Byrne Consultants Achieves Document Version Control & Collaboration

Founded 15 years ago, Byrne Consultants are a medium-sized Australian civil engineering consultancy with forty staff across their Gold Coast and Darwin offices. Their portfolio includes a large range of projects from simple rural road designs through to highly complex urban arterials and upgrades.

12d Synergy provides the multidisciplinary practice with a common data environment where quality assurance, collaboration, and efficiency are engrained into their daily work practices. Problems with duplication, document version control and data transfer times have been addressed and resolved.

Download the full Case Study on Byrne Consultants (PDF)

With the expansion of their team and the opening of a second office, Byrne Consultants required a data management system to efficiently collaborate with engineering data across their offices, whilst maintaining high QA standards. The team previously used cloud file sharing tools such as DropBox and OneDrive to share files between the offices. Manual processes were then used to file and track their data.

This created challenges around document QA, document version control, duplication, and data transfer times. As Kerrie Signorini (Senior Civil Designer, Byrne) explains: “It was a matter of copying down files to our local drive from OneDrive, which may not necessarily be the latest version and then having to copy it back up to the Darwin server. It was very frustrating, and it didn’t provide much confidence in our drawing production.”

Sharpened Focus

By employing 12d Synergy, the team can now shift their focus and attention to issues related to their projects rather than simpler admin tasks. As Phillip Weightman (Principal, Byrne) explains: “12d Synergy has allowed us to streamline our processes and work more efficiently, ensuring all staff always have the latest data on hand wherever they are… we no longer have issues of where is the document, where is the email and what is the latest issue.”

12dS offered a total solution for Byrne’s engineering business where all teams and files, from design to admin could be managed from within the one centralised common data environment. 12d Synergy handles all their emails, documents, CAD drawings, 12d Model projects and TUFLOW models.

“I’ve worked in a number of organisations that are quite large in infrastructure and size and their document management systems only handle parts of a project…12d Synergy offered a total solution for our engineering business as it provided one place and source for all our project information”
– Phillip Weightman (Principal, Byrne Consultants)

Watch: Phillip Weightman & Kerrie Signorini of Byrne Consultants

Joel Gregory, 12d Synergy’s CEO & Co-founder, recently caught up with Phillip Weightman (Principal) & Kerrie Signorini (Senior Civil Designer) of Byrne to learn their experiences of using 12d Synergy.

The implementation of 12d Synergy was a simple process for Byrne. The first step was to review their current job structure and decide how they wanted to structure their data in the system. The next step was to inform everyone of changes to the implementation of a document structure. The rollout itself took a very short amount of time in terms of the software being installed onto their server and then the client software to the individuals who needed remote access. From this point, a date was set for the use of the new system and everyone transitioned across.

“People who had used a previous document management system were up and running within 30 minutes to an hour. We’ve also recently taken on a number of design and engineering graduates and their uptake time is one to two hours based on an initial guidance session from one of the current operators”
– Phillip Weightman (Principal, Byrne Consultants)

The challenges Byrne Consultants faced:

• • Maintaining quality data & document management
  • Enabling efficient collaboration across their multiple offices
  • Delivering a flexible work environment
  • Providing productive CAD workflow management

Document Version Control & Quality Assurance:

With forty staff across two locations, 12d Synergy facilitated a common data environment for Byrne Consultants. This provided a secure system where all data updates, revisions or changes made to their files are completely traceable. And by all data – we mean everything from their CAD files, 12d Model projects and even simple office documentation.

You know exactly who was working on which drawing and when they were doing it. If you or a client wanted to look back on an earlier revision of a design or look at the design before new data came in – it’s easily done.

The enforced folder structure, file naming and drafting standards enabled Byrne to retain standardised QA protocols and smooth workflow in both offices.

Multi-office & Remote Collaboration

As Byrne continues to expand in terms of staff size and office locations, collaborating between team members can become restrictive. With 12d Synergy, processes were streamlined between their Gold Coast and Darwin offices allowing for multi-office collaboration. Imagine 3,400km in distance and collaboration on projects can integrate smoothly into daily operations. Not only that but remote staff, contractors, clients, and other authorities can also connect to this secure system.

All members of the project including stakeholders can actively partake in all aspects of the project, even with large engineering datasets. 12d Synergy uses Intelligent Data Transferring technology where only the files that haves changed, not the full project, is  transferred. Reducing the amount of data that’s transferred by up to 91%. Enabling large engineering datasets, such as 12d Model and TUFLOW to be worked on across multiple offices or from home.

As an example, Byrne have been able to attend client meetings where the data could be pulled up as required to show the client the work, as well as demonstrate what the design looks like at separate points in times.

“12d Synergy has been important to our business, especially from the CAD management side of things as it allows our two offices and any remote staff to work seamlessly as a team on the same projects at the same time”
– Kerrie Signorini (Senior Civil Designer, Byrne Consultants)

Adaptable Work Conditions

By utilising 12d Synergy, staff were also able to work flexibly or remotely whether it be in the field, on the road or from home. In this way Byrne can then attract and retain top engineers and designers who are after remote working conditions. Rather than focusing on the geography for new talent to join the team, recruitment can be based on skill instead.

Also, during peak lockdown, the team at Byrne were able to quickly adapt to new working conditions due to implementing 12d Synergy. This flexibility also enabled Byrne to quickly adapt to the lockdown and restrictions of COVID, with minimal downtime and lost productivity.

“Having two young children, 12d Synergy makes it far easier to work between the office and home. And when you go up to the Darwin office, you can login with no problems, get into the system and start work straight away”
– Kerrie Signorini (Senior Civil Designer, Byrne Consultants)

CAD Workflow Management

A distinctive feature of 12d Synergy is the advantageous CAD Workflow Management. Byrne required a system where all their CAD files were centralised and contained within consistent folder structures. Other essential requirements include elimination of duplicates, document version control, title block & attribute management and complete control of CAD libraries and standards.

The workload for Byrne can be anywhere between four to six projects at one time and for each project the team are generating between 50 to 100 drawings. These are then worked on by several drafters from each office – even though Byrne is a small team you can see that it can get fairly complex quickly! Most of the requirements needed by Byrne were automated through 12d Synergy and has significantly reduced human error. There is now strong consistency between the two offices.

12d Synergy standardise the drafting standards and practices needed for a specific project. Drawings and Xrefs are controlled and tracked confidently as the team know who, what, and when it is being worked on, consequently eliminating duplicates. The Bulk File Attribute Editor is used to control and update attributes and title blocks without even opening the application. To top it all off, this is all housed in a central and consistent folder structure.

“I would totally recommend 12d Synergy for CAD management, the Bulk File Attribute Editor is probably my favourite feature. It enables extremely fast title block changes to all attributed blocks without the need to even open AutoCAD. It makes our life a lot easier and smoother, particularly working across two offices and different teams. It makes the process seamless!”
– Kerrie Signorini (Senior Civil Designer, Byrne Consultants)