On Collaboration
Last week, Arazoo was one of the exhibitors at the AIA New York State chapter’s design conference in Saratoga Springs. Collaboration was the conference’s theme this year, and many of the general sessions and break out sessions addressed it in one form or another.
Surprisingly, until recently, collaboration never seemed to be a topic of discussion within the design profession. Maybe because it was almost a given that collaboration was inherent in the design process itself, most evident in the tight coordination required with the engineers and other design consultants that comprise the typical design team. While there is still a place for the “hero architect,” most projects will benefit from the team approach with the “conductor architect” taking the lead.
Today, collaboration goes well beyond its traditional internal team focus. Collaboration often now entails stakeholder engagement beyond just the client who foots the bill; community and advocacy groups and the citizens they represent also now commonly find a place at the design table to provide early input and feedback and help establish clear expectations. And while architects have always sought technical assistance from product reps during the design process, more now prefer to work with pre-construction managers and key subcontractors early in the design process in order to ensure tighter coordination. While more players to collaborate with will require more time during the design phase, it should end up saving time during construction as a result of fewer RFIs and change orders. And that early stakeholder/end-user collaboration should result in satisfied clients and occupants.
Today, collaboration goes well beyond its traditional internal team focus, with a wider and more diverse set of stakeholders on both sides of the table.
Cloud-based technology has certainly enabled the enhanced collaboration that we now see in our design profession as well as other industries. Markup tools, online screen-share meetings, dedicated project document websites, and email services can help streamline communication between team members. But these tools still aren’t seamlessly searchable or collaborative; you still need to upload or download documents and very few of these services provide real time updates to the documents, which can cause version control and other kinds of confusion over what is truly the latest document that one should work from.
When it comes to managing your building product and material information, a platform like Arazoo takes online collaboration a step further. Not only is all your firm’s institutional knowledge about products easily accessible and searchable at any time to everyone in the firm, but you can also choose to invite outside collaborators — such as an engineer, lighting designer, or spec writer — to participate in specific projects (without giving them full access to your firm’s valuable IP). Those collaborators can provide real time, in-line comments and spec details for the products you’ve shortlisted, without any separate download/upload needed. And they can easily share their product knowledge directly from their firm library to yours with just a few clicks. For clients or others with whom you want to share a more limited subset of information — like a set of options and alternates for a particular spec — just send them a link from within a workspace in Arazoo and request their comments and feedback; it all gets recorded within Arazoo, and they don’t need to sign up to participate.
This is the future of online collaboration: giving everyone easy, equal access to the whole firm’s cumulative knowledge and expertise, and making it simple to bring in outside experts. Using Arazoo can enable your teams to collaborate more seamlessly and more efficiently than ever.
