The most effective way to manage your construction documents efficiently
Posted by Dave Robertson on Thu, Apr 29, 2010 @ 08:35 AM
We are back! Our blogging activity has been curtailed over the last couple of months as we have been very focused on completing our latest innovative new solution for the construction industry called PlanSource FT – File Transfer. I am excited to tell you about it.
Our existing technologies are widely hailed as delivering significant time and dollar savings to those who use them while concurrently reducing project risk and environmental impact. We were one of the first companies to see the potential of internet technologies to deliver these kinds of benefits to the construction industry. Ten years ago there was no shortage of sceptics who thought that managing and distributing construction documents online was a bad idea. “I need to have the entire plan laid out in front of me to work on it” was a familiar refrain. Changing something as ingrained and iconic as the traditional roll of drawings is a slow process that will only happen if the benefits are substantial. Good news – the benefits have proven to be substantial and the process is changing rapidly.
When we first started this company (100,000 plus projects ago) virtually every drawing, specification page or addenda uploaded to the system was scanned from paper originals despite the fact that they were all created digitally. About two years ago the transition away from distributing paper sets accelerated as design consultants became increasingly comfortable with the idea of sharing their documents in digital format (typically .pdf or .tiff). Today, only 10% – 15% of the documents uploaded to our systems are scanned, and even that number is declining.
For the most part the design consultants have used FTP sites (File Transfer Protocol) as the mechanism to share and distribute their digital files with their design team and more recently with contractors. While this mechanism works, it is by no means the best way to accomplish the task. Managing the sites, maintaining security, organizing and working with the files are just some of the challenges presented by FTP.
In response to those challenges we have taken the opportunity to leverage some core elements of our very powerful PlanSource applications to provide the industry with a dramatically better solution to managing and transferring construction files online. That solution is PlanSource FT – File Transfer as mentioned earlier in this article. It is specifically designed for construction and is fast, easy and secure. Users can set up an account and in minutes be viewing documents, sharing them with others, printing them directly, downloading the files they need or even sending orders for copies directly to their own reprographer. It is very inexpensive and will even offer a completely free and fully functional version to those who only have a limited amount of activity.
As digital files have become more commonplace, everybody including Architects, Engineers, General Contractors, Trade Contractors and Suppliers all have an increased need to be able to efficiently manage and work with these files. Whether the files are on a CD, DVD, downloaded from FTP sites or are from an online planroom, PlanSource FT provides a tremendous way to use a single system to effectively manage all of them. We anticipate this great new tool will be released in May and look forward to once again delivering an innovative solution that solves a widespread problem for the construction industry.