Michaelis Boyd

Summary

CMap provides Michaelis Boyd with the project and financial clarity needed to make critical business decisions.

Situation

Michaelis Boyd has earned a reputation for its award-winning architecture and interior design. With experience across the hospitality and residential sectors, the practice’s sophisticated, design-led approach emphasizes environmentally conscious materials and building techniques. Michaelis Boyd’s work spans five continents and ranges from restoring heritage buildings and historical renovations to original new-build properties, luxury hotels and resorts, and private members’ clubs.

The practice was using an old project costing and management system, which was not intuitive, and relied on support staff to update most aspects of projects. Given the scope of the practice’s work, Aimee Rutherford, Finance and Operations Director at Michaelis Boyd, faced a challenge that prevented her from performing her job effectively.

“We struggled primarily with engaging our architects and designers with our project management system, which wasn’t user friendly. They simply weren’t using the system and updating things like timesheets, fee schedules or resourcing,” said Aimee. “It’s essential that we know exactly what resource requirements are two, four, six, or eight months from now. Then, we have to measure that against what invoices have been issued. Without good data from the design team, the system is no good to me from an operational perspective.”

Additionally, the firm's system didn’t have usable resource planning capabilities. “That was a problem,” said Aimee. “We couldn’t use the system for resource management, so we had to rely on a series of spreadsheets.”

Aimee wanted a better system that would meet all of the firm’s needs. Fortunately, she found CMap.

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Solution

CMap helps architects, engineers, and their consultants (AEC) win more work and deliver it more profitably through a software solution specifically designed to their needs. This tailored solution eliminates the need for multiple spreadsheets and systems that do not communicate properly with one another. When AEC firms utilize CMap, they get all their data and capabilities in one centralized, easily accessible solution.

Aimee specifically identified the Story So Far feature as a highlight of CMap’s clean, user-friendly interface.

“The feature tells architects and designers what's going on with their projects from a financial point of view based on the information they've put in the system,” said Aimee. “Essentially, the Story So Far feature helps translate the details of a project into something tangible.”

What Aimee likes most about CMap is that its core functions are project and financial management.

“It does those things extremely well,” said Aimee. “Unlike other platforms, CMap only adds new features that directly support its core functionality. That’s what makes CMap such a strong solution.”

Results

• Time Savings - “Now, it’s super easy for our architects and designers to enter time, expenses, and project information,” said Aimee. “But the most time savings comes from my side of things now that I can create live reports and have critical data at my fingertips without using spreadsheets.”
• Helpful Reporting - “The reports that CMap produces are extremely important to our operations,” said Aimee. “It’s the transparency of financial information that gives us up-to-the-minute details concerning the state of our business.”
• Greater Visibility - “Clarity is essential,” said Aimee. “Understanding where we are with our projects and finances helps us make critical business decisions.”