How Project Information Management Sharpens Our Focus on Clients and Designs

Andrew Hollomon
Principal and Director of Information Technology,
Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP

With the economic downturn early in the year, Andrew Hollomon had to reprioritize his 2009 information technology plan. One thing that didn’t budge was a five-point plan to improve operational efficiency. He was convinced that achieving those goals would allow his firm to emerge from the year positioned well for economic recovery. In this Viewpoint article, Andrew Hollomon describes how he achieved his goals in less time and lower cost than anticipated.

Zimmer Gunsul Frasca (ZGF)Architects enjoys success by focusing our energies on understanding client needs and delivering solutions through well-executed projects. Although we’re not alone in that respect, one of the ways we may differ from other firms lies in the effort we put into deploying design and information management technologies that directly support the practice of architecture and, by extension, support the needs of our clients. We work hard to facilitate, not encumber, the design process, and make it as easy as possible for our staff to use leading technologies.

Five-Point Plan for Improving Operational Efficiency

As ZGF’s director of information technology, one of my jobs is to give people the tools they need to focus on clients and projects. In the last quarter of 2008, we planned our information technology initiatives for the coming year, and set out to achieve these five goals:

• Streamline email management and archiving.
• Replace our FTP server with better, more capable technology.
• Improve document management.
• Support project delivery.
• Make it easy and practical to retrieve archived information.

My colleagues and I were convinced that if we could achieve the five goals above, we would be removing real frustration for project team members as they spent less time digging for information and more time designing and managing projects.

These goals were a product of several real-world suggestions we received as we directly supported design staff on projects, such as:

• Make it less challenging and time-consuming to find information stored in mail system public folders.
• Provide a more flexible file-sharing system with more refined access control.
• Make possible instant electronic access to information regarding past projects.

Our goals went beyond time savings. We also wanted to improve the quality of project information. For example, I wanted our architects to be confident they were working with the most up-to-date information, whether in emails, drawing sets, or in any other form.

Deploying Project Information Management (PIM)

Early in 2009, we realized that we needed to re-prioritize our IT budget. Our plan influenced which software programs stayed and which ones were deferred. One project we worked to maintain was deployment of an enterprise solution for project information management, or PIM.

In the sections below, I’ll describe more explicitly the connection between each of our goals for improved PIM and the day-to-day work of the project teams. You may find that these points also apply to your firm’s projects and culture.

Streamlining Email Management and Archiving

At ZGF, we limit Outlook mailbox sizes, which forces people to manage email. We were searching for robust project information management software that makes filing as easy as dragging and dropping email alongside all of our other project documents, such as drawings, specifications and estimates. It was also critical for us to find a solution that made finding filed project email instantaneous. Indexed search and a well-designed search interface were critical requirements.

Using the PIM software we’ve deployed, it’s easy now for architects to find the information they’re looking for. We feel confident the information we’re filing will be available when we need it in the future.

We believe these capabilities and others improve client service in many ways. For example, now, when a client or other team member phones us with a question, we can retrieve the email that has the answer to that question quickly—even if that email was generated by another project team member outside ZGF—often while the client is still on the phone.

Streamlining FTP Management

The project information management software we selected adds intelligent web service functions to what would otherwise be an FTP server. FTP has been the lowest-common-denominator standard for file transfer in the AEC industry for years, but FTP servers are an administrative hassle to maintain and may result in out-of-date project information being available for too long, or in information being disseminated more broadly than was intended. Our PIM software improves security, removes set-up hassles, logs transfers, authenticates invited external team members and deletes downloaded files.

These capabilities save time, reduce risk and improve service. For example, the file sharing functions of our PIM solution are much easier to set up and administer than FTP. Its functions reduce risk by ensuring that all members of the design team are working from a common, up-to-date set of drawings and models. And when clients have questions or issues, it automatically provides a complete audit trail for email transfers, model exchanges and transmittals.

Improved Document Management

When I say “document management,” I’m not talking about software that enforces awkward changes in work processes, such as following filing rules and populating metadata fields by hand. Instead, I’m talking about the sorts of tasks that are part of the established AEC industry processes, such as assembling document sets and keeping record copies of transmittals.

Our PIM software facilitates the management of information by indexing the contents of 200 commonly used AEC industry file types, including Outlook MSG files and their attachments, making everything fully searchable, even if that data is buried deep inside ZIP files or DWG external reference files, or is accidentally misfiled.

These capabilities and others contribute to our firm’s key focus areas. Because our PIM solution recognizes and respects our existing Windows file and folder permissions, we avoid having to set up and administer an additional admin/security model for people to learn and follow. We also don’t need to change the way we work as we would if we used document repositories (libraries or vaults) or project extranet workspaces.

Facilitating Project Delivery

A PIM solution that specializes in the AEC industry would have to provide advanced functionality to manage transmittals, compare drawings and document sets, mark up CAD files or model views, assign and track action items, view documents, manage submittals, respond to requests for information and more.

We now have these capabilities. They improve service and make more time available for design. For example, at ZGF, we can seamlessly receive a request and supporting attachment in an email, view and mark up the attached file, and assign the request—now an action item with a due date—to a member of the project team. The software automatically logs a record of the transaction, too. The result: faster resolution of action items.

Easy Retrieval of Archived Information

We have people who keep a set of plans under their desks for every project they’ve ever worked on. Having that knowledge available to the entire organization is one key to transferring knowledge from a generation of experienced architects to the next generation.

We are working to achieve this goal for ZGF by maintaining archived projects on relatively lower-cost secondary storage, where it’s indexed by our PIM solution. By bringing our project archives online in this way, historical information is fully searchable, accessible across the company WAN.

These capabilities and more contribute to the quality of our design. For example, it is becoming easier for us to find information from previous projects and apply it in new ways, improving on our work as we learn and grow as a firm.

Improved Focus on Projects and Clients Quickly and Cost-Effectively

I had assumed that we would have to adopt multiple software packages from a range of different vendors to tackle our to-do list, but we found a PIM solution that’s comprehensive in its capabilities. The solution, Newforma Project Center, has been helping us achieve many of our goals at once, in less time and at a lower cost than anticipated.

The time that elapsed from our decision to purchase Newforma Project Center to full deployment, including training of 250 users in our Portland, Oregon office, was just one month.

Because deployment went so smoothly, we are now implementing the Newforma PIM solution in all of our other ZGF offices—Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York—three months sooner than planned. The result will be that our entire 500-person staff will have more time and higher-quality project information to devote to projects and clients going forward.

About Andrew Hollomon and ZGF

Andrew Hollomon is a principal and Director of Information Technology at Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP, a 500-person architecture, urban planning and interior design firm with offices in Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; Washington, D.C.; and New York, New York. ZGF has won over 400 design awards, including the Architecture Firm Award, the highest accolade of the American Institute of Architects. Learn more about ZGF and its projects at www.zgf.com.

Note: The views expressed in Viewpoint articles are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of AECbytes. Also, AECbytes content should not be reproduced on any other website, blog, print publication, or newsletter without permission.

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