TECH TIPS: Civil Data Management

If you work at a civil engineering or surveying firm, you know that completing project deliverables and getting them into your customers’ hands is a top priority. However, you and your team may not have taken time to examine your data management processes. As a result, your data may be managing you, rather than the other way around!
Here are three symptoms that data management shortcuts may be negatively affecting team productivity and product efficiency:
(1)      The team is using a patchwork of technologies, including simple folder and directory structures, email, and FTP sites. When duplicate files are edited simultaneously by several team members, files must be merged to capture all changes. The risk of transmitting outdated files to clients is a real one that can have significant cost implications if not caught.
(2)      Locating files is time consuming. When multiple copies of project files exist on local office file servers, it can take team members a long time to find content. The filenames may not be known or team members may not know who has the latest version of a drawing or where it resides. Worst case, objects have to be recreated because source drawings can’t be found or files have been accidentally overwritten.
(3)      Tasks take longer than necessary when teams are distributed. If files have to be loaded over the network from remote server locations, it can take a long time. It can be a struggle to share files with team members in other offices or with external partners.
To evaluate your needs and determine whether a data management solution is right for your organization, check out this workbook.

http://blogs.rand.com/files/civil_data_management.pdf