The Risks Of Outdated Engineering Document Control Software!

Certain situations force us to look at the RISK associated with using outdated or ineffective engineering document control software approaches. 

Do You Find Yourself In Any of These Situations?

• Recovering from the cost of a major document control failure.
• The arrival of a new client that demands better document control processes.
• Hiring a new employee that needs training on an antiquated system.

This is when your construction or engineering document control software and processes come under significant scrutiny.

Can you convince yourself, and others, that your system will support the accurate and timely delivery of the information required to support the construction schedule?

Organizations Typically Chose 1 of 2 Solution Paths

Depending on the maturity of the organization in question, the scenario might be categorized in two ways:

1. Considering if the previously used home-grown solution built on MS SharePoint, Access, or Excel is a viable option to scale and support a larger more complex.
2. Assessing whether adopting the document management module of an incumbent Enterprise Resource Planning software (ERP) supplied solution is an easier deployment option or lower cost investment.

We’ve talked previously about the limitations of SharePoint with respect to the capabilities offered by market-leading EDMS providers such as Proarc.

Our opinion regarding ERP document management modules is less explicit given the high degree of variability on offer.

We prefer to let the competitors speak for themselves and rather focus on our strengths, but as a simple observation, we would pose the following questions:

• “How many projects have used the ERP document module successfully during construction?”
• “How many of the implementation team have worked in document control roles on projects?”

Engineering & Construction Projects are Becoming More Data Centric

In our view, the engineering business is classically document focused, albeit moving rapidly to a data-centric view, and as Proarc was developed solely to support these processes, it is no surprise that hundreds of projects have used our solutions in many engineering companies.

By contrast, the risks posed by poor data control cannot be underestimated. Attempting to scale current tools and methods that are underdeveloped or unproven in the context of a large-scale capital project, in the industrial construction market, can have significant consequences such as:

1. Key employee dependency failure of a home-grown solution built on MS SharePoint, Access, or Excel if the key employee leaves the company or is absent on leave.
2. Tarnished reputation as assessed by potential clients or partners, if perceived to be outdated, inadequate, or non-compliant with document control best practices.
3. Inability to cope with engineering changes and complexity of scale while being required to support collaboration with internal and external participants.

Engineering & Construction Projects Present Complex Challenges 

An engineering business will typically have many projects with various requirements.

Having a construction and engineering document control software system in place, with the configurability to satisfy specific requirements like progress planning and collaboration with external parties, offers the opportunity for enhanced project execution.  

Effective Document Control Is The Measure Of Your Success

Control is the goal and the ultimate measure of certainty on a construction project.

To remove risk, we recommend you replace your outdated engineering document control solution with a system that will provide the following capability:

• Follow a structured and unified review and approval process using workflows.
• Simplify the management of commenting using advanced comment handling features.
• Keep all contributors aware of deadlines and due dates by giving them a personal task list.
• Take business process automation to the next level using advanced distribution matrices.
• Integrate external collaboration with your internal processes. All workers use one solution.
• Use less email, avoid manual steps, and give your external users a tool that they like.
• Use advanced access rights to ensure external users only have access to what they need.
• Generate transmittals and deliver directly without manual steps.

Metadata is key and the foundation for every engineering document management system (EDMS). Proarc’s flexibility and configurability are outstanding and the reason why it is so widely used in construction and engineering document control and collaboration.

Examples of the agile configuration are seen in all aspects like repository setup, workflow design, and reports. Along with Infrastructure flexibility to support cloud and/or on-premise deployment options removing dependence on information exchange using email and network shared drive folders.

If you’d like to learn more about Proarc, reach out to us and we’d welcome the opportunity to answer any questions you may have.