Arup, a global firm of over 14,000 specialists working across 90-plus disciplines in more than 34 countries, was facing issues in the quality and accuracy of drawings and the consistency of manual document markups for design review. The lack of standard markups within manual review processes kept stakeholders occupied with document management as opposed to adding value to projects by focusing on design and execution. Review timeframes were also bloated due to the reliance on email for the heavy project collaboration, as some projects involved stakeholders working in remote offices across the globe. Certain projects also yielded issues for Arup when it came to the quality of as-built drawings and scans.

The City of Las Vegas was facing inefficiencies in its permit approval process due to its reliance on paper-based plan reviews. With an average of 20,000 permits a year, the city was struggling with a process that could only be reviewed one discipline at a time, taking a week or more per discipline, across a minimum of five different disciplines. The process also involved routing printed mylars to five utility companies for final signatures, a process that could take up to six weeks. Storage was also an issue, with paper plans scattered across three different repositories. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shift to remote working made the paper-based review sessions impossible.

Ballymore Group, an Irish developer, was tasked with the construction of two towers near London’s Canary Wharf, a project known as Wardian London. The project was complex and large-scale, involving the installation of about 4,000 balconies—40 per floor—across the two towers. The challenge was to track these individual balconies throughout the construction lifecycle, from preconstruction to turnover. In addition to a tight schedule, Ballymore wanted to gather data incrementally to improve their processes going forward. The project required a solution that could provide real-time information sharing between the field and office, and help keep track of progress by commenting, marking up, and logging activity.

Interstate Electrical, a regional, family-owned, commercial electrical contractor, was facing several challenges in their project delivery process. The company was relying on paper drawings, emails, and spreadsheets for project delivery, which was not efficient or scalable. The estimation process was done using a combination of wheel-and-paper process, Microsoft Excel, and other software, resulting in a slow, bulky process that often led to costly errors and rework. Change orders were done with side-by-side paper comparison, taking valuable time and resources for item verification and quantities. As-built drawings could not be accurately scaled, leaving time-consuming manual verifications and room for error. Cut sheets faced a similar problem with no standardization options to accurately send information to the prefab team. Markups were made on physical drawings and presented problems: there were multiple copies, notes were hard to read and accuracy was not optimal. CAD detailers were used to create drawings for markups, resulting in a costly and time-consuming back and forth verification process that also mismanaged CAD time and use.

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.

In 2019, The Walsh Group, a general contractor, began a $76 million expansion of the northbound I-75 highway near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. The project aimed to alleviate congestion in one of the area's most traffic-heavy corridors. The expansion included the construction of a tunnel bridge, cast-in-place, cut and MSE walls, utility relocations, and asphalt and concrete paving. The project's complexity required firm coordination between managers and engineers in the office and project managers, engineers, superintendents, and subcontractors on the jobsite. Traditionally, a steady flow of paper plan documents would migrate between office and field workers, with field workers navigating the site in trucks filled with paper. However, The Walsh Group sought to streamline this process and mitigate risk through digital solutions.

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.