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PlanChest Review - Architect's Journal - 05/12/2002
Article - RIBA Journal - April 2003
Remind you of anything? - Data management without the heartache - by Stephen Pacey
This is an abridged version of an original article which appeared on page 89 of the April 2003 issue of the RIBA Journal.
The call comes just after 5pm on Friday. 'Great opportunity for you to design a performance space for an internationally renowned orchestra. Must be low energy, acoustically perfect and a flagship for sustainable development. You're one of two architects in the frame, but you've got to get details of your experience and a statement on your approach to the project emailed to the client in Leipzig in the next hour.'
The problem is, your expert on sustainable performance spaces is mountaineering in the Hindu Kush for three months, and all the practice's expertise is with her: in her head. So what do you do?
However unreal this scenario might appear, something similar is played out in architects' offices across the country every day. Even the most basic knowledge, such as project details, is often known only to those directly involved in the job. The practices that have a single database of contacts for the whole office, cross-referenced with projects, are lamentably rare.
Try this. Time how long it takes you to find out who was the structural engineer on a randomly selected project that was completed three years ago, without asking the project architect. If it takes longer than 20 seconds, your practice needs a better system to store its core information, and, more important, its embodied knowledge.
Professor Paul Quintas of the Open University Business School argues that there are three levels of knowledge required for design and innovation: product, context and process. Broadly speaking, this knowledge exists on two levels: explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge is information that has been codified, perhaps in a report, or catalogued in some sort of library. Tacit knowledge is often unrecognised. On a building project, this might be knowledge contained within correspondence, drawings, meeting notes, emails and specifications. Or it might be a result of face-to-face meetings, actions and decisions, or behaviour. Good knowledge management takes the tacit and makes it explicit.
As architects we have generally been fairly good at dealing with codifiable product knowledge. We have readily available structures for our product libraries, even if the arguments rage about the merits of CiSFB or Uniclass. But that is about as far as it goes. Basic project and contact information is often kept in Word documents on a file server. This is a start but, too often, important standard job data is kept either on an individual's computer or in their head. When it comes to less explicit context and process knowledge – hard-won experience of leaking single-ply roofing membrane joints or the implications of determining the contract of a non-performing subcontractor – this understanding is at best unknown to colleagues or at worst lost to the practice when the person in the know gets a better offer.
Although the development of a culture where people automatically share knowledge is a management, not an IT issue, computers ought to enable the collection and dissemination of such information. A number of new web browser-based systems claim to offer the framework that architects and engineers need in order to organise and exploit their collective expertise.
The first step is to begin to think globally. 'Most firms tend to think project-by-project, whereas they really need to be thinking corporately,' says Will Yandell of Union Square, a Nottingham-based knowledge systems developer. Union Square is one of a number of software houses developing web-based intranet solutions for businesses involved at all stages of the construction supply chain. The primary function of such an intranet is to be the one place where all information about projects, people and expertise is held. At its heart is a vast database.
Although databases are not uncommon in many architects' offices, the vision to take them beyond a basic contacts list is rare. There are good examples of off-the-shelf shared databases based on Microsoft Access, such as Archetype (www.archsoft.co.uk) and PlanChest (www.planchest.net). Some practices have developed in-house databases using FilemakerPro, or by hiring consultants such as my own company www.i2it.biz to develop solutions. These allow practices to have a single portal into all of their firms' activities. They can work well, particularly for companies based in a single office where the database is shared over a local area network. But where web-browser-based systems begin to rate highly is in the areas of scalability and distribution. If a firm expands rapidly, there is generally no need to buy additional software licences and if it contracts rapidly, licences are not sitting on a shelf unused. Where they really score is in the ability to access the systems over the internet, linking multiple offices together with site and home workers. Staff in Bristol can share their expertise with colleagues in Glasgow as if they were in the next office. Type up your meeting's minutes in the site office and they are instantly on the system.
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Even if you don't have staff taking three-month sabbaticals, you should think through how your firm codifies and stores its expertise. Start by appointing a 'knowledge champion'. Ideally, this should be someone who is involved in revenue generation, who can think strategically for the business. Next, concentrate on the tangible, 'explicit', project and contact information that you already store. Only then should you turn to the more nebulous, 'tacit' knowledge. Aim to have one place where people go to find information, with one point of entry into the system. You need a vision, but break it down into achievable chunks. Above all, don't undervalue the time you spend looking for something your computer could find far quicker.
Article - Building Design - 21/02/2003
"United database pioneered" - Business/IT feature
Sheppard Robson formulates data ‘hub’ which allows staff time-saving device of cross-referencing thousands of firm's files
Wouldn’t it be good if architectural IT packages were net-worked in such a way that every aspect of a practice’s activities were freely available from the same database? Drawings, technical details, human resource and financial data, intranets and extranets, e-mail – all from what looks like the same program?
Sheppard Robson has been working on this kind of thing for the last couple of years and is now putting the finishing touches to what it calls a “data repository” or “hub”. By the end of this month the practice’s vital data will be securely stored on a pair of powerful Microsoft SQL client server databases, which will allow staff to cross-reference the meta-data of hundreds of thousands of files in an almost unimaginable number of ways. Projects, images, details of staff and sub-contractors, and myriad other resources will be available to allow architects to, for example, put together bids and tenders with relative ease.
The hub will also include 250 of Sheppard Robson’s details and building policies so that anything from a raised floor and a lift core to a fire strategy can be summoned up without reinventing the wheel. This has the advantage of both saving time and anchoring individual centres of excellence firmly into the corporate memory.
“Accurate and up-to-date data is a hugely valuable resource,” says Sheppard Robson’s technical co-ordinator Stephen Solt. “The goal is to ensure the practice’s data is available for use everywhere it is required and that it is maintained irrespective of third party systems.”
At the moment the database is powered by MS Access, but Solt has invested in the much faster and reliable SQL system to ensure that half a million records (including 3,000 projects, 10,000 contacts and nearly 170,000 drawings and revisions) are securely protected. The Access system, says Solt, would be “strained to the limits” by the simultaneous use of a 100mb file: “The risk of that going pear-shaped would be extraordinarily high”, he says.
In fact, Sheppard Robson has invested in a pair of SQL servers – one housed in Sheppard Robson’s north London office, the other in the practice's office in Manchester. They had one anyway, but the IT team convinced directors that investing £10,000 in a second would help them all sleep better at night. All data is replicated on both servers and has the advantage of preserving the practice’s work in the event of a catastrophe (the Camden office suffered from a small electrical fire last year). “At the weekend I went home with two PCs; I dialed one into Parkway (Camden) and the other into Manchester; I then made a change on the Parkway server and the change appeared automatically on Manchester’s,” says Solt, beaming with pride.
BD has seen the system – it is impressive and, in spite of the data available, looks pretty straightforward. Most impressive of all is that the user is largely unaware of the different software packages that have been bolted on to the hub in order to make any sense of the data inside – Exchange 2000, the intranet, the soon-to-be-installed Snowdrop HR system, Union Square financial reporting packages, Word and a hugely upgraded and customized version of data management program PlanChest all feed into and off the hub. Importantly, these programs remain all but invisible, and the user can, for example, summon up project images, slot them into a document template and e-mail them to sub-contractors without self-consciously moving from one program to another. “What’s good about it is you’re not aware of it,” says Solt.
Unfortunately, the one program that sits outside the hub is Microstation. Sheppard Robson is soon to upgrade to Microstation V8, and Solt’s next challenge is to link it to the data hub over the next year. PlanChest which was partly developed by Sheppard Robson and was first put to good use in the management of the design of the Pfizer HQ in Surrey, is likely to play an important role in establishing this interface.
The PlanChest system will also play a vital role in providing an interface between Sheppard Robson’s database and third party hosts such as Asite, Build Online and BIW. Solt has mixed feelings about the performance of project hosts and complains that different procedures (such as differing file-naming conventions and multiple cad formats) place considerable burdens on staff and cost control. Borrowing a phrase from management consultants the Gartner Group, Solt describes Sheppard Robson’s experience with extranets as “moving through the peak of inflated expectations, the trough of disillusionment, the slope of enlightment to finally arrive at a modest plateau of productivity”. His hope is that the new version of PlanChest together with his own additions will begin to smooth out these frustrations and inefficiencies by reconciling internal and external systems.
“In my ideal world, all the differences between these systems will be known to the SQL server. It's not far fetched,” he says.
As with anything of this kind, however, the system is only as good as the data within it. This is another source of investment – Sheppard Robson employs a centralised team of meticulous document management staff who constantly input and update information on the database, while all bigger projects are assisted by a specialist job clerk.
PlanChest Review - Architect's Journal - 05/12/2002
"PlanChest – It is all in the name" - an Architech feature by Joe Croser
We are constantly being reminded that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, a theory that is seldom adhered to by publishers. The Architects Journal for example rarely features anything other than a building on its cover; covers to thrillers conjure up suspense, biographies display a photo of the subject and horror novels seem to be dripping with blood.
I think it is therefore fairly safe to judge most books contents by their cover; but does the same ring true with computer software? Once applications are installed on your computer the only ‘cover’ we have to go on is the name. Take a look at your computer and you may be greeted with a sprinkling of application names featuring emotive words such as Turbo, Power, Auto and MicroSoft. But how much does the name inform the user about the tool or company? AutoCAD requires far more user intervention than its ‘Automatic’ inference and no matter how hard I try I cannot find anything small or fluffy about Micro-Soft!
It is therefore refreshing to come across a product, which in a ‘Ronseal quick drying varnish’ sort of way does what it says on the tin. PlanChest has been around for about four years and was first devised to manage architectural documents such as drawings, issue sheets and drawing registers.
While PlanChest (the software) shares it’s name with a big set of drawers for storing drawings the similarities don’t end with the name although the software is considerably more intelligent than the old bits of furniture which cannot think or act for them selves. So that when a drawing is placed in a traditional plan chest there can be no further benefits wrought from its location.
All drawers know nothing about their own contents; neither do they know anything about the contents of other drawers. Whereas, in comparison, a database knows everything about all of the information stored within and in an elementary way it will format an answer to your query according to your needs.
Having started out as a simple solution to the complex approach adopted by many database systems to managing project information PlanChest does indeed have a simple look to the front end. The initial start-up page looks more like a flow chart created to track a design and construction program of works; it is not the most pretty or sophisticated but again it is easy to use.
Essentially divided into five different groups or areas PlanChest offers the following tasks: Marketing, Office Management, Document Management, Project Management & Schedules. Once you have identified the group, which is most pertinent to you there are a series of buttons with more specific functions. For example the Document management area has direct links to Drawings and associated history, issues & registers. Furthermore, this area is also sub divided to allow for package drawings. To access a drawing simply enter the information you know about the Project, and a list of drawing numbers including all revisions will be displayed on screen. A time-saving process in its own right, but when combined with the ability to immediately interrogate the issue registers to see who the drawing was sent to and when it was sent further impressed me.
The Office Management section provides an interface to Projects lists and co-consultants including all relevant contacts. This area provides a useful resource area for tracking and managing the project participants, relevant skills and consultants who participated on the project.
The Project Management section covers all related actions and RFI’s with different groups for incoming and outgoing actions.
While the current implementation is built around Microsoft Access there is a new version in development, which uses an SQL Server database for greater integration with other database information and applications. System requirements for PlanChest are fairly light requiring Microsoft Windows and Microsoft access for windows. A minimum of 64MB RAM is required together with nominal hard disk space.
PlanChest is licensed ‘per site’ so that you don’t have to pay a premium for each user requiring access to the data. At just £3,500 the purchase price is comparable to a copy of most mainstream CAD applications and a further £1,000 per year is payable for ongoing updates etc.
If you judge the functionality of PlanChest by its name and buy it then you will not be disappointed. For managing drawings, issues and schedules it is a great bit of kit, but it does more. Adding the forms for Marketing and Office management to the already useful Drawing and Project management forms this tool really delivers excellent value for money.
As a scaleable database solution built around the omnipotent Microsoft Access, PlanChest has, grown into a comprehensive architectural management solution making it more like a whole team of filing clerks than an old lump of furniture. PlanChest is one solution that does far more than it says on the tin.
Pros: It does what the name suggests, and then some!
Cons: You may need to find another use for old lumps of furniture with lots of drawers.
Ratings:
Interface 3/5
Ease of use 4/5
Functionality 4/5
Compatibility 4/5
Web Integration 4/5
Performance 4/5
Cost 5/5
Ends