Construction Professional

An IT solution that’s

TO SUPPORT the growing need for value for money, responsive communications, and secure data and storage services, an increasing number of construction organisations are embracing cloud-based managed services. In its simplest form, cloud computing

involves storing and accessing data and systems via hosted services over the internet. This reduces both the costs and time associated with having to maintain outdated IT systems and complex IT infrastructure. Rider Levell Bucknall’s (RLB) decision

to move to the cloud in 2010 coincided with the end of lease arrangements for various computer hardware (storage area networks, servers, back-up devices etc) and back-office systems which were using up valuable internal resources. The cost of switching to cloud-based services was less than replacing our existing hardware, even if the cost was annualised over the usual three-year lease period. By only paying a monthly subscription

charge for the cloud services you use, there is no upfront capital investment, or the need to provision additional capacity

put us on cloud nine Mark Evans describes how construction consultancy Rider Levett Bucknall moved to a cloud-based working environment, and what it has brought to the firm.

“just in case”. At RLB, by replacing our in-house capitalised cost model we have been able to reduce our total cost of ownership by 50% by using Redcentric’s managed services for a range of mission critical network and data services. Previously, RLB’s internal back-office

systems, data storage and backup services were hosted on our premises. Being reliant on office-based document storage restricted collaboration due to the constraints of the Windows networking model. We also were also vulnerable as our business data needed to be stored on local office servers and was only backed up to a central repository at night. By upgrading our enterprise resource planning, timesheets and expenses systems so they can be accessed via the cloud we no longer have to implement or maintain local software and hardware on site. With Redcentric’s managed services maintaining and monitoring the servers within a virtual environment, RLB’s entire EMEA IT operation now requires a core IT team of only seven. In addition to enabling us to operate more efficiently, managed cloud services

BIM bytes: Introducing BIM late

Given the increasing evidence that BIM provides overall savings of cost and time and given the pressures for public sector employers to use it, it is not surprising that there is a current trend for BIM to be introduced late into projects. But it’s not a step to be taken lightly. As a general premise, procurement and

contractual negotiations should ensure that the contracting parties have openly exchanged information so that they are entering into relationships with their eyes open. The greatest part of dispute avoidance is in the

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timeliness, openness, and fullness of those initial exchanges. The late introduction of new obligations is

bound to cause some tension. The contractor and professional team may have put forward proposals with the expectation of a particular method of working and may not be comfortable with the risks associated with such a change. The employer also has concerns: is the

project team incentivised to provide value for money proposals in relation to the change and

is this project team the best-suited to provide these services? For public sector bodies, those concerns are

reflected in the legislative restraint from substantially modifying public contracts post- award. The contracting authority will need to consider whether additional tenderers would have been attracted or different offers would have been accepted, had BIM been introduced at tender stage. A further consequence of the late

introduction of BIM is the shift in the design

have provided RLB’s staff worldwide with increased flexibility and agility to improve project collaboration. Staff can work from wherever they need to be and share data and documents with their similarly mobile-enabled colleagues throughout the business. Everyone involved in a project can easily share information and access large documents and files, scanned-in paperwork, images, videos and CAD drawings from any job site, from any device, and respond to queries from clients from any location.

Managed cloud services have provided RLB’s staff worldwide with increased flexibility and agility to improve project collaboration

Enhanced security Inevitably, all businesses have initial security concerns when contemplating a switch to cloud services. To alleviate potential risk at RLB, we visited several data centre and Infrastructure-as-a- Service (IaaS) providers as part of our thorough due diligence exercise to find a managed service partner. Our primary concern was the

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