Engineering Inc. - May/June 2004 - 20

 Everything is indexed on our intranet. We don't have to broadcast e-mails
to each other looking for an old file or similar project information. It's
all easily retrievable from forms. Built atop tions. The com- access on
their own. Moreover, write the first line of code, says within the
document Microsoft Corp.'s p a n y also will Microsoft's SQL Server
database Pinckney. We go to every office management system. W i n d o w s
2000 e x p l o r e some will continue to allow users to and speak to our
employees in operating system WALTER JOHNSON, computer-aided s e a r c h
documents by project g r o u p settings. We ask them a n d SQL Server
WILSONMILLER d e s i g n CAD name, project number, author what
applications they're using, d a t a b a s e , the enhancements, name, date
created or any text how they feel about the software intranet has more p a
r t i c u l a r l y in contained in the electronic file. and so forth.
than 450 internal t h e area of 3-D Ever ything is indexed on our The
Psomas technology team users. It manages visualization and intranet, says
Walter Johnson, also sends e-mail to target users online timesheets, t h e
integration director of IT at WilsonMiller. a n d gathers their project p r
o j e c t manage- o f geographical We don't have to broadcast e- requests.
We assume nothing m e n t applica- information sys- mails to each other
looking for and we stay as close to the shop t i o n s , and even tems GIS
with a n old file or similar project floor as possible to listen for user
an invoicing sys- CAD. And we'll i n f o r m a t i o n . It's all easily
concerns and requests, Pinck- t e m that allows explore opportu-
retrievable from within the doc- n e y says. Sometimes this b i l l s to
be scan- n i t i e s to offer ument management system. approach irritates
those who just n e d , routed, ap- Internet-based The situation is similar
at want the job done, but without p r o v e d and indexed online. GIS
assistance to our clients, Psomas and TranSystems, which f i r s t
checking with users, you W h i l e many companies pay s a y s company
president Mike both are evaluating Microsoft's might have to rework the
code $ 2 5 0 , 0 0 0 or more for such a McMeekin. Sharepoint software to
manage, again and again to meet every- system, Pinckney estimates that For
many engineering firms, index and search administrative one's basic needs.
Psomas' system cost a fraction of digital document management d o c u m e
n t s and other files. This customer-centric style has t h a t price
because it was remains a top IT priority. After This project will help
reduce h e l p e d Psomas launch an designed entirely in-house using all,
a typical engineering firm e r r o r s , speed our internal e x t r a n e
t that was developed o f f - t h e - s h e l f software such as m u s t
somehow create, edit, p r o c e s s e s , reduce paper han- entirely
in-house. The extranet, Macromedia Inc.'s ColdFusion share, store,
retrieve and archive d l i n g costs and [cut] FedEx designed on
ColdFusion's devel- Web development tool. thousands of documents and e-
charges, predicts Thomas Ran- opment tools, hosts 8,000 docu- mails during
the life of a project. dall, vice president of informa- ments and receives
nearly 35,000 Follow the Leaders WilsonMiller, for one, has had tion
systems at TranSystems in p a g e hits per month. It cer- Ps o m a s isn't
alone. Roughly document management applica- Kansas City, Mo. tainly
strengthens our relation- t h r e e years after the Internet tions in
place since 1996. Today, ship with clients, Pinckney says. Who's Your
Customer? b o o m went bust, many engi- the system manages more than
Extranets are secure Web sites neering firms are leveraging the 3 0 0 , 0
0 0 documents for 420 Of course, technology projects that only approved
customers or latest technologies to improve employees across seven Florida
a l s o need employee and cus- strategic partners can access typi- internal
and external communi- offices. And over the next few t o m e r support to
succeed, cally through an assigned user- cations. Along the way, they're m
o n t h s , WilsonMiller will which is one of the reasons Pso- name and
password . Customers avoiding the dot-com errors of migrate the system
from a client- mas conducts user surveys, face- can preview designs, check
the the past and building applica- s e r v e r configuration which t o - f
a c e interviews and other status of projects, reconcile billing tions
that provide a quantifiable requires specialized software on r e s e a r c
h before embarking q u e s t i o n s and interact more return on
investment. each PC to an Internet-based on new technology initia- closely
with engineers through Many of the projects require a c o n f i g u r a t i
o n which requires tives. When it's time to design a an extranet. Very
often extranets fresh perspective from new tech- only a Web browser on
each PC n e w application, s a v e time and nology managers. For instance,
f r o m Hummingbird Ltd., a Ps o m a s technol- money i.e., Lamp, Rynearson
& Associates Toronto-based software firm. o g y managers c o u r i e r fees
by This project will help s p e e d i n g com- Inc. of Omaha, Neb.,
recently The switch to a browser-based v i s i t the com- reduce errors,
speed restructured its staff and hired a system should cut administra- p a
n y's 10 offices munications our internal processes, b e t w e e n engi-
new IT manager. Over the next tion costs, because the new con- across the
western reduce paper handling n e e r s and their 18 months, the firm
expects to figuration eliminates the need Un i t e d States to costs and
[cut] FedEx implement an integrated soft- f o r WilsonMiller's IT staff to
gather user ideas clients. charges. ware suite that combines finan- v i s i
t and upgrade individual and direction. In many cases, THOMAS RANDALL, c i
a l management, project PCs. Instead, the IT staff can We strive to e x t
r a n e t s and TRANSYSTEMS a c c o u n t i n g , payroll, resource
perform server upgrades that all h a v e employee document man- allocation
and marketing func- of the browser-based PCs can buy-in before we agement
systems 2 0 E N G I N E E R I N G INC. M a y l June 2004
Engineering Inc. - May/June 2004

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