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ESQ enhances project delivery with specialised data management

Civil engineering and project management consultancy, Engineering Solutions Queensland Pty Ltd (ESQ), has increased productivity by enabling team collaboration and providing a central datarepository for project-related emails and design files using 12d Synergy.

Established in 2013, ESQ formerly relied on manual processes to manage road design, earth works, drainage and infrastructure modelling projects. As its business expanded, the firm recognised the need for sharing and managing project related tasks, documents, email and data to avoid project bottlenecks.

“The team used their local computer to schedule and record their daily tasks and this information was not shared,” said Mal Peaker, Design Office Manager, ESQ. “Because our Director manages most of the client liaison, a lot of important project data would sit in his inbox. That created an inefficient work system because no one would be notified of potential client project changes unless they were copied on emails.”

With each project comprising numerous design, correspondence and data files—anything from drawings to task notes and communications— tracking the progress of jobs could no longer be accurately managed without direct and timely access to up-to-date information.

“For example, when a client called chasing information on a project, we wouldn’t always know the details behind the request because we wouldn’t have the files needed to review or an effective way of retrieving the background information,” said Peaker. “Since we are such a young company, we were looking to get a data management system so we could keep up with new demands and peak workloads by collaborating throughout the lifecycle of every project.”

Since migrating its projects and data library into 12d Synergy, ESQ has enabled a collaborative and file-sharing environment to provide the firm’s team of seven with the most up-to-date information.

Using 12d Synergy’s Outlook plug-in, ESQ has automated the filing of emails; emails are now attached directly to a job folder which all staff can view and action. ESQ has also introduced a formal documentation process with templates for fee and project proposals, as well as project assessments. Document naming conventions are enforced by the system.

These capabilities are being supported by 12d Synergy’s over-arching revision and version control, which simplifies the process of backup and audits when changes need to be made to a job. This means ESQ can quickly roll back to previous versions of designs created with a geospatial package, such as 12d Model.