Save Time and Money by Using Project Portfolio Management ... · projects that are similar in...

November 30 – December 3, 2004 ◊ Las Vegas, Nevada

Save Time and Money by Using Project Portfolio Management Services Steve Williams – Technical Consultant, Autodesk, Inc. Chad Baldwin – Senior Product Manager, Autodesk, Inc.

IN25-1 Learn how to set up and start using Buzzsaw to manage your design and building projects today. This session will teach you how to integrate Autodesk® Buzzsaw®, the leading online project collaboration service into your daily project work. This class will give you a clear understanding of how your entire project team can use Buzzsaw to send, share, update, track, and archive project related drawings and documentation – all in one secure location. You will also learn how advanced customization can benefit your company. You will leave with the knowledge of how Buzzsaw can help you and your design and project teams save time, reduce risk, increase accountability, and maximize profitability.

• Project Management in the A/E/C Industry • Benefits of Web-based Collaboration Tools • Buzzsaw Introduction and Overview • Using Buzzsaw in Multiple Phases throughout a Single Project

- Design - Bid Management - Construction Management

• Leveraging Buzzsaw to Manage Multiple Projects • Measuring Results – Customer Examples

About the Speakers:

Steve Williams [email protected] Based in Manhattan, NY, Steve provides customized consulting, training, and implementation services to project teams using Autodesk Buzzsaw. Since joining Buzzsaw.com™ in 2000, he has successfully implemented online collaboration within a wide variety of companies including Toys 'R' Us, Weyerhaeuser, and KB Home. Steve holds a Master of Engineering Management degree and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Duke University. This is his third year presenting at Autodesk University®.

Chad Baldwin [email protected] Chad is a senior product manager in the Collaboration Services Group of Autodesk. Chad has been a product manager for the Autodesk Buzzsaw product team for over 5 years working to improve customers' ability to successfully collaborate and manage their projects. Prior to joining Autodesk, Chad was founder and president of Triana Partners – a technology consulting company focused on developing Internet applications.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Save Time and Money by Using Project Portfolio Management Services

I. Project Management in the A/E/C Industry

AEC project management is characterized by its complexity and distributed nature; building professionals face the challenge of managing thousands of issues, documents, and communications across many different distributed teams. With a myriad practices, processes and changing roles within the project timeline, keeping your project on track can be a daunting task.

A typical process can be represented with the below diagram:

PrivateProject

Components

General Contractor

GCProject

Components

Architect / Engineer

A/EProject

Components

Vendors / Consultants / Gov / Utilities

Owner

OwnerProject

Components

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II. Benefits of Web-based Collaboration Tools

Online services such as Buzzsaw can make effective project management much more tenable by enabling you to centralize all project information and communications.

Some of the key benefits of on an online system include:

• Define and track clear goals and milestones • Enforce clear and systematic processes • Share and communicate information in a centralized location • Enable team members to get information themselves (self-service) • Provide clear responsibility and accountability • Achieve enhanced visibility into project status & exceptions

The below diagram illustrates how a centralized project management service enables standardization of project components and encourages participation among team members.

Owner

Autodesk BuzzsawASP

CommonProject

Components

OwnerProject

Components

PrivateProject

Components

General Contractor

GCProject

Components

Architect / Engineer

A/EProject

Components

Vendors / Consultants / Gov / Utilities

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III. Buzzsaw Introduction and Overview

Web-based project management and collaboration tools can assist companies in managing projects through all phases of a building’s lifecycle, i.e. Planning Design Bidding Construction Operations. They are commonly applied to a single project, such as the construction of a large commercial building or a sports arena, or leveraged to manage multiple projects that are similar in nature (such as homebuilders or retail firms).

The most widely-used tool, Autodesk Buzzsaw, is designed from the ground up to assist in these phases by providing: • A universal storage system:

Generic Document Management, Design Data Management (EDMS), XML Data Management. • A forms / workflow system – tracking assignments / deliverables • Email / Messaging Services • Indexing / Searching • Administration / Permissions Management • Dashboards • Reporting

Three distinct methods provide options for accessing Buzzsaw data. This session will focus on the first method.

1) Full Buzzsaw Windows Client (i.e. https://folders.buzzsaw.com/client/sitename) 2) Buzzsaw Web Access (i.e. https://folders.buzzsaw.com/sitename) 3) Web Folders (https://webdav.buzzsaw.com/sitename)

Left-Hand Menu-bar Functions

Available only to Site Administrators. Used to perform administrative functions including adding members and groups, changing permissions, and accessing the Site Activity Log.

Gives the Project Administrator quick access to frequently used administrative tasks and activities, including adding members and groups to a project and accessing a log of all activities. Available to Site and Project Administrators.

Displays a hierarchical tree view and a details view (similar to Windows Explorer) of all the folders and files in the project. This is the main working area; add, view, edit, and update project files.

Allows you to locate files across the entire site or within individual projects. You can limit or expand your search by including search criteria such as text, author, date, subfolders, and so on. Available to all project members.

Provides a list of all project files you have not viewed or read. Available to all project members.

Allows you to create, send, and manage your email messages.

Enables you to view folders and files that have been deleted from a project. Enables you to restore files, folders, logs, etc.

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time and money in managing

IV. Using Buzzsaw in Multiple Phases throughout a Single Project

Buzzsaw can be used in different ways throughout multiple project phases. We’ll focus on three main phases – design, bidding, and construction – to identify key ways companies are savingtheir project information.

Design Phase

The initial phase of this project is characterized by a high amount of coordination between the architect and their various consultants (and the owner). This is the point at which many project teams implement a collaboration tool, primarily to have a more effective way to share drawings than e-mail, FTP, CD’s, or paper.

The first step is to create a folder structure that works for our team. Separate your working drawings from published, issued drawing sets. One example is shown to the right; any structure can be created within Buzzsaw. An effective project folder template can be re-used for future projects by cloning the folder structure and the permissions.

Grant permissions so that consultants can post into their desired folders, but not change each other’s files. This ensures high security and integrity while allowing everybody to work in their own area.

In this example, the Landscape Architects have access to view and download all of the drawings (to be used as reference), but only upload and modify the Landscape drawings. The permission matrix allows administrators to modify permissions to customize every user’s experience.

ive paths with your xrefs so that other consultants can view and work ks. Note that the xrefs don’t automatically lock when you check out a the same change to ed xref and

network. If highlight all them to

To shar

When setting up your drawings, use relatwith them correctly on their own networdrawing (so multiple people can work inproject). If you are notified of a drawingone of your xrefs, right-click on the updatselect Download to update it on your local you need to check out multiple drawings,of them and choose “lock” prior to savingyour computer.

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drawings with people who don’t need to change the drawings, publish to a set of DWF files before posting to Buzzsaw. The extra step of plotting to DWF will save time in the long run (faster transmission to Buzzsaw, faster viewing/reviewing, print-ready with no need for additional reference files). With AutoCAD 2005, it even allows the user to publish a set of drawings directly to a Buzzsaw folder in DWF format.

Owners, contractors, estimators, and other people who just need to review the drawings can easily navigate the DWF files and measure/markup right within Buzzsaw. They can use either the DWF Viewer for quick viewing and printing, or the more powerful Volo View and DWF Composer programs.

Note: Many Buzzsaw customers utilize online meeting services through WebEx or NetMeeting to resolve issues in a real-time environment. Check out the weekly online Buzzsaw training at http://www.autodesk.com/buzzsaw (under “Training”) for an example.

Bid Phase

Many companies, especially production homebuilders, use Buzzsaw in the bidding environment. With the addition of private groups and deposit permission, it’s easy to set up a custom paperless bidding tool.

First, create private groups to send information to many people without the recipients seeing the other group members.

Next, set up a bidding folder structure and post bid sets in the print-ready DWF format. Subcontractors can view, print, redline, and even measure drawings with a high degree of accuracy. Many companies also invite a local reprographic firm into Buzzsaw to fulfill print orders. Print-ready job sets can be posted to Buzzsaw; the built-in email notification acts as a transmittal.

Use the Deposit permission to collect bids from many people. Bids are hidden from one bidder to the next, but the purchasing agent can track all the bid responses by company and date/time submitted.

When it’s time to collect the bid responses, contractors typically send in their bids via fax, email, FedEx, or standard mail. In order to run a report of the various trades and determine to whom to award the bid, companies often create an Excel spreadsheet and type in the responses. This is an extremely manual and frustrating process, and can take one person an entire day or longer. In Buzzsaw, however, companies can now collect bid responses automatically. This is typically done in one of two ways – distributing a bid response template (in Word or Excel) that bidders fill out and submit, or through a custom Buzzsaw Professional form. The second method allows for more powerful bid sorting, tracking, and reporting.

Construction Phase

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http://www.autodesk.com/buzzsaw


The construction phase of the project is typically managed by the General Contractor or Construction Manager. Job trailers often have large 3-ring binders stuffed with RFIs, multiple stick sets of drawings, and notes and sketches. Each company on the project often manages their own log, which can lead to discrepancies and project delays. Using Buzzsaw Professional, project teams are able to track issues in one centralized location, resulting in immediate time and cost savings throughout the entire project team.

Set up Buzzsaw Professional for construction management by configuring form logs for RFIs, Daily Reports, and other forms. Buzzsaw includes several industry standard forms (see right), but virtually any type of form can be customized and deployed to a Buzzsaw site. The form types vary in content as well as their routing options.

Next, grant team members appropriate permissions to participate in the workflow. You control who can perform certain actions, such as create, respond, consult, or approve. This way, team members only see the items that are pertinent to them, and project managers can view all of the open action items to track all of the outstanding items.

RFIs and other forms can be routed through Buzzsaw Professional through the Assign option. Assigned items populate the project dashboards and are listed in red when they are overdue.

Buzzsaw Professional Services can provide further customization to the forms, logs, reports, and dashboards to meet your specific business processes. Some current examples include Punch Lists, Change Orders, and Drawing Registers. Reports and dashboards can be further customized to roll up the form data.

V. Leveraging Buzzsaw to Manage Multiple Projects

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When customers are faced with managing multiple projects in geographically dispersed locations, it becomes exponentially more important to have information centralized. Buzzsaw offers some automated tools to help administrators and project managers track how resources are being allocated, what outstanding issues are holding up their projects, and the history of the project information. Having this information at your fingertips greatly reduces the time it takes to resolve issues and keep projects on track.

Portfolio Dashboard

Dashboard views provide personalized summaries of key information within the site or individual projects. At the site level, the portfolio dashboard provides the highest level view across all major projects within the entire site. It surfaces summary information about a project and provides easy navigation directly to projects and other dashboards.

All of the categories in the dashboard are customizable; for example, Facility and Project Types will change depending on the customer type. Homebuilders might set up projects as “multi-family” or “single-family,” whereas a retail firm might separate their projects based on their various brands and regions.

ashboards

Another commonly used dashboard is the Site Details, which gives administrators the ability to filter and sort all of the outstanding action items throughout their projects. The below example shows all of the open RFIs for all projects. By sorting on the “Creation Date” field, we can see the oldest outstanding issues, or by sorting on Assigned To, we can see who has the responsibility to respond to the most number of action items.

This level of visibility is enhanced even further through customization of the dto highlight and report acrossspecific business processes.

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Site Reports and Activity Tracking

Along with the dashboards, there are several reporting tools available. By choosing “Projects by Manager,” executives get a quick glimpse into the status of all the projects by the designated manager. Rather than filling out multiple spreadsheets, each project manager can update their project status through Buzzsaw.

Accountability is another key component of a successful project maembers know that their actions are being tracked, it improves the

nagement tool; when project team quality of work and the quantity of

information that is distributed.

Buzzsaw provides detailed activity logs that track all activity throughout the entire system – including logging in/out, adding documents, viewing drawings, or responding to forms. By filtering using “List Options,” admins can even search on information that has been deleted from the system, and potentially recover it. This can be a huge time and cost savings in regards to disaster recovery and backup.

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VI. Measuring Results

As described in this session, Buzzsaw can be used in a variety of waysand cost savings with a collaboration or project management tool, sinceintangible benefits. However, below are some examples of savings thacompanies, as well as two specific examples that help quantify the retu

• Converting information distribution processes (such as bidding) fro g and delivery costs, which substantially reduces upfront project expe

• Workflow features enable you to put repeatable best practices in pl • Centralized, online document storage streamlines the design proce

marketing and customer service efforts. • Autodesk hosts your project data, which drastically cuts internal hardware, labor, and maintenance costs. • Searching, activity logs, and reporting tools make it faster and easier to find the information you need and

to resolve issues quicker, thus freeing your time to focus on your core competency.

Customer Example: Homebuilders - Bidding Process

. It is often difficult to quantify the time so many of the savings relate to t are common throughout many rn on investment.

m paper to Buzzsaw eliminates printinnses.

ace upfront to maximize productivity.ss, and enables customers to improve

Bidding Process Number of

Subcontractors Projects Per Year

Cost Per Element Cost Savings

Printing / Reprography 100 10 $50 $50,000 Document Delivery 100 10 $35 $35,000 Fax 100 10 $10 $10,000

Subtotal: Printing/Courier Costs Eliminated: $95,000 Annual Cost of Buzzsaw Subscription: $16,000

Savings Per Project Bid: $7,900 Total Annual Savings with Buzzsaw: $79,000

Customer Example: Retail – Store Design Review

Average new store openings annually 62Number of design document distributions 180Number of design copies per distribution 10($1,800 total per annum) Cost per copy for printing/delivery $5

ROI for design document review annually: $9,000Time savings for the design team: 180 hours

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VII. Conclusion

web-based collaboration and project management service can help your company, w and where information is currently being shared and managed. Once you have

quantified that information, you can identify some key opportunities where a web-based tool can provide

f ltiplied by the

number of projects in a year. This is typically much higher than a Buzzsaw subscription, and can thus be used ju

To fully understand how a it requires an analysis of ho

immediate benefits (both hard and soft costs).

Many companies perform this analysis of a specific process on several projects. Once the comparison o“previous process” vs. “new process” is complete, the monetary and cost savings can be mu

to stify the expense to the decision-makers in the company.

There are multiple resources available to assist companies in their evaluation of Autodesk Buzzsaw:

Autodesk Buzzsaw Home Page: http://www.autodesk.com/buzzsaw

Free Weekly Online Training: http://www.autodesk.com/buzzsaw > Training

Free 30-Day Trial Site: http://www.buzzsaw.com/trial

Newsgroups: http://d todeiscussion.au sk.com

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