By Randall S. Newton
Editor-in-Chief
After almost three years of planning, research, and testing, software startup Newforma launched on June 1 a public version of Newforma Project Center, a product designed to “reduce barriers to information sharing and help project managers and team members streamline their existing processes,” according to their announcement. I know that sounds like marketing gobbledy-gook, but after seeing a demo and talking with the management team, I think Newforma has a hit on its hands.
There is good reason for AEC firms to seek software to improve existing processes. Several times in the last year or two, I have heard industry executives quietly worry that if existing AEC firms don’t find new ways to eliminate waste and gain process efficiency, that more efficient firms in other industries will notice all the money in construction and enter the market. The lack of efficiency in this industry is due to much more than interoperability problems.
Newforma has created a product that AEC project managers will immediately recognize as a valuable addition to their existing routines. Project Center uses familiar methods to organize the right information for use by the right people at the right time. It brings a process-driven approach to AEC information flow that matches with existing procedures.
Newforma Project Center is installed as client/server software on a firm’s existing network. It is designed to co-exist with a central file server and a Microsoft Exchange server. Once in place, it indexes all files related to projects, and can serve them up to both project managers and team members. Each project has a home page, from which a variety of activities are possible. No new forms or processes are created; Newforma Project Center is about streamlining access to existing file types and document sets, and about using these existing files to streamline existing project communications.
Project Center has four fundamental attributes worth consideration. First, it is a unique layer of value-adding software. When added to your existing software mix, it makes the other programs more powerful. Newforma likes to call Project Center “the project glue that frees project managers from time-wasting tasks and productivity-draining obstacles.” Second, it blends in with existing tools and processes. Excel and Outlook are by far the two most popular tools used by project managers (more so than sophisticated “project management” software); users coming from this paradigm will feel right at home. Third, it works with existing file format—106 file types, to be exact. Fourth, it easily implemented. The learning curve looks to be short, and Newforma says they can deploy the solution within an organization inside of a week, including two days of meeting with company executives about methods and procedures in the organization. Project manager training takes place on two afternoons.
Newforma addresses AEC process enablement with functions to improve the project information workflow in harmony with existing work processes. Examples include:
- Managing Project Email—On-the-fly filing of project-related email with other project information without leaving Microsoft Outlook
- Orienting New Project Team Members—Assemble project data in a way that is organized and searchable for faster assimilation of project history, current issues, and available documentation
- File Sharing and Sending/Receiving Transmittals—Streamline the steps required to collect and attach documents to an email or copy to FTP server, and arrange to notify recipients, log download activity, and manage expiration, all from one form
- Managing Issues to Resolution—Offers the harried manager a way to manage by exceptions, by providing views to all high-impact issues, and to track issues until resolved
- Tracking Changes for Compliance and/or Quality Control—Automatically identify requested or unintended changes in document revisions
- Expediting Iterative Design—Facilitate sharing of design comments via broadly enabled viewing and markup
- Archiving at Key Project Milestones—Automatically combine email with other project documents for a complete project record that is easily searched at a later date
- Estimating Project Cost and the Impact of Design Changes—Coordinate area, linear, and item-based takeoff with Microsoft Excel functionality to rapidly estimate and quantify the impact of incremental design changes
- Coordinating Space Program Requirements—Coordinate designs with a project’s space program requirements using a space layout overlay integrated with Excel to extract or schedule space definitions and generate exception reports
Newforma was founded in 2003 by AEC software industry veterans from such firms as Autodesk, Softdesk, Cephren, and BlueLine Online, who believed they could improve building project team productivity. The solution they are now shipping is not the product they originally envisioned. “Three years ago we started with a technology-based assumption,” says Bob Batcheler, Newforma’s vice president of engineering. But after weeks of interviewing potential customers, they discovered they needed to focus less on new technology and more on fixing the existing processes used by project managers. “It was the flood of email, the need to track information and all the interactions” that were the sore points, Batcheler said. “We are delivering a huge dose of AEC-specific vertical value.”
What about project extranets? “Project-based extranets are a 90’s solution,” says Batcheler. “Users are tremendously frustrated with the latency and the processes” in such extranets as Buzzsaw, Constructware, and Cephren. “Our customers refer to extranets as ‘digital landfills.’ They pay by the ton to use them, but they have no control over their operation.” Adds Newforma CEO Ian Howell, “It is clear to me that the ASP experience has no positive traction in AEC.” This from a man whose resume includes stops at Cephren and BlueLine Online. “Users don’t like separate security setup and they don’t like storing their documents on the Internet. It becomes redundant with what is on the central server.”
The version now shipping is the third major release of the software, but the first to be available to the open market. The first two versions were limited to industry partners who worked with Newforma on refining the product through use on real projects. These early clients include Turner, Burt Hill, ADD Inc., HOK Sport+Venue+Event, Psomas, Beck, Webcor, BAA, Shepley Bullfinch, The S/L/A/M Collaborative, Perkins + Will, Jordan, Jones & Goulding, Gould Evans, and Chong Partners.
Newforma sees Project Center as occupying a sweet spot in the center of an AEC firm’s existing software geography. To the west is Deltek, Sage or other “back office” business information software; to the north is Microsoft’s platform technology, to the east is Adobe as the leader in presentation authoring, and to the south is the firm’s CAD vendor or choice (or as in some firms, the CAD we use is the customer’s choice). In the center, Newforma says, is Project Center, finding, organizing and sharing all the data types in a coherent fashion that matches the project manager’s existing workflow. “We are always conscious of needing to filter information down to a usable level quickly,” says Batcheler. “For example, we make it easy for a project manager to create a LEED document set.”
The ability to redline is included in Project Center. In this release, it is restricted to 2D drawings, which Batcheler says means that they “support 97% of the market with this release. Adds Howell: “BIM makes life difficult in some ways. The project manager has to understand a new design process. We are on the downstream side of the process. Our challenge is in sharing the model views.” Newforma intends to have 3D model viewing in the next release, and, Howell says, “We think we can add real value” by including such features as the ability to search for individual objects within the model. “We think we can help accelerate the adoption of BIM, by making it easier for project managers to work with.”
Newforma sees their market as firms with 50 and more employees. Pricing is “a work in process,” says Batcheler. “We are seeking a win/win with our clients.” Right now the basic price is $795 per year per user, but volume purchasing and usage terms will lower the price on a case-by case basis.
Every new product press release includes at least one “happy customer” quote. This is from Newforma’s announcement: “To support a growing number of clients and sub consultants efficiently across multiple projects located throughout the Southeast, our project teams are assembled by necessity from across our 14 offices,” said John Watkins, Corporate Production Director and Principal at Jordan, Jones, and Goulding (JJG), a leading engineering firm headquartered in Atlanta. “Newforma Project Center helps our multi-office design teams track issues, share project information, and find the most current project files as effectively as if team members were all located in the same office. We look forward to working with Newforma to shape their solution to further address our project information management and communication needs as more of our teams are electing to manage their projects with Newforma Project Center.”