A monthly newsletter about document management, digital print technology and printing.

Half of Non-Residential Buildings to be Green by 2015

January 2010

Greening our Built World book

Forecasts seem to be in style at the beginning of each year, and while many are interesting, they’re often forgotten by the time spring rolls around.

In Greening Our Built World,  a new book on sustainable building practices, author Greg Kats has suggested that half of all non-res buildings will be green by 2015.

Such rapid growth would represent a surprising change as green building was not considered anything close to mainstream just five years ago.

Based on a study done by Kats, senior director and director of climate change for New York-based Good Energies, the book – and several stories picked up by the media – claimed a few other surprising facts about building sustainably.

The study found that green building cost only about two percent more to build than conventional buildings, yet reduces energy consumption by an average of 33 percent. The level of energy savings at such a low cost is a potentially huge factor in the way we live and work considering that residential and commercial buildings together account for nearly 50% of American energy consumption.

If you’re looking forward to designing or building in a more sustainable way in the future, consider that more than two years ago, our company embraced a set of sustainable practices to support you in your efforts.

Digitally downloading plans, selective printing and distributions through  PlanWell and BidCaster, recycled paper use, and digital shipping are just some of the ways we can help you “green” your design practice or construction project.

Check in with us to find out more, visit our GreenPlan website, or contact us here to receive more information.

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Real-World Integrated Project Delivery: AIA Releases Case Studies

January 2010

IPD Studies AIA

The holy grail of killer workflows in the building community has shifted considerably over time. Once thought to be CADD, later it was 3D visualizing, which sort of morphed into building information modeling (BIM), and right alongside it, came integrated project delivery.

Even the people who are the greatest advocates of these panaceas sometimes disagree on what’s what, but often that’s because these systems are somewhat speculative. In other words, it’s hard to find someone who has actually used the thing in question.

As if in answer to that conundrum, a new publication from AIA California Council and AIA Integrated Practice Discussion Group takes a look at real-world, completed building projects that used Integrated Project Delivery (IPD).

According to the AIA website, “The projects studied show the successful application of IPD in a variety of building types and scales and in diverse regions of the country.” They also claim that this is the first installment of an ongoing evaluation of the procedure and it will be supplemented in the future.

Curious? We were, too. You can download the publication from the AIA here.

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White Paper: 10 Strategies for Managing Your Firm in Uncertain Economic Conditions

December 2009

White Paper

Over the past 18 months, our sister division, RCMS Group, has conducted strategic planning discussions with many of its clients, partners and analysts with the goal of attaining visibility into both specific markets and business concerns.

Given how closely their BIM services dovetail with productivity, efficiency and workflow in their customers’ businesses, RCMS executives have a unique point of view into architectural firms and how they run their businesses.

Through their ongoing study, they uncovered key commonalities and gleaned insights into how successful architectural firms plan on managing the near future and published their findings in a whitepaper available from their website. (Download the white paper here.)

The key strategies described are all driven by the measurement of costs and flexibility applicable to your own business model. These strategies require little investment of capital, but rather an investment of management’s time and consideration. Firms that are employing these strategies have built businesses that can either take advantage of hyper-growth, or significantly reduce their risks during a stalled economy.

RCMS gathers data from  its clients across a wide spectrum of architectural segments, including large government agencies, commercial developers of all kinds, institutional owners and project managers, as well as a healthy portfolio of industry specific architects in healthcare, education, retail, and residential.

The whitepaper (link) boils their findings down to 10 key strategies to help architectural firms not only weather recent economic storms, but position themselves for growth and opportunity when the market recovers.

The 10 Strategies are as follows:

1.    Focusing on core business competency
2.    Understanding the success-drivers to a firm’s cost and operating model
3.    Aligning vendors with costs and service delivery
4.    Shifting capital intensive IT deployments to “on-demand” services
5.    Understanding prospects by project backlog and building type
6.    Partnering for scale and specialty
7.    Attempting to better-understand unresponsive clients
8.    Benchmarking and tracking core productivity metrics
9.    Crafting compensation plans to drive firm goals
10.    Ranking, stacking and cross-training employees

(Download the white paper here.)

RCMS provides three- dimensional modeling and analysis of construction projects on an outsourced basis to AEC clients throughout the industry. Deeply embedded in the practical evolution of BIM, and relied on for expert opinion, RCMS provides a valuable point of view on managing projects and business practices to reduce risk for design and construction firms, and create more efficient and more competitive organizations.

Looking for more in-depth information on how partnering with technology service providers can improve your business? Contact us to learn more!

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Océ To Be Acquired By Canon

December 2009

CanonOce Logos
Many of our customers make excellent use of both Océ and Canon equipment through our FM services, and for them, there is nothing to address (That’s the great part about our Facilities Management programs!). For those of you who own the machines, or are simply curious how two titans in their fields manage to marry, here’s a quick summary to keep you in the loop about Canon’s intent to acquire Océ.

When the news broke last month, Reuters reported that Canon intends to buy Océ “…in a challenge to rivals Ricoh and Xerox in the hunt for growth.” Analysts were expecting some move toward consolidation from Canon after Ricoh’s acquisition of Icon earlier this year.

Given how clearly focused their key competencies are, it’s not surprising that roles and responsibilities for the two companies will be initially be distinguished by Océ’s expertise in wide-format black & white and color, while Canon execs will focus on the small format business. And just for the record, our Océ account team was upbeat about the arrangement.

On November 19th, Océ management conducted a press teleconference to provide further details of its acquisition by Canon and a few new details came out of this conference, including:

•    Océ will consist of three strategic business units (SBUs):  Commercial Printing Systems, Wide Format Printing Systems (including Canon’s portfolio), and Business Services.
•     Océ, as a wholly owned division of Canon, will maintain its current responsibility for portfolio marketing, sales and services and the management of the SBUs will report to the Océ corporate board.  Océ will lead R&D and manufacturing in The Netherlands, Germany and Canada. Sales and marketing will be organized by country.
•    A steering committee is being established to lead the integration between Canon and Océ for the office, including regional integration teams that include both Canon and Océ representation.
•    The companies still plan to conclude the acquisition in the spring of 2010.

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