Pond & Company Answers RFIs and Submittals 30% Faster with Autodesk Build
Pond & Company (Pond) has built a reputation as the go-to international firm for designing, engineering, and building industrial, federal, and infrastructure projects. As a long-time user of PlanGrid within Autodesk Construction Cloud™, Pond chose to migrate to Autodesk Build to take advantage of the robust capabilities of the solution. After adopting Autodesk Build, Pond has seen a 25-30% increase in time savings across its projects due to enhanced permission settings for RFI and submittal workflows.
Migrating from PlanGrid to Autodesk Build to Improve Key Project Management Workflows
As an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction firm, Pond works on large-scale projects across the globe. In 2018, Pond was using PlanGrid for its intuitive features and inclusive pricing structure compared to other solutions on the market.
“The account-based pricing structure was part of our decision factor. With companies like Procore, you pay based on the size of the project and the customizations of the solution,” says Emily Rech, Director of Project Controls at Pond & Company. “With PlanGrid we had the flexibility to use the tool across our projects and develop standards to drive consistency in how our teams were using the tool.”
And it was a natural progression from PlanGrid to Autodesk Build. Pond was part of the beta program for Autodesk Build and helped shape the tool’s development and provide feedback on core features and functionality.
“As Autodesk developed Build, we were able to test the solution’s functionality,” says Rech. “We knew we had made the right decision in partnering with Autodesk when our team was involved in product roadmap discussions and our feedback was included to enhance the solution.”
Thanks to its ease of use, Pond quickly adopted Autodesk Build across several industrial projects. With expansive capabilities like document control, schedule, and meeting minutes, Autodesk Build provides Pond with a single ecosystem from project concept through closeout. As of Dec. 2020, the team uses Autodesk Build on all projects.
“We knew we had made the right decision in partnering with Autodesk when our team was involved in product roadmap discussions and our feedback was included to enhance the solution.”
– Emily Rech, Director of Project Controls
Rollout, Adoption, and Creating Standards for Success
To standardize its teams on Autodesk Build, Pond first created templates that maintained consistency within core processes and controlled how teams documented project information.
“One lesson we learned right away was the importance of building up permission and workflow templates within the template capability,” Rech says. “You can’t just hand somebody a software tool and let them run with it. Whether you have an RFI or a submittal, those standards need to be in place and communicated correctly.”
Subcontractors especially liked the ease of being able to upload an RFI quickly.
“As our teams implement Autodesk Build, I can see the light bulbs coming on with how these tools make their lives easier,” Rech says. “Since we work with companies worldwide, clients also see it as a new level of visibility into their projects, which has been a huge win for us.” And with data consistently captured across projects, Pond’s teams can derive more accurate insights from project to project, ensuring a smoother kickoff and better outcomes on future projects.
“As our teams implement Autodesk Build, I can see the light bulbs coming on with how these tools make their lives easier.”
– Emily Rech, Director of Project Controls
Streamlined Workflows Leads to Massive Time-savings
After transitioning to Autodesk Build, Pond streamlined document control by 70%. Within Autodesk Build, Pond can set presets and permissions to specify who can access RFI and submittal workflows, ensuring the correct information is sent to the right person.
Using a common data environment also reduces the risk of things getting lost or not being answered promptly.
“We had previously seen a 50% time reduction while using PlanGrid, but after transitioning to Autodesk Build, our RFIs are being answered 30% faster than they were even with PlanGrid,” Rech says.
Meeting minutes, progress tracking, schedules, and other vital information are stored in one place. This enhanced information sharing across global teams has increased visibility, accountability, and collaboration.
Recently, Pond’s teams used progress tracking to document ductwork and piping on a mechanical-driven project. The project owner could easily review daily reports, updates, and photos on the project within Autodesk Build, which created a deeper level of trust.
“When workers in the field document daily activity by taking a picture, we can attach it to site progress; this has been a great way to communicate project status to owners,” says Rech.
Autodesk Build is also helping Pond accomplish its long-term vision to connect design to construction, ensuring seamless data transfer between its design, engineering, and construction teams.
“I’ve worked with many different platforms, but we needed a tool that could help us work more efficiently. Autodesk Build has been a win for us regarding project controls and data management to keep our projects on schedule and budget.”
– Emily Rech, Director of Project Controls