Frustration

I was speaking with a general contractor the other day who was very excited about developing an “Approved for Construction” file folder on their project FTP site.  They indicated that it “made it easy” for their team to always have a place to go to get the latest drawings and documents for their project.  When asked about its mobility, they indicated that it took a while to copy the file folder down to rugged laptops (which they did about once a week) but it made the latest project information available and portable. I will say, this is a great leap forward for many in the industry, but is it truly saving time?

Think of it, ten years ago, as project manager, all I had to do was open the mail to view a drawing or document, evaluate it and send it on its way.  Now, with all the progress we’ve made, I get an email, receive instructions to download the drawing or document, log onto the FTP site or Plan Room, look through the file trees, locate the drawing, download it, save it to a place it doesn’t overright the existing file, move the existing file to a place where it can be found later, place the new file in the position of the immediately revised file, make sure all files are backed up on other media (server or other), open the file and review it.  Which was easier?  Now if it is something that I must act upon and get input from, say, estimating, then I must send it to those in the same way for them to act upon.  Or, most of the time I print it and send it along or emailed to my local reprographer for them to print and send it back to me in the office and to my field staff.

That all was assuming that the log on, download, placement, relocating, replacing and archiving all worked without a hitch.  No wonder the industry is frustrated!

An FTP site or Plan Room does a great job at moving drawings and documents across long distances.  But they have no business being in the work flow of day to day information.  Until now there has not been any solution to these “User Managed” systems.  Now there is FASTTAC.

The project manager mentioned above can now take advantage of this labor saving system.  Similar to the opening of the mail, FASTTAC is opened along with the other daily used software products first thing in the morning, a single button is pressed, automatically the server is accessed, new information is identified, new files are downloaded and placed in the proper location, prior revisions are archived in the proper location, markings are transferred from the prior revision to the current drawing, a complete backup is located on the server, and a report identifies all the changes made by drawing number. The items in the previous sentence in bold italics is called the “system managed” portion of the FASTTAC software.  Significant amounts of frustration are alleviated and the user only has to press one button and review a report.  On any given day, this activity takes about 15 seconds for the FASTTAC user and about 30 minutes for users of other systems.

Multiply this by all of your employees, your subcontractors, your material suppliers, your owners and your design professionals and now you are talking some real time savings.  Now your whole project team can be on the “same page” both figuratively and literally!

So, where is your project’s “Approved for Construction” file folder and how easy is it for your team to access it?

Digital Potential Article

The original thought supporting this post was a recent article published in the Pittsburgh Master Builders Association’s Breaking Ground Magazine, titled “Moving Towards and Achieving Your Digital Potential” located on page 43 (http://www.mbawpa.org/documents/BG_March_April.pdf).  In order to obtain a digital advantage you must first understand what the digital potential is for your company.  This article will provide you with a lot of thoughts on how you can begin to attain a digital advantage by developing your digital potential.

The AEC Industry is not a “high-tech” industry and does not need high-tech tools to make great strides forward, in fact, the simpler the technology is to use, the wider it will be accepted.  Give the article a read, it will help in understanding the perspective of this blog.  Have a great weekend.

Definition of “FREE”

Again today I spoke with a project manager at a leading design/build firm in South Carolina who basically said, “I am using an FTP site and I am not spending any money on printing and shipping anymore!”  In addition he said, “And the FTP site is FREE!”

I asked if the users of the information stored on the FTP site had to print it so that they could use it and the comment came back, yes, but I am not paying for it.  Then I asked if these users were subcontractors and suppliers, which they were…and asked if they had included the cost of printing and shipping when they submitted their pricing.  He again said he was not paying for printing, but you know the real answer was “you betcha he is!”

The AEC Industry typically takes the blind approach that, if it is not in my budget, then I must not be paying for it.  This is so far from the truth.  In speaking over the years with the subcontracting community I have repeatedly been told by the subcontractors that they will typically get burned the first time something new comes along, but never a second time.  I have also been told by these same contractors that they have had to add personnel to “man the computers” to download all the drawings and document that here-to-fore had come in the mail.  Not only has the printing and shipping not gone away, but now there is additional expense for additional personnel.

The second part was the reference to the “FREE” FTP site.  In the past, the design/builder or general contractor gave the sepias (dating myself), hard copies or CD/DVDs to their secretary who then sent the information down to the local reprographer who would then organize, track, print and ship directly to subcontractors and suppliers. Now, since the FTP site is “FREE”, project managers are logging onto the FTP site (we all know how friendly they are), manipulating information from one file area to another so that they can keep track of current information and past information without losing anything, uploading multiple PDF files, and then checking to make sure it is all right!  All without the secretary…now that is FREE!  As if the project manager didn’t have real coordination, communication and collaboration efforts to consume his/her time while working on keeping the FTP site organized and updated.  All so that they don’t have to print it and ship it.  Now I know the value of that project manager’s time, “FREE”.

The purpose of this rant is to point out the value of handling information once, for the whole team, and not just for the design builder or GC.  To obtain the digital advantage, the leader of this effort should consider the usability of the information that is being provided to the recipients on the other end of the FTP site.  Can they use it in its digital format? Or, do they have to keep handling it (download, track, place, move, manipulate, etc) again and again as it moves down the proverbial pecking order.  If it could be handled once, organized, in a usable format, easily accessible by even the most IT challenged, wouldn’t that save everyone time?  Effort? Energy?  So why don’t we achieve the digital advantage?  Because the software that is being used is “FREE”.

Let’s not be an industry that keeps doing the same thing over and over again because it is “FREE”.  Determine the real cost, include the entire channel’s cost, then make a good decision based on value to the channel and to the team.