From on-premises solutions to the cloud: How SharePoint and Teams support remote working architects

When COVID-19 first broke out, similar to most industries, architectural firms had to shift their entire workforce away from the office for almost two years. IT managers therefore had to establish remote working systems as an emergency response to the pandemic. However, two years later, those emergency systems have set the foundation for a new way of working. In this article, Simon Dodd – IT Manager of Gaunt Francis Architects and Marcus Roberts – Technology Director of Atvero, discussed the latest trends in the IT world among architectural firms in a post-pandemic landscape where hybrid working has become “the new normal.”

Hybrid working has become “the new normal” among architects

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fact that hybrid working has become “the new normal” among architectural firms. Before the pandemic, architects of GFA used to commute on hours long train journeys to meet with clients and contractors. However, when travelling was made impossible due to lockdown, Microsoft Teams had proven that the communication between GFA’s staff members and clients was as effective online as in person. Project teams were able to organize meetings more quickly, frequently and flexibly. Because they no longer have to commute daily, architects could have more freedom to work in flexible hours, reduce travel time and cost, as well as achieve a better balance between work and life. “Before, we used to find it difficult to enjoy life, and a big part of that comes down to commuting. Travelling for hours to the office and back kills our mood and energy level. It is quite common to feel drained on weekdays and collapse on weekends.” – said Simon Dodd.

Now, in a post-pandemic workforce where offices are fully open, GFA is still using Teams to communicate internally and externally on a regular basis. The firm was even able to have new recruitments internationally during the pandemic, with new overseas staff being onboarded and working on projects effectively without meeting any other team members in person, yet still feeling included.

“Suddenly, those who have been claiming that working from home will never be effective are all proven wrong. 2 years after the first lockdown, GFA is still using the “emergency” remote working system that we implemented when COVID first started. We are now pushing to establish a properly structured hybrid working system from the fundamentals that have been built since the pandemic.” – Simon explained.

One of the positive aspects of an office environment is social interaction. Work remotely means that it is impossible for team members to turn to their colleagues for quick chats and discussions, which can stimulate creative ideas, increase work motivation, and improve engagement between employees. While this is important to form a healthy workplace, architects of GFA across a wide range of age and experience have claimed that they think it is not necessary to come in the office for 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. Simon stated: “We prefer to come into the office for a few days per week. Sometimes, it is better to work in a “positive isolation” environment where you can fully focus on tasks that require deep concentration. A hybrid working environment provides people the opportunity to manage themselves, and it also comes with the trust that is placed into people to work from home effectively.”

According to Simon, from an IT perspective, the pandemic has made it feasible for technologies that support remote working to develop rapidly. From the rise of video conferencing applications to the popularity large-files transfers, the IT trends within the AEC sector have resulted in the disappearance of physical IT infrastructures, such as desktop computers or hosted server systems. In fact, cloud-based solutions are also much more cost effective to operate compared to on-premises solutions. “The cost of moving to a cloud based virtual machine environment is much lower than replacing a physical asset keep it operating for another few years.” – he said.

Will servers and physical infrastructures be completely replaced by cloud-based solutions?

In a world of hybrid working where everybody works from different locations, times, and shifts, one of the most popular questions raised in the AEC sector is whether it is possible to eliminate servers and make a complete switch to the cloud, given the fact that physical infrastructures might no longer be the center of everything.

According to Marcus Roberts, the answer to this question is a yes, thanks to SharePoint and OneDrive. Because they support collaborative editing in place, SharePoint and OneDrive are the natural homes of any Microsoft-based documents. Therefore, users can easily store, access and work on Microsoft documents together on the cloud. He also added: “There’s also good support for AutoCAD now, and Atvero has customers who run all of their AutoCAD projects off SharePoint. With good protocols, InDesign documents can also be worked on in SharePoint and OneDrive.”

Simon Dodd explains that with Azure Active Directory approaches, the infrastructure of data storage and access management along with its administrative processes will naturally become cloud based. This has made hybrid working become a much better prospect.

However, whether servers can be completely removed depends on the workload of each architect. For example, many people think Revit can operate effectively over VPN until model corruption becomes an issue. With Revit being extremely sensitive to latency and requires good file locking, the only solutions for this issue at the moment are file servers, or BIM360. This means workstations need to be positioned next to the server, and remote workers will need to have their virtual desktops co-located with the server.

The value of SharePoint for architectural firms

Before the pandemic, GFA already had a Microsoft 365 subscription that always remained running in the background and was not used on a regular basis by the majority of staff. However, when remote working came into effect, SharePoint instantly became one of the most frequently used tools to store, share and organize project information entirely on the cloud. Two major benefits of SharePoint for architects, according to Simon Dodd, are the avoidance of information silos and data security guaranteed by Microsoft’s data protection policies. Providing a globally synchronized document library, SharePoint marks an end to the siloed approach to file storage. Project data is no longer stored in bulky files with separate retrieval systems, and instead can easily be accessed and recovered anytime and anywhere on the cloud. Marcus Roberts explained: “With every user getting 1TB of storage space on One Drive, users’ files will no longer in danger of being saved to local desktops and becoming permanently lost if any unexpected negative incidents happen to the hard drives or device storing those files.” Along with that, when project data is hosted in a SharePoint tenancy, data security is guaranteed by Microsoft’s data retention policies. “We don’t have to worry about how long we have to keep backups for, or whether it is secure enough to store data on the cloud in a Microsoft system. Microsoft’s data retention policies are the lifeline behind every project, helping us achieve immediate compliance in GDPR requirements and cyber security essentials. Having Microsoft’s multiple factor authentication and Microsoft Defender looking after our data means we no longer have to constantly worry about data security, saving us great amounts of time in IT management.” – said Simon Dodd.

When remote working and SharePoint were first implemented, some of GFA’s staff were resistant to this new way of working and were not convinced that they could execute the same workflows without physical infrastructures. Microsoft 365 is an integral part of business applications for most organizations, but they lack the industry requirements for architectural firms to manage project information. A month before lockdown came into effect, GFA implemented Atvero as their primary information and document management solution, becoming one of the product’s earliest adopters and contributed to shaping the product to meet their company’s needs. Built on the Microsoft 365 foundation, Atvero adds the necessary workflows, processes, and standardizations necessary for GFA to deliver quality assured projects. Providing a fully customizable platform that is highly intuitive and familiar to navigate for Microsoft Office users, Atvero offers an efficient solution to manage the full life cycles of documents and drawings from creation to issue and transmittal, by making the most out of their Microsoft 365 subscription which has not been optimized to its full extent before the pandemic.

“Atvero was helpful because it makes SharePoint more user-friendly, especially to people who were previously not comfortable with using Microsoft products on a regular basis. Atvero helps us use SharePoint without any fear of doing anything wrong since all the required standardizations and processes have been included. This makes remote working much more feasible for us.” – Simon stated.

Benefits of Teams

Two years after the pandemic, offices have reopened but webcams and headsets still remain as essentials. As hybrid working has become “the new normal” among architects, Microsoft Teams is now no longer just a video conferencing application, but rather an indispensable communication tools that creates an open, collaborative workspace to enhance productivity in the workplace.

“We use Teams for internal communications to avoid cluttered inboxes. With Teams, small queries can be quickly discussed via internal chats, which helps reducing email traffic and therefore prevents the neglection of crucial information. We also use Teams for video conferencing both internally and externally on a far more regular basis.” – Simon Dodd explained how GFA has been implementing Teams into their hybrid working scheme.

Marcus Roberts also added: “Teams also made it easier to organize 1 on 1 calls. Before remote working became the normal, office workers usually had to find a quiet place to have private discussions. Now it is much simpler with Teams.”

More than just communication, Teams made it possible for GFA to onboard new systems and familiarize staff members with new workflows entirely through the screens. In fact, the implementation of Atvero within GFA was affected by the pandemic, and thus was done entirely virtual using Teams. “From onboarding and giving demonstrations to training staff how to use Atvero and SharePoint, we managed to do everything remotely through Teams and documentations.” – Simon stated.

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