SARCO Going Cloud computing
Monday, 11 October 2010 03:37
We find that today's world brings many challenges to managing a project, and that there are two main things that we should always strive to improve on, and to ensure that we provide everyday a better service. These are Time Management and Correct Handling of Information.
1.TIME MANAGEMENT
They say that time is of the essence. That cannot be more true than for our clients, who are active in their own lives and activities, and need to have as good a service as possible form their architects and builders in order to have an enjoyable project. We know this very well and value our clients' time and believe that our services are that much better as we are able to make our clients' lives easy during the process of each project.
That rings true especially for our foreign clients, for whom reducing their number of trips to Costa Rica is important not only for time but for expenses related to the project, but also holds true for our local clients who want to keep as much time available for their own activities. Since a big part of our clientele is foreign, who are building projects that are vacation homes or second homes, we strive to make the process of designing and managing the construction process of their projects as easy and trouble-free as possible.
2. CORRECT HANDLING OF INFORMATION
Even though technology is a part of today's world, a problem is that the use of technology from EVERYONE creates a huge problem: VERSIONING. How many times have mistakes been made, time lost, resources spent, etc., only to then find that everything was done by people looking at the wrong file?? Also, today's world is made up of everyone using technology, but not everybody at the same level. Part of our job today, is using technology and using information in such a way that we make things EASY for our clients, who are the ones paying the bills.
SARCO IS GOING CLOUD COMPUTING
As a way of solving this goal, at SARCO we have a belief that in this day and age we should make the most of what today's technology offers us in order to provide each and every day the best service for our clients. Therefore we have over the last year made important and significant use of CLOUD COMPUTING services and put them to the use to make our clients lives that much easier, and at the same time bring our level of service and expertise above the rest.
Currently we are making use of services to share progress photos and documents, drawings, etc. with our clients. They receive instant notifications when a new file or photo is uploaded from us or anybody in the project team. Also we are making use of services that allow us to keep synchronized databases of product choices for their project, as well as any technical documentation relating to them. Another service allows us to keep updated and synchronized files for everyone on the project team where we store the most recent version of the project drawings, drawing updates, etc. This is essential as we are doing projects in different locations in the country, and allows the team members that are away from the main office to have a place where they can always get the most recent and current information.
Internally we currently use a company Intranet as a central information-sharing hub for everything relating to our projects. News are posted with recent conversations or meeting notes with clients, final decisions are documented, final negotiations with subcontractors and the informations leading to them has a place to be, signed contracts with all subs are documented and stored for easy access and retrieval, inspection logs from project managers are kept in a central location that is easy to access and consult. And all of this is searchable with powerful search tools and also accessible from anywhere with a web connection, even smartphones.
All of this has already provided huge benefits for our recent and current projects. We have completely eliminated the problems derived with looking at the wrong files. Always there is a place to look for the most recent and current version of any information. Having documents "in the cloud" allows multiple users to access them (even simultaneously) and work on them, and never will there be two different versions of these files, at all times everyone will know to trust the information that is available to them. Team members know that they have a place to conuslt current project information, even from the field.
Overall, it is only one more way that SARCO strives to be a firm that is in every sense a level above the rest, and always with our clients in mind as priority #1.
