How Open Project automated work processes and streamlined communication with all site stakeholders using PlanRadar's platform
Open Project is a mature architecture and engineering firm, a pioneer that has opened doors and is paving the road for future commissions, having construction experience since 1984.
Thanks to an integrated and flexible team of more than 50 highly specialized professionals, Open Project is able to offers a wide range of services.
Architects, engineers, designers, and technicians work everyday to deliver solutions for all facets of architectural design, from concept to construction, improving human experiences thanks to technology, finding solutions compatible with a modern sustainable concept of architecture.
Over the past year, the firm has increased its turnover from 3.4 million to 4.1 million and its order book from 4 million to 6 million, specializing mainly in the fields of hospitality, student housing and workspaces.
The number of stakeholders on the construction site has grown, creating the need to relate to more professionals and provide more and more reports and answers to clients and stakeholders.
Michele Lodi, Senior Engineer & Steering Commitee Member, Open Project
The problem: Construction Supervision has changed, working as was done in the past is no longer enough!
It is not news that the construction industry, starting with building sites, has undergone substantial change over the past few years. Innovation and technology, new skills and players involved, and an increased focus on sustainability are just some of the elements that have influenced this industry the most.
Innovative and ever-evolving companies like Open Project have embraced these challenges by adapting the way they work. A core group of engineers was founded within the firm to deal with Construction Supervision, with the aim of finding solutions capable of streamlining processes and automating them.
Michele Lodi, Senior Engineer & Steering Committee Member at Open Project, tells us that "Today, the Construction Supervision Department is involved with many more actors than in the past. For example, the owner is increasingly present on the construction site and often appoints a project manager's office to follow up directly on his behalf.
Thus, the number of stakeholders who, being our clients, require us to produce documentation and responses that were not necessary a few years ago grows. So the amount of work increases, but there are mainly people other than just the contractor to talk to, interlocutors who require a more complex language and ability to relate than in the past".
"These involved project managers need to have numbers, a constant overview of the work in progress, which involves writing and compiling numerous reports summarizing all activities within the construction site. Reducing paper and better targeting resources to respond to the described context represent challenges to which an adequate solution must be found", adds Matteo Lustriero, an Engineer part of Construction Supervision team at Open Project.
The internal committee of multidisciplinary experts with a focus on Construction Supervision thus senses the need to make use of a technological tool to centralize work and follow up on these changes in life within the construction site.
The solution: Using software to streamline reporting activities, but not only...
The search for a tool that could help Open Project's Construction Supervision in managing the work, therefore, stemmed from the desire to streamline the reporting produced, with different and specific reports for each existing project.
As the Construction Supervision team began scouting for software, they realized that a solution such as PlanRadar, in addition to solving the problem related to documentation, allowed them to manage activities more broadly.
"We saw possibilities to go beyond just managing reports and documents, also managing on-site activities from a technical point of view through the ticketing system", Michele Lodi explains.
"We create a ticket for each site topic whenever the situation requires it, not necessarily because of a problem as is the case for many construction companies. We tend to write within the text fields of the application what gradually happens for each topic, taking advantage of the possibility that the software gives to record a real history.
So, when we need to reconstruct even concluded events, for which the client is asking for an account or which may be problematic in the future, we have the possibility, by printing all the texts entered in that ticket (in that topic), to quickly reconstruct a story without having to waste time through searching and adding up a series of elements that without the use of PlanRadar would be found in emails, messages, notes, etc.", concludes the Open Project Senior Engineer.
PlanRadar was chosen because it gave us the ability to manage both reporting and on-site activities, offering freedom of use and ease of use.
Matteo Lustriero, Engineer & Construction Supervisor, Open Project
The result: Plan Radar has proven useful for an increasing number of activities
"We started using PlanRadar for the final phase of a project we were working on, mainly for large-scale snagging list operations, with the creation of more than 5,000 tickets. Today, its use on the construction site, on the other hand, occurs from the beginning of the project and often for the entire duration of the job. We started out using the platform for just one construction site and now it has grown to 6, with more new ones in the offing". Thus Engineer Matteo Lustriero highlights the excellent results achieved by using PlanRadar.
He continues: "We use it for reporting, snagging lists and meeting verbalization, but as mentioned also to track and tell the whole story of a construction site, taking advantage of the platform's ability to record what you go and write in the various fields".
Not only the use just described, but new routes are opening up for the future.
Michele Lodi, Senior Engineer & Steering Committee Member at Open Project, concludes by telling us about a recent experience using PlanRadar's platform. "We had the opportunity to collaborate on a project with another company that also uses PlanRadar. We are embedded in their project on PlanRadar, where we operate firsthand by opening tickets and managing site activities. This, in addition to allowing us to move emails, minutes, and documents into one platform, allows us to explore the functions related to ticket sharing.
The experience is proving to be extremely positive, showing us how different professionals from collaborating companies can speak the same language, that of PlanRadar, further developing their relationship and creating new synergies".