option first.

What changes when it is done right

Identify your path

People kept asking us two things: “Why don't you teach us how to do what you did?” and “Why not help businesses beyond manufacturing?” Contractors showed us how much their work shares with a plant's: purchasing, receiving, crews, executing the work, reading the numbers, and selling it all. So there are three ways in. Take a look at a demo and see whether what you have needed all along is sitting right in front of you.

For small and mid-size manufacturers

Manufacturing Platform

AI-native data acquisition, kitted analytics and operational tools, so a plant of any size can compete with companies many times its size.

ExploreTake the platform tour

For engineers who want to build it themselves

AI Academy

A 23-session course where AI agents do the development and you own the result. Then each module course replaces one subscription you pay for today.

ExploreSee the courses

For trade and contracting businesses

Contractor's Operating Platform

Purchasing, receiving, crews, job execution, the numbers, and sales and marketing in one suite you configure: the big players' tools at a small fraction of the cost.

ExploreWalk the live demo

We started out as Civitas Prime

A company of the people, built for the people who make the things that change the world.

No sense waiting for the competition to pass you by. The future is yours, today.

Find your path

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from published research. Open any source to check it for yourself.

  1. [1]NAM Manufacturing Leadership Council, Manufacturing in 2030 Survey: Data Mastery (2024). https://manufacturingleadershipcouncil.com/seventy-percent-of-manufacturers-still-enter-data-manually-2/
  2. [2]Zylo, 2025 SaaS Management Index (2025). https://zylo.com/news/2025-saas-management-index
  3. [3]Oracle, The Decision Dilemma (2023). https://www.oracle.com/cloud/decision-dilemma/
  4. [4]Gartner, 47% of digital workers struggle to find the information needed to perform their jobs (2023). https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-05-10-gartner-survey-reveals-47-percent-of-digital-workers-struggle-to-find-the-information-needed-to-effectively-perform-their-jobs
  5. [5]Salesforce, Small & Medium Business Trends Report, 6th edition (2025). https://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/smb-trends/
  6. [6]Ivanti, 49% of employees are frustrated by work-provided tech and 26% are considering leaving because of it (2022). https://www.ivanti.com/company/press-releases/2022/new-ivanti-research-finds-that-49-of-employees-are-frustrated-by-work-provided-tech-and-26-are-considering-leaving-their-job-because-of-it
  7. [7]Epicor, Voice of the Essential Manufacturing Worker (2024). https://www.epicor.com/en-us/newsroom/news-releases/voice-of-the-essential-manufacturing-worker-2024/
  8. [8]Freshworks, Nine in 10 employees are frustrated by their workplace technology (2022). https://www.freshworks.com/press-releases/survey-nine-in-10-employees-are-frustrated-by-their-workplace-technology/
  9. [9]Microsoft, 2025 Work Trend Index: The year the Frontier Firm is born (2025). https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/2025-the-year-the-frontier-firm-is-born
  10. [10]U.S. Census Bureau, Large firms with at least 20 employees biggest AI users (Business Trends and Outlook Survey) (2026). https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2026/05/ai-use-businesses.html
  11. [11]Brynjolfsson, Li and Raymond, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Generative AI at Work (2025). https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/140/2/889/7990658
  12. [12]Gartner, Over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by end of 2027 (2025). https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-06-25-gartner-predicts-over-40-percent-of-agentic-ai-projects-will-be-canceled-by-end-of-2027
  13. [13]Gartner, 30% of generative AI projects will be abandoned after proof of concept by end of 2025 (2024). https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-07-29-gartner-predicts-30-percent-of-generative-ai-projects-will-be-abandoned-after-proof-of-concept-by-end-of-2025
  14. [14]McKinsey & Company, The state of AI (2025). https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai
  15. [15]Microsoft and LinkedIn, 2024 Work Trend Index: AI at work is here. Now comes the hard part (2024). https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/ai-at-work-is-here-now-comes-the-hard-part