Mainland Surveying’s Competitive Advantage

www.mainlandsurveying.co.nz

Mainland Surveying is small dynamic business, based in Christchurch.  The team (currently a team of six) has a wealth of experience working throughout the south island on major projects.  In 2013 Scott Williams, Managing Director of Mainland Surveying implemented 12d Synergy and they have been using the software ever since.

“We use technology to maintain a strategic advantage against our competitors, many of which are much larger companies.” – Scott Williams, Managing Director, Mainland Surveying.

Mainland Surveying implemented 12d Synergy right at the very beginning of their organisation.  Scott knew that their business required a document management system but wasn’t quite aware of the functions they required from such a system.  Scott quickly realised they needed a system that could centralise their data and files, and handle the complexities that come with geospatial software.

Scott was impressed that 12d Synergy was able to handle the heavy-duty software they use, including 12d Model, a multi-file piece of software which they produce a lot of data related to topographical maps, plans, subdivisions and buildings, and infrastructure development.

Working from the Field

12d Synergy data management and collaboration software serves as a central repository for all project files created through geospatial design and modelling packages.  12d Synergy has been designed to be used by all staff, regardless of their position in the organisation.  The software enhances productivity for everyone from the technical teams, such as Surveyors and Engineers, as well as administration and support.  The regional and global worksharing and collaboration functions mean that the benefits of 12d Synergy can be experienced from the office, remote site offices, out in the field, working from home or whilst travelling.

12d Synergy has instilled mobility into Mainland Surveying.  Before the implementation, Mainland’s surveyors were forced to download files onto a portable hard drive and take that with them into the field.  Before leaving the office Surveyors would have to consider what they needed, then moves those files back and forth between computers and devices.  Naturally, this created an increased risk of human error, using outdated files, misplacing files or overwriting more recent files.  There was also the administration time factor, 12d Model files are quite large so manually shifting those around has a negative impact on productivity.  12d Synergy’s remote access tool means that anything available to the user via the synergy server in the office, is at their fingertips in the field.

Email Management

Scott also had experience with an email recording software and considered it a critical piece of his business systems, the 12d Synergy email management tool made the overall package an even more interesting package.  The team found the email recording function to be the most beneficial feature, from a day-to-day perspective.  Each day in excess of 50 project related emails would come into the business, 12d Synergy allows those emails to be filed quickly within project folders so they aren’t lost.  They are accessible to all staff members working on the job.  Once the initial filing is completed, all subsequent emails sent and received are automatically managed and filed by the software.

Innovating Processes

In the future Mainland Surveying will look to adopt and take advantage of a number of other functions provided by 12d Synergy.  They are eager to begin using the Dropbox-like function that allows clients access to pick up selected large data files, rather than have clients wait for these files to be sent to them.  They are also starting to implement pre-populated templates, task management and issue sets which will further improve efficiency in the organisation.

“What we’ve learned in our time using 12d Model is that 12d Solutions is constantly looking to maximise the value we receive from the solution, and similarly, they’ve closely guided us in our implementation of 12d Synergy to ensure we fully capitalise on all its features.” – Scott Williams