Tuesday, 17 July 2007

The multi-disciplinary construction and property development group, Dean and Dyball, is using Autodesk Buzzsaw Professional on-demand collaborative project management (CPM) solution to complete projects faster - in particular to speed up work on a new building at Kingston University, London.

is a £250 million pa construction and property development business that prides itself on adding value for its clients through a combination of innovation and professionalism.

Over the past few years it has sensed a growing urgency in the market - with clients demanding a faster response and timescales being reduced. As its work spans many disciplines and professions, it also identified the need to simplify communications and co-ordination throughout a project.

As area design manager, John Rushworth, explains, the team had used various project collaboration solutions over the years but after surveying the market, they decided to invest in Autodesk Buzzsaw, the on-demand CPM solution. Because Buzzsaw streamlines the way extended project teams manage and share information, it ensures that accurate information is always available to everyone involved, wherever they are and at whatever time.

The solution has since been used on a project covering the construction of a new quad building at Kingston University in south London.

So far, Dean and Dyball has seen:

- A dramatic cut in printing and postal charges.

- Fast exchange of information between around 50 users - eliminating days of waiting time and replacing it with instant access.

- Easy viewing and markup - plus the ability for even those without CAD to review designs. This makes for better communication and, again, a faster response.

The challenge - using imagination and innovation

There are some companies in the construction industry that get where they are through just doing the job. There are others that offer that little bit extra; by maximising the potential of talented staff, they can cope with complex engineering or the need for a particularly high quality build.

Dean and Dyball is clearly one of the latter. In both civil engineering and construction it has developed long-term partnerships with public and private sector clients. In fact, these separate disciplines are often combined on complicated and technically demanding projects such as its recent work on the new RNLI Lifeboat College, for which it won a Quality in Construction award.

It was this need to be one step ahead that led the firm to investigate CPM solutions. "Current industry pressures mean these solutions have changed from being useful extras to 'must-have' tools," says Rushworth. "Nowadays, in other industries people expect information to be delivered almost instantly via email. However, in the construction sector, we've had to continue to print drawings and then post them, because of their size. This can mean days of delay while waiting for a drawing to arrive.

"Often up to 50 people may need to view one particular drawing or document. Imagine the time and costs for 50 copies to be printed and sent out. This can easily play havoc with deadlines.

"We needed a solution to remedy this - and one that could easily cope with the specific requirements of our industry," he adds.

The solution - getting the buy-in

Between them, the Dean and Dyball team had tried a complete range of standard project management solutions. Most recently they had been using Microsoft SharePoint but, "as it isn't tailored specifically for the building industry, it is proving to be limited when working outside the Firewall." says Rushworth.

He describes how he and his colleague Lisa Barnard (Design Co-ordinator) surveyed the market before settling on Autodesk Buzzsaw. "However, from the help that came forward from Autodesk we knew that we could work with them. We liked Buzzsaw's flexibility; for example, the way it would enable us to view and revise drawings as DWF files and then any comments would be automatically returned to the original CAD file," he says.

Autodesk Buzzsaw enables project managers to set specific routing roles by project role, group or individual team member and automatic dashboard alerts and email reminders help keep all team members on track. In this way, it cuts out unnecessary delay in the entire design review processes.

Having used other solutions in the past, Rushworth knows how processes can fail if sub-contractors find the technology too difficult to use. "For a new solution to be a success, it needs to be straightforward enough for everybody to use - even those who are not especially IT literate."

Dean and Dyball has also been working closely with Autodesk Consulting on customising certain aspects of the solution. As Nick Burton of Autodesk Consulting explains: "We have spent a couple of days training office personnel so that they will be able to customise Buzzsaw themselves, creating their own workflows and protocols.

"This will enable them to create and edit their own forms - for example, changing fields and protocols, logos and colour schemes as required."

The results - going live

Dean and Dyball is now using Autodesk Buzzsaw on a live project involving the construction of a new quad building at the Penryhn Road campus at Kingston University. The building is now well underway and work has reached the third floor.

"Although we won't be able to assess the entire benefits until the final debrief at the end of the project, the response from sub-contractors and other team members has been positive. We've really had their buy-in," he says.

"Everybody in the team, around 50 people including our client, is using the solution. It's become an integral part of our workflow.

"We've already made substantial savings on printing and copying costs and because processes are now more efficient, with no time lost waiting for documents or for changes to come through, we're meeting tight schedules.

"The market is demanding faster and faster delivery and using Autodesk Buzzsaw we can stay competitive."