James D. Morrissey, a family-owned construction company, was facing challenges in real-time field tracking. The majority of their work volume comes from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (DOT), which pays based on quantities completed, as measured by the state’s engineers. Without an effective tool, field supervision often found themselves unable to confirm or dispute the state’s calculations until they received payment. This lack of real-time tracking and confirmation was a significant challenge for the company.

Joseph McCormick Construction, a highway construction specialist, was facing challenges with their existing tools for creating bids. They were using Excel spreadsheets and homemade calculations, but as the volume of work and complexity of jobs increased, these tools were proving to be inadequate. They needed better tools to organize their estimates and bid more efficiently. Additionally, they were relying on an accounting system for analysis of field data, which was causing delays and constraints. They needed a system that could measure job progress and budgets in real time, rather than one or two weeks later when the information made it to the accounting reports and it was too late to respond.

KPM Industries, a leading supplier of street, parking lot, and highway construction services in Southern Ontario, was facing challenges with its in-house spreadsheet-based system for field tracking and analysis. The system was difficult to support, and reporting was always an issue. The company needed a solution that could provide real-time job performance data to senior management and operations personnel. The existing system was also paper-based, which made data entry and report generation inefficient.

Prior to 2007, Landmark Construction Company was using Hard Dollar to manage their estimating and bidding process. However, they felt that the company had a lack of commitment to the product. The company decided it was time for a change, and began searching for a robust, flexible solution that would standardize their work across the enterprise. They were looking for a solution that was easy to learn and could help them increase their bid output.

Pace Construction, a company based in St. Louis providing heavy highway, bridge, and asphalt services, was previously using Hard Dollar (now InEight) to estimate and bid their jobs. However, they were unsatisfied with the system for a number of reasons. The system was described as 'overkill' with many extraneous packages that were not needed, and features like custom reports, which were needed, were not included. The implementation of user suggestions was slow, and there was no way to access information if they decided to switch to another estimating system.

As Palmer Construction Group expanded, the need to standardize their estimating and operations became apparent. They had tried several solutions, including Lotus and Excel spreadsheets, and a program called Chief Estimator. However, these solutions were not up-to-date and lacked a centralized database. The company needed a solution that could manage all of their job logistics in a streamlined and efficient way, and one that could grow with them and remain on the cutting edge of technology.

Pomerleau, a large-scale infrastructure and construction company, was in search of an estimating and bidding software solution that would meet its requirements. The company needed a robust solution with advanced features to standardize the estimating and bidding process across the enterprise. A particular challenge was a complex project in the Montreal area consisting of the demolition and reconstruction of a bridge. The main difficulty in this project was the soil conditions, including underwater soil consolidation, large caissons, and an abutment directly on a very steep-angle rock surface.

R.D. Johnson Excavating Company, based in Lawrence, Kansas, was facing challenges with their traditional pencil and paper method of estimating projects. The company specializes in excavating, grading, paving, utilities, and materials. The manual method of estimating was not efficient and lacked strategic planning. The company was looking for a solution that could streamline their bidding process, especially for repetitive bids such as utility work and street work projects. The company also wanted a solution that could handle large scale projects with ease and keep track of each item that they bid.

C.A. Hull, a company specializing in full-service bridge construction and rehabilitation, was in search of an effective, streamlined software solution for its estimating and operations processes. The company wanted to move away from paper-based processes and adopt a more efficient system. The challenge was to find a solution that would be embraced by the employees and would improve the efficiency of their operations.

Romero General Construction was in need of a software package that would provide a centralized database to compartmentalize their resources and keep them organized. They were looking for a solution that would standardize the estimating and bidding process, keeping all of their estimators on the same page and eliminating the risk of errors. The company also wanted to save time and money by updating a specific part of the bid globally. Furthermore, they were looking to streamline their field tracking and analysis operations. Previously, reports were filled out by foremen in the field and faxed into the office, requiring someone to transcribe the report and enter it into the accounting system.

Emil Anderson Construction, a company based in British Columbia, Canada, was facing challenges with their self-built solutions for estimating and field tracking. With the volume and complexity of work increasing, the limitations of their existing systems were becoming more apparent. They recognized the need for specialized applications and a unified solution. The company was also struggling with cohesive, coordinated estimating across several sites in British Columbia. Having multiple people work simultaneously on an estimate was impossible with the spreadsheet-based system. Incorporating input from estimators in different locations and keeping everything up to date was also a big challenge.

W.L. French Excavating Corporation, a family-owned company with 150 employees, was initially focused strictly on field operations, not software and computers. As the company grew and evolved, they realized the importance of technology in their success. They faced internal resistance, particularly from field and maintenance employees loyal to familiar, manual systems. The maintenance team relied on paper-based processes and whiteboards to manage more than 200 pieces of heavy equipment. Maintenance of equipment accounts for a significant percentage of their annual operating budget, and they saw a big opportunity to impact profitability through process improvement.

Mission Bell, a company specializing in custom casework and reclaimed lumber, was facing a challenge. Their clients were requesting increasingly complex projects with faster turnaround times. The company realized that to meet these demands, they needed to become more efficient rather than just assigning more people to a project. The complexity of the designs and the speed at which they were expected to be completed required a solution that would increase collaboration, reduce errors, and enable quicker turnaround times.

Premier Mechanical was faced with the challenge of winning more work by producing better estimates, being more efficient, and adding value to their project delivery model. They also wanted to improve the consistency and delivery of information between the office, fab shop, and the field. The 2008 recession had forced many companies within the AEC industry to shut their doors, but Premier Mechanical decided to not only survive but thrive. They aimed to achieve double-digit growth during the recession by transforming their project delivery methods, elevating efficiency, and saving money by digitalizing paper-based workflows.

Márkus Engineering, a Budapest-based civil engineering firm, was in the midst of managing a major renovation project when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The project was the creation of a new Radisson Collection Hotel in St. Stephen’s Square. With face-to-face work restricted by the pandemic, the firm needed a reliable online project collaboration platform to maintain information flow between project teams both on- and off-site. The solution had to work with Archicad, Graphisoft’s BIM software, which was used by the project’s designers and architects. The firm was also looking to become more digital and BIM-focused to keep up with the rapidly growing AEC market in Hungary.

Ribuna AG, a civil engineering and infrastructure company based in Interlaken, Switzerland, needed a solution for end-to-end digital planning and data management. The company had to quickly adapt to a decentralized approach due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which required teams to work from home. This was particularly crucial for the Oberried Station project on Lake Brienz, which started in the midst of the pandemic. The company sought a digital solution that would minimize errors and facilitate structured interaction at every planning and coordination stage. The solution also needed to be sustainable, reducing the use of paper and saving time.The company identified that internal work processes, particularly with complex construction tasks and intricate project coordination, could waste huge amounts of time. Therefore, Ribuna decided to find digital tools that would make processes more efficient and help to minimize the potential for errors by optimizing and standardizing processes. The company also needed a tool that would optimize both internal processes and interaction with external project partners to create a proven planning and construction process that would be both transparent and reliable.

Solid Earth Civil Constructors, a civil construction company based in Pueblo, Colorado, was faced with an ultimatum from a large potential client to adopt a digital estimation and bid submission system. The company had been using traditional, paper-based workflows for estimation and lacked the IT staff necessary to undergo the digital transformation for estimation, project delivery, and communication. The company was also faced with the challenge of implementing the new system, Bluebeam Revu, without a dedicated IT staff and with no background in technology. The company had to adapt to the changing industry and stay nimble to maintain its reputation and success.

Aksa, a Bosnian-Herzegovinian civil engineering firm, faced process challenges after securing business opportunities within the U.S. market for the first time. The firm had to adapt to new ways of working and communicating, and also needed to calculate the surfaces and quantities needed for the construction of buildings and the execution of final works in short time frames. A higher level of collaboration in terms of sharing project information and data was also necessary. The U.S. customers raised the need to measure facade panels precisely. The company also needed to find a way to work and communicate with these new U.S. customers.

ClearTech Engineered Solutions, a Dublin-based specialist engineering contractor, was facing a challenge of increasing demand for its services. The company designs and installs post-tensioning for bridges, buildings, roads, and other civil engineering projects. As the demand for these services rose, ClearTech found itself with more RFQs than it could answer. The company was using traditional methods for estimation, which involved printing designs and marking and measuring drawings by hand. This process was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, leading to inaccurate estimations and rework. The company needed a solution to speed up its estimation process and respond quickly to RFQs.

Viadex is a global IT provider that plans, delivers, and manages global projects across four continents and over 190 countries. As they looked to provide their customers with best in breed technology well into the future, they recognised the need to work with a partner who could not only meet, but exceed the data protection needs of their customers, as well as providing flexible and scalable infrastructure to adapt to ever changing business world demands. Viadex has been leveraging DRaaS from [11:11] internally for a few years which has provided the familiarity and knowledge that it would be the right solution for their customers.

B&I Contractors, Inc., a company that provides commercial mechanical contracting services, was facing several challenges due to its growth. The company needed to build and formalize its IT department, adhere to strict compliance and regulation requirements, ensure reliable and easy-to-use disaster recovery, and ensure IT scalability. With shrinking IT budgets and less desire for capital expenditures, Bill Lamon, IT Manager for B&I Contractors, knew that it was time to look for cloud options for his growing business. His desire to not be locked in with a channel partner and eliminate hardware expenditures for a local solution was one of the many reasons that cloud object storage was considered.

The CSN Groep, a full-service Systems Integrator and Managed Services provider, recognized the increasing need for availability and the lack of expertise in managing IT infrastructure to maximize uptime amongst their customer base. They saw the need to offer cloud-based business continuity services from a different location than that of their IaaS services. They wanted a partner who not only had deep expertise in cloud backup and disaster recovery, but could also deliver the advanced cloud security expertise needed to meet the compliance requirements of their customers. A top priority for the CSN Groep is protecting their customers’ IT systems from the ever increasing threats of cyber-attacks, viruses, and ransomware.

Cold Jet, a leader in the dry ice business, was facing a challenge when the company decided to move offices in Belgium. The company's IT team, based in Ohio, was tasked with finding a disaster recovery (DR) provider that could accommodate their new setup. The team was also looking to improve and increase their bandwidth. The search for a provider was under a tight deadline, with only a month to find a provider and get the system up and running.

Jurlique, a global skincare company, was facing challenges with managing backups at its remote offices and datacenter. The company was looking for a solution that could provide a consolidated view of its cloud and storage of VMs, workloads, and files. The company also required a solution that could support its operations in various regions around the world, including Asia, the U.S., and the U.K. Furthermore, Jurlique wanted a flexible pricing model to manage a configurable, collective pool of servers to adapt to fluctuating workloads.

Procon, a North American mining contractor, was dealing with an aging ERP system that was no longer able to keep up with the demands of the business. The company had a large fleet of equipment to track and a workforce scattered across some of the most remote and inhospitable regions on the planet. With new ownership potentially pushing workload volumes and availability demands even higher, it was clear that it was time for a change. The company needed tighter cost control over projects and a more robust and reliable system to handle their operations.

In the fall of 2006, Los Alamos National Laboratory was tasked with performing an audit of their cyber security systems, including inspections of its safeguards and security functions. The audit aimed to ensure that the organization had a system in place that complied with federal regulations, including the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA). The lab was using sudo, an open source software program that only tracked activity on a machine-by-machine basis. However, the audit revealed inefficiencies associated with using sudo for these purposes. IT administrators were spending an excessive amount of time managing every machine individually to extract and consolidate relevant information from various logs to illustrate compliance and ability to monitor and control privileged users’ activity. Around the same time, the lab learned that it would be inheriting the responsibility of administering about 200 additional UNIX and Linux systems. The staff agreed that it would be impossible to manage this complex heterogeneous environment using the current monolithic architecture of open source sudo.

SM Energy Company, an independent energy company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in onshore North America, was facing challenges in vulnerability assessment and patch management. With a team of only two individuals devoted to patching and scans, the organization was unable to put a formal remediation strategy in place due to lack of useful information. With over 700 users on the network located all over the United States, SM Energy was in need of a solution that would ease the burden of patching and increase the overall security program effectiveness without the high cost of redesigning critical infrastructure. They were using SCCM, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, as a standalone product, which required a lot of time to deploy patches and then validate that they were deployed correctly. However, there was no visible or measurable outcome from this patching effort that showcased if they were providing a better security stance.

Locknet, a company providing IT security and compliance services, was facing a challenge with their vulnerability assessment process. The process was time-consuming and required technicians to travel to each customer site, which was not cost-effective. The company intended to use vulnerability assessments as a foundation for offering other security services, but the assessments themselves were taking up too much time. Technicians were spending six hours per day in their cars, resulting in lost hours for both the company and its clients. As a result, Locknet was losing money on each vulnerability assessment and was unable to scale its security service offerings.

Micro Plastics, a major plastic fastener manufacturer, was facing the challenge of maintaining the security of its computer network. With over 300 users and 10 servers, the company found it increasingly difficult to monitor potential vulnerabilities and address issues arising from hacker or virus attacks. The company needed a tool that could proactively identify vulnerabilities before they became problems. The company's IT Manager, Reed Kimble, was confident about the security of the network but wanted to verify his instincts. The company was looking for a solution that could identify any potential threats in their operating environment that could be exploited by hackers or viruses, potentially hindering business operations.

In 2010, DCI expanded the scope of their internal auditing requirements to include access related areas such as user privileges, password rotation policies, review of access sessions, and access history. To address compliance requirements, the team also decided to lock down the development, test and internal business servers to protect vast amounts of sensitive data. This meant that they had to fully restrict root access, reset all passwords after each use, and periodically rotate them — whether they were used or not. Even SSH access had to be limited. To fulfill these needs, DCI required a procedure to delegate and authorize specific limited functions on each server, when access was required. They also wanted different login IDs for different functions on each server, plus a workflow whereby two managers could grant access to specific functions at particular times. Activity on the servers also had to be tracked by ID, including the functions allowed by each ID.