AEC & FM Outsourcing
To quote Marc Andreessen, “software is eating the world”. In my experience, early adopters reap the gains and late adopters are dragged along. Which will you be?
I am fascinated by the property industry’s slow evolution. Currently I see 3 different evolutionary tracks:
- Analogue, physical, high touch industries e.g. property design, construction and facilities management.
- Outsourcing i.e. the move to specialization. In North America this is starting to happen in facilities management.
- Digital plus robotics i.e. the move to automate and dematerialize processes and work. Think of IOT, building digital twins plus algorithmic building controls and facilities maintenance.
Industries are in different tracks. Using an 80/20 analysis:
- Media and entertainment is 80% track 3 i.e. digital.
- Car manufacturing is moving from track 2 to track 3. It could be argued that modern cars are now super computers on wheels.
- Property design, construction and facilities management is IMHO, 80% track 1 and 20% track 2.
Companies and people in general, do not embrace change because it is uncomfortable. Change is a leadership function and is best undertaken when you and your business are doing well, not when it is forced by external factors.
If you work in the property design, construction and facilities management space how can you start the change from analogue to digitization? The easy first move is outsourcing.
Outsourcing isn’t just a way to unload non-core costs. The real play with outsourcing is to use it as a tool to drive strategic value, transform business processes, and drive efficiency. To get the most from outsourcing you have to use it to take costs out and put value in.
For architectural, engineering, construction (AEC) and facilities management (FM) firms, outsourcing drawing management is an easy win that delivers high ROI.
DCM Inc, The Drawings Specialists, have helped several AEC and FM firms take this easy first outsourcing step. DCM provide a full service drawing management solution that includes:
- Auditing.
- Conversions from paper to digital (CAD).
- Drawing augmentation and development.
- Organization with revision controls.
- Offsite storage with full disaster recovery.
- 24/7 drawing access via any mobile device.
- ECHO, DCM’s industry leading drawing search engine.
By outsourcing drawing management and development, these ACE & FM firms have removed a non-core activity and overhead, increased efficiency and provided high value people more time to deliver their work both on site and remotely.
For example. DCM worked on a pilot project with a large North American AEC firm in 3 of their 79 offices. At the end of the first year cost savings / efficiencies of $487,000 were realized. This resulted in a letter of direction to their other offices from the CEO to use DCM whenever possible.
Outsourcing is not just for large firms. DCM’s digitization services help provide a level playing field for small and medium size businesses (SME’s). Outsourcing enables SME’s to compete with large firms based on their expertise and not their ability to fund non-core function infrastructure and services in house.
Embrace change and go digital. Start by converting your paper drawings to digital and get a digital drawing management strategy from DCM Inc, The Drawings Specialists.
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