Areen

Astudio

Barton Willmore

BDP

Fulcro Engineering Services

Foster + Partners

Gelder & Kitchen

Hart Howerton

HOK

Jestico + Whiles

John Robertson Architects

Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)

Levitt Bernstein

M Moser

Make Architecture

Marshall Construction

MPI Consultants

One Creative Environments

Plasticon

Populous

Reardon Smith Architects

Robin Partington Architects

Rogers Stirk Harbour

rpa:group

RPW Design

RTKL

Scott Brownrigg

Silcock Dawson

SOM

Steffian Bradley Architects

Swanke Hayden Connell

Tate & Hindle Design

Thornton Tomasetti

TP Bennett

Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (WATG)

Zebra Projects

Read the AEC Magazine article

Read the complete CAD User software review

Newforma have decided not to renew their reseller contract with Océ (UK) and this contract therefore ended on 30th November 2010.

In recognition of Newforma’s continuing commitment to the UK’s AEC industry, Newforma Project Center will continue to be sold and supported in the UK by NFS, our Premier Newforma Solutions Provider.

To enable a smooth transition, firms who have an existing support contract with Océ (UK) for Newforma software will, from 1st December 2010, be entitled to receive interim support direct from Newforma. Please contact Newforma EMEA Operations Director, Tim Bates, for more details.

Read Terry’s “Viewpoint” article in AECbytes

Read the complete CAD User case study

Architecture and design practice tp bennett had a list of requirements for a project information management solution. When IT managers evaluated Newforma Project Center, they found it ticked all the boxes.

tp bennett’s IT Director Stephen Yates had been fielding requests from the practice’s architects, designers and planners seeking a better way to manage their Outlook email. They wanted to file email with other project information, retrieve it with ease and maintain associations between emails and their attachments.

Stephen was confident Microsoft Outlook / Exchange would not deliver a solution.

“We had been using Public Folders”, Yates said, “but they don’t work in the way we needed them to. Microsoft also indicated they were going to stop supporting them anyway.”

Stephen had looked in vain for software that would help his colleagues manage their bursting inboxes. One solution was not robust enough. Another provided archiving but not much else.

Trevor Gale, tp bennett’s director in charge of office procedures and compliance with ISO 9001, found a solution that stripped attachments from emails, “which sent shivers down the spines of our lawyers”, Trevor said.

Then Stephen Yates found Newforma Project Center.

“It ticked all the boxes,” Stephen said. “People could file email. They could find it again with ease. The software does not replicate already-filed emails. It recognizes attachments and ties them to the email they came with. It allows us to take the email out of one person’s inbox and make it available to the rest of the team.”

Email management was just the beginning

“We looked at Newforma Project Center to solve our oversize email problem”, Stephen says, “but it was the information exchange part of the solution that drove our adoption.”

Newforma Info Exchange is the solution’s file transfer and collaboration component. It’s a cross between FTP and a project extranet, but without the shortcomings of each.

“FTP sites are unauditable”, Stephen says, “and project extranets don’t integrate with internal processes, email chief among them. Because we limit email attachment sizes to 15 megabytes, email is not a good way to share large files. People might have to segment a large package of data into multiple packets and send multiple emails to get the whole package to a client.”

Newforma Info Exchange permits two-way transfer of large files and maintains records of who downloaded what, when. It allows managers to generate activity reports and set up automated email reminders to those that have not yet downloaded files. Users are also able to leave information on the Info Exchange server or schedule expiration dates, preventing bloat.

“Newforma allows us to do this in a very simple and transparent way”, Stephen says.

“The timing was good”, Stephen says. “Team leaders of one particular project came to me with a client request for project information to be held on the server. Newforma Info Exchange was perfectly suited to fulfil their request.

“Ironically, that particular job is the only one where we haven’t deleted the data after a set period of time”, Stephen says.

Search capabilities make it practical to mine archived data

Another vital Newforma Project Center capability is the search function, the equivalent of doing a Google™ search for project information.

“The Newforma Search capability is an application almost everyone uses in the course of a day”, Stephen says. “It finds information whether it’s in an email, in an attachment to an email or in the notes on drawings.”

The Newforma search capabilities make it practical for Stephen to move archived projects from backup tape to servers, from which Newforma Project Center can index the data, making it searchable. (As part of a network upgrade, the tp bennett IT team is reassigning an old HP MSA1500 storage area network to a new role as an archive server.)

“Questions arise all the time regarding completed projects”, Stephen says. “The answers are in the archives, but the process of retrieving the relevant information was a laborious and manual slog.”

“Because Newforma Project Center provides a simple way to search the full text of email and other project information, we now have a practical way to retrieve answers quickly”, Stephen says.

Other functions: Snapshot, Viewer, Markup, Action Items

Newforma Project Center helps tp bennett manage more than email and file transfers. The solution contains more than a dozen other functions for project information management, or PIM.

“We’re seeing usage increase for Snapshot, which staff are using to capture images from their screens, as well as Markup, which is used to redline those captures and other files that they open in the Newforma Viewer”, Stephen says. “Viewer is handy because it allows users to open files without having the underlying authoring software, whether it’s AutoCAD or something else.”

“To refer back to the Markup function,” Stephen says, “our users like to email markup files directly from Newforma Project Center, saving them time switching to Outlook and attaching the file.”

“You can find some of these individual features in other software,” Stephen says, “but we like to have everything integrated. It just makes everything that much more productive.”

For example, the Action Items activity centre integrates with Outlook email to give project managers a comprehensive way to record, delegate and resolve issues that arise during the course of a project. It has already been adopted by tp bennett team members working on a project for a government agency that requires activity audits. The Action Items activity centre generates reports in only a few clicks.

PIM software to support company values

tp bennett organizes its activities to free time for design, respond quickly to clients and build on the strengths of collaboration. Newforma Project Center software is one of the latest innovations to advance these pursuits.

“More and more in the UK, clients are getting more demanding”, Stephen says. “Newforma software provides easy-to-use ways to make sure we can better serve clients without sacrificing design time.”

About tp bennett

Founded in 1921, tp bennett LLP is a leading architectural design practice working internationally for a wide spectrum of private and public sector clients with circa 150 employees. tp bennett has three core divisions of architecture, interiors and planning, supported by specialist practice areas in strategy, research and graphics. tp bennett has offices in London, Moscow, Abu Dhabi and New York.

Each tp bennett project begins with a design concept that’s robust, legible and realistic enough to carry the commission from strategic design to completion without loss of power and relevance. For more, visit www.tpbennett.com/.

Newforma® Project Center software for project information management (PIM) makes it easy to manage email. But the solution’s integrated capabilities make it just as easy to perform a host of other tasks necessary to execute successful architecture, engineering and construction projects.

HOK Director of Emerging Technologies Terry Nichols knew about Newforma Project Center from its earliest days. HOK was one of the first customers to work closely with Newforma to help write the specification for and test the earliest versions of Newforma’s pioneering project information management (PIM) software back in 2004.

HOK's London office

HOK’s most pressing need for a PIM solution revolved around managing email: filing it with other project documents, retrieving filed emails, and employing email to manage actions, transmittals and other project execution processes.

It is clearly good practice to file emails with other project data where the information can be shared by the entire team. At HOK, email was filed into project folders using an Outlook macro, but the Windows Explorer search function did not search for text within the email files and attachments or allow easy browsing of content. By using Newforma’s easy method of filing, and the powerful search engine, HOK has ensured that the project email is complete, organized and findable.

Efficiencies beyond email

Nichols says email management was the trigger that got HOK started with Newforma Project Center, but that the software does a great deal more. Wind the clock forward to 2010 and today, Nichols and BIM Manager Paul Duggleby are relying on Newforma Project Center to manage other key AEC work processes.

Nichols uses a Swiss Army Knife metaphor to describe the many facets of the Newforma Project Center solution. One tip he offers other Newforma customers: understand and define the work processes that the software facilitates, and then leverage Newforma project Center to promote repeatable best practices across project teams and between offices.

Mark up files electronically

Applications for the electronic markup of files have been available for some time but have failed to attract those who continue to red-line large format prints by hand. However the Newforma Snapshot screen capture tool makes it easy to copy and mark up anything shown on the screen, including model views displayed by Revit or other BIM applications. Use the Newforma indexing capability to quickly jump between different areas of a drawing based on text content. Then add the Drawing Compare facility to review changes between different drawing versions – Color-coding shows what elements are new or changed from one version to the next. These functions used in combination provide a much more useful tool for reviewing.

Say goodbye to FTP hassles

HOK London is using Newforma Info Exchange to manage large file transfers. It’s superior to typical FTP sites allowing a more security options for individual transfers. Passwords are assigned to individual contacts rather than a complete company enabling FTP access permissions to be modified easily when individuals on the design team change. It records all downloads, automatically sends prompts if recipients fail to download in a set time frame and sends warnings before files are deleted. As part of the process, record copies of data are automatically stored within the project and the software logs exactly who downloaded what, and when. Forgotten passwords can be resent using the web interface without involving IT staff.

Take advantage of archived knowledge

HOK London is currently moving from the arduous task of archiving projects onto DVD to the more cost-effective and manageable practice of keeping projects on secondary network storage. Newforma Project Center’s ability to search the full text of documents, not just file names and any meta-data tags, means HOK can use Newforma to index all of its project histories. In future HOK personnel will be able to quickly and easily retrieve information formerly hidden in hard-to-access storage media.

Expand the definition of a project

Nichols points out that Newforma Project Center doesn’t just have to be limited to managing design projects. It is also being used by office support groups and for IT information. The benefits of this became apparent when local auditors requested a copy of an invoice for a particular piece of computer equipment. Searching on the suppliers name and invoice and setting an appropriate date range returned the relevant document from over 40,000 others stored in just three seconds.

Continual development

HOK and other customers continue to play a part in the ongoing development of Newforma Project Center. Last year, Nichols helped to establish the Newforma UK User Community in which a limited number of users meet quarterly to share their experiences in the implementation and use of the package and to provide feedback on local business needs to the developers.

About HOK

HOK is a global architectural firm that specializes in planning, design and delivery solutions for buildings and communities. Through its collaborative network of 23 offices worldwide, the firm serves diverse clients within the corporate, commercial, public and institutional markets. HOK is committed to developing resources and expertise to help lead the world toward sustainable communities and building environments. Founded in 1955, the firm’s expertise includes architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, lighting, graphics, facilities planning and assessment and construction services.

A version of this case study appeared in CAD User magazine, September/October 2010