Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) companies are facing a decision: How to proceed forward in an economy where efficiency, cost management, and risk management are key? Historically, the AEC industry suffers from inefficiencies and difficulties founded in miscommunication as they deal with siloed departments and offices that use various systems to support daily functions. This produces a number of problems that have a direct impact on bottom lines, including:
- Lack of visibility into current projects, leaving issues and risks unnoticed.
- Lack of control over varying applications that leave workflows and information unconnected, affecting project and company performance.
- Poor performance stemming from both visibility and control issues.
The solution? Focusing on business automation solutions that can reduce revenue leakage, maximize billable time for employees, assist in project efficiencies and success, and promote a higher level of client satisfaction.
Smart Business Automation Solutions for Your Engineering Firm
Fortunately, adopting smart business automation doesn’t have to be incredibly costly or difficult to manage. There are currently three solutions within reach of every engineering enterprise that can help to consolidate information, enhance collaboration, and contribute to overall project success.
- Managed IT
First and foremost, consider partnering with a managed services provider (MSP) to gain control of your IT infrastructure. A company that specializes in Managed IT programs can help you assess your current infrastructure to determine weaknesses and vulnerabilities as they relate to your internal activities as well as data security. Your MSP can help align systems to work together properly, suggest and implement other technologies such as document and print management, and help streamline and optimize workflows for maximum efficiency.
- Document Management
Documents are the mainstay of many engineering firms. In the course of a project, you will produce proposals, plans, notes, changes, invoices, and many other critical documents. Keeping these organized and readily available to key players on your project team is crucial to a project that is completed on time and within budget. A robust document management solution (DMS) can digitize paper documents so they can be stored, shared, altered, and accessed quickly and safely by authorized personnel. DMS enhances team collaboration and communication and cuts down on the amount of time spent searching for critical project information.
- Managed Print
Print efficiencies are important to your bottom line. But a managed print environment controls more than just output and waste. It also assists engineering companies in placing an additional layer of security over sensitive or proprietary project or company data. A managed print approach allows you to remote monitor print usage and provide access controls to manage which personnel have access to printed documents. In addition, print management allows further streamlining of workflows to automate daily print tasks and reduce labor costs. Your MSP will optimize your printer fleet and provide routine maintenance and troubleshooting for increased uptime. In addition, working with an MSP will take the burden of print environment tasks off your in-house IT staff so they can focus on more mission-critical functions.
Trust Blue Technologies with Your Business Automation Needs
Applying new business automation tools can be a daunting process, particularly if you have little — or no — IT support in your organization. But getting access to cutting-edge tools such as print or document management is simple and straightforward when you work with a strong Managed IT partner.
At Blue Technologies, we have a deep understanding of business automation and the many ways in which it can enhance and optimize business processes for our engineering clients. We have a staff of experts on our team that can easily assess your current infrastructure in consideration of needs and challenges — and ensure that infrastructure can grow and change alongside your business in a cost-effective way.
Our team will help you modify your IT environment to be more efficient, productive, secure, and cost-effective using business automation that streamlines workflows and enhances business processes. We’ll implement and maintain these systems over time, even training your staff on how to get the most from each automation tool.
Jump ahead of the competition with fast access to the business automation tools you need. Contact a Blue Technologies consultant and learn how our managed print, document management, and Managed IT solutions can help you optimize your engineering firm.
