How an SME construction company strengthened its project communication, collaboration and efficiency with Viewpoint For Projects
Using Viewpoint For Projects
Wynne Construction is a well-established construction company based in North Wales, covering all sectors and delivering projects across Wales and the North West of England. With generations of experience in the industry, Wynne Construction has earned the reputation of robust construction quality to ensure repeated project success.
Before
- Manual processes
- Generic file sharing systems
- Heavy administration
- Inefficiencies and unnecessary delays
After
- Single source of truth
- Workflow management
- Easy ISO 19650 compliance
- Real-time collaboration
- Golden thread of information
Challenge
Before implementing Viewpoint For Projects, Wynne Construction relied on manual processes such as Dropbox and WeTransfer for file sharing. While these methods served a purpose, they required significant administrative effort and lacked a comprehensive system for managing large amounts of project data. Having the foresight for the implementation of BIM and having looked at a range of solutions on the market, they found VFP met their requirements.
Solution
By adopting VFP, Wynne Construction achieved several notable benefits throughout the business, ranging from quicker information retrieval to workflow management.
Live and Accurate Project Information
As the industry grapples with how to best store and reference information, Wynne Construction knows it can rely on Viewpoint For Projects for this very purpose. Using a centralised data platform helps Wynne to collect and manage the ‘golden thread’ of information throughout a project’s lifecycle, and be safe in the knowledge that this will be stored for future reference.
In the present, up to date information is also vitally important on any construction project, and Wynne Construction saw this realised through using VFP. Richard Beatson, Design and BIM Manager, says, “it facilitates our job and Live and Accurate Project Information it helps us with our day-to-day management of large quantities of information” so that all teams are seeing what they need to in a timely manner. This reduces any potential conflict from unclear boundaries as Wynne can review when information was signed off and ensure that the relevant people are keeping up-to-date with project information. Once again, this lends itself to that all important ‘golden thread’ of information that runs through a project, from the smallest of communications to the finished product.
Time-saving
Quicker information retrieval was highlighted as a standout piece of functionality, allowing project team members to quickly gain an overview of project status, drawing revisions, and other crucial details. VFP’s compliance with ISO 19650, a standard for managing information during the construction lifecycle, ensures that Wynne Construction adheres to industry best practices with ease. Wynne also praised the depth of the search functionality that allows users to not only search by the standard file name, but also scour within metadata and content within a document to find the information that’s needed, quickly.
Alongside this powerful information retrieval, Wynne Construction designed custom workflows in VFP to align with their specific project and permission needs. These workflows help ensure real-time information exchange and proactive communication with consultants and clients. The use of cloudbased database systems also automates reminders outside of VFP, reducing the risk of missing important deadlines. For added collaboration, Wynne Construction uses the IFC viewer within Viewpoint For Projects for the federation of BIM models. Utilising this functionality means that they can shift team coordination into the design phase, allowing them to solve problems and make design decisions earlier on in the project. VFP aids this enhanced collaboration between project teams, a deeper understanding of the project outcomes, and problems saved down the line from early detection.
Lastly, adopting VFP has led to a significant reduction in paper usage for Wynne, and time spent waiting by the printer! By going paperless, this not only contributes to Wynne’s environmental goals but also saves costs associated with printing, shipping, and storing physical documents.
Uses of VFP
Viewpoint For Projects is used every day at Wynne Construction, it’s ingrained into the fabric of how they do business. They use it through RIBA stage 2 through to 6 on both traditional contracts and design & -build projects. Currently, Wynne leans into the collaboration and version control that comes with Viewpoint For Projects. VFP simplifies their project communications and ensures that the right members of each extended team are working on the right technical information, at the right time.
Training and Implementation
Wynne Construction had praise for the support and training teams within Trimble Viewpoint. They received a 2-day in-person training session and were impressed with the professional consultant’s depth of knowledge, the attention to detail, and their ability to fully adapt the session to Wynne’s needs. They walked away from the session feeling more confident and more equipped to delve deeper into the capabilities of Viewpoint For Projects, with Beatson stating, “its expanded our horizons” It was also noted that the speed and level of technical support has been consistently high, with most queries being answered within the hour.
Results
As Richard Beatson says, “there’s nothing worse than losing information”. Now Wynne is using Viewpoint For Projects, Beatson says it saves those “sleepless nights” caused by loss of information. Wynne Construction successfully implemented Viewpoint for Projects (VFP) to streamline their construction management processes. Through using VFP, the company has improved collaboration, efficiency, and compliance with industry standards. Overall, Wynne Construction has found VFP to be an invaluable tool in their project management toolkit, enabling them to deliver successful projects across various sectors – time after time.