Pictured above: Marcus Edwards

Injuries to building contractors could be dramatically reduced thanks to an award winning smart phone application from a Warwick based company.

PelicanCorp's beforeUdig application, which provides exact data of the cables and piping underneath an excavation site has already won global recognition by NAVTEQ, the world's leading authority on mapping and location data.

Marcus Edwards, MD of Pelicancorp in Europe, who are based at Warwick Technology Park, is hopeful it will not only prevent death and injury but revolutionize the way work on sites are assessed.

Mr Edwards said: "We designed the application primarily with safety in mind.   Cable strikes can be a killer and this application will eradicate that risk as well as saving all the stress, time and money when other pipes and cables are struck."

The application works by allowing users to request underground asset plans whilst on site, with the person making the request able to draw a map on their phone, which using the inbuilt GPS will lead to an emailed report being produced within a few days detailing the exact data of all the underground assets.

So impressed was NAVTEQ that the company won a prize of $590,000(US), by a panel of judges which included Sony Ericsson and Intel, at the NAVTEQ Global Challenge, held over the summer in Singapore.

Pelicancorp, an Australian company that set up in Warwick in 2007, is now hoping to expand greatly in the UK following the accolade.

Mr Edwards, said: "We knew we'd invented something great and the possibilities for the use of this within all areas of construction is huge so we are very excited and we've big plans, which is great at a time when there is still so much pessimism and uncertainty around the economy."