Page 1. DIGITAL CAPITAL. Exploit The Hidden Value Of. Your Project Information. 89. 15. Today your project data is much
DIGITAL CAPITAL Exploit The Hidden Value Of Your Project Information
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Today your project data is much easier to manage than it was just 10 years ago, which makes it infinitely more valuable. Here’s the why and how.
Intuitive. Collaborative. Intelligent.
True Story A property developer of our acquaintance tells of being in a dispute with a contractor. The developer said he could not produce the information needed to resolve the dispute, so he was going to pay the contractor “just to get him off our back.” What a waste. Quickly resolving disputes is reason enough to do a better job of capturing project information. But it’s just one reason of many. This ebook outlines what you can accomplish with a complete project record. But first let’s understand why it’s possible now in a way it was not possible just a few years ago.
Sad but true, but in a dispute, it’s often the party with the best information that wins.
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Project information is historically challenging. Design and construction generate truckloads of sheet sets, specs, RFIs, submittals and more. When all that work was on paper, it was next to impossible to find what you needed in the boxes of documents. It usually took a lawsuit to justify sifting through the files. Now, all that information is digital, which makes it easier to generate, which means the data coming at you is really overwhelming. When’s the last time you saw the bottom of your inbox? Yes, digital technology generates more data. But it also makes it easy to store and retrieve information. That’s what’s different today.
We’ve gone from boxes of paper in storehouses to terabytes of digital data at your fingertips. 3
Project information is a capital asset. Now that project information is digital, it’s easily stored and searched. No more excursions to Iron Mountain. Instead, (if you have the software), you type a few words into a search bar, select the pertinent project(s), and boom, there’s your information. As a result, more and more owners and developers of buildings and infrastructure are treating their project information as a form of digital capital. It has four main uses: 1. M anage information before and after construction.
Resolving disputes is important, but it’s not the only use of project information.
2. Manage or oversee construction. 3. Resolve disputes. 4. Inform operations and renovations. Let’s look at each.
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Asset Value 1: Manage information before and after construction. Before your contractor breaks ground, you’re in the middle of a communications whirlwind, exchanging emails and documents with architect, engineers, government agencies, attorneys and others.You are tracking such things as land studies, soil tests, donor correspondence, architect selection, and all the back and forth with the design team.
It’s one thing to file information. It’s another to find it again.
Naturally, you want to capture those exchanges, and be able to find them again. It’s the same situation after construction, as you manage closeout and commissioning information. When you do a good job of managing this information, it does more than protect you against later disputes. It ensures the job is done right the first time. 5
Asset Value 2: Manage or oversee construction. Some owners and developers have construction divisions who lack software to manage RFIs, submittals, change orders and such. If that’s your situation, it’s easy to remedy; lots of cloud-based software alternatives exist to capture data and improve collaboration. Try one! If your general contractors or construction managers maintain RFI and submittal logs in spreadsheets, specify that they use a cloud-based tracking system instead. Then it’s easy to track progress and take delivery of the digital project record at handover. Even when your contractor manages the project, you’ll likely have items to manage such as furnishings and decorations. Project information management software is built to handle all that.
Yes, all that project information is yours, but can you use it?
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Asset Value 3: Resolve disputes. An architect told us of a meeting in which a seating vendor quoted a price that didn’t sound right. The architect went to his desk, typed a keyword search into his project information management software, and returned to the meeting with a six-month-old email quoting a lower price. Information risk can be mitigated by having ready access to the complete project record. The key is to implement a project information management system that makes it easy to capture and retrieve all emails and other forms of project information that flow through your business.
You need to be able to find an email that originated with someone who’s no longer with the company. 7
Asset Value 4: Inform operations & renovations. You surely already refer to as-built drawings when remodeling buildings, as well as consult warrantees, specifications and maintenance manuals when operating structures. But is it easy to pull them up and mark them up? Because those are functions of a good project information management system, as well. Tenant improvements and operations return us to the point where we started: exchanging information with the design team, managing bidding, and all the rest. It’s a data-intensive process that project information management software makes easy.
A good project information management solution solves the problem of missing info due to staff turnover, too.
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The challenges of PIM Project information has lots of places to hide. It’s squirreled away in people’s email inboxes, mobile devices, and hard drives; in cloud storage accounts; and on company servers. How can you get it under control? One way is to have everyone use the same system. Good luck with that! Another way – the Newforma way – is to make it easy for people to file emails with other project files, then index those data sources the way Google indexes the web. Couple those email management and search functions with the ability to share large files, manage action items, open and mark up drawings and more, and you have a complete solution to address the challenges in the previous pages.
Now that information is digital, it’s searchable!
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It’s your project, your data, and your call. When project information is hard to find and manage, it has little value. When it’s easy to find and manage, it has great value. The data you once thought of as unwieldy (and therefore of little use) can now be put to strategic use in protecting your interests, mitigating risks, maintaining your buildings, and planning future ones. Here’s how to get started:
Now that it’s digital, your project information has great value!
1. Implement project information management software now. 2. R equire contractors to deliver a digital archive of construction data at handover. Digital project data is a capital asset that increases earnings at each stage of your building’s lifecycle: design, construction, maintenance, and renovation. Make the most of it!
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About Newforma Newforma develops software that building and infrastructure owners, architects, engineers, and contractors use to collaborate and manage project information. Newforma provides apps to empower individuals, web-based collaboration software to strengthen construction teams, and an information management platform to optimize company performance. On more than two million projects worldwide, design and construction professionals are using Newforma products to improve collaboration, increase transparency, Newforma ensure accountability, and reduce risk.
was founded 2004 in New Hampshire, USA, and maintains offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Singapore, and Australia.
Whether you’re working in the office, from the cloud, or on the go, Newforma products liberate you from administrative tedium to do the work you entered your career to do.
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Intuitive. Collaborative. Intelligent.
