IMA Architects

Summary

Founded in 1997, IMA Architects is a well-established architectural practice based in Leicester, United Kingdom. With distinguished expertise in Architecture, Urban Design, Master Planning and Town Planning, IMA is reputable for their high-quality service for clients across the UK and Europe, in both the public and private sectors.

Situation

Throughout their project records management process, the team at IMA Architects detected a challenge in accessing current versions of drawings, arisen from inconsistency in the locations at which team members saved their files. In addition, the absence of logical grouping and listing of records means it is difficult for project team members to access the latest revisions of drawings, causing errors in issues and transmittals. The large volumes of drawings generated per project also meant it was laborious for architects at IMA to manually control the uniqueness of drawing numbers in their system and therefore avoid duplication of information. These challenges exposed project teams to disconnected collaboration that disrupts productivity, in additional to potential information errors that impact overall project quality.

For a few years, IMA Architects looked for a solution that allowed project teams to manage all documents and drawings in one place. The desirable solution is one that can provide an intelligent platform where IMA staff can conveniently access standardized project records and their latest revisions, as well as information about when and who the records have been issued to.

Solution

With Atvero, IMA’s architects can now store and surface all project records in one consolidated SharePoint-based hub. Project teams are no longer encumbered with complicated folder structures to access project data; instead, they can instantly retrieve accurate and up-to-date information whenever required with Atvero’s metadata-driven search, since all file names are rich with metadata that follow the company’s naming conventions.

Atvero’s automated revisioning allows project team members to easily access the full revision history of documents and drawings, thus seamlessly locating the latest revision for issuing. Thanks to Atvero’s cloud-based nature, IMA’s staff can flexibly issue drawings anytime and anywhere, across their phone, tablet, or laptop, as long as they have access to SharePoint or Teams.

Atvero upholds quality assurance for projects as it automatically examines the validity of file numbers to guarantee that they are always unique in the system. In Atvero, after transmitting revisions, all issued information is automatically updated in project issue register.

Thanks to Atvero’s document management capabilities, architects at IMA now ensure project information is always accurate and consistent. Project team members can work on the most up to date revision of drawings and documents, ensuring non-disrupted collaboration. During issues of revisions, it is also guaranteed that the latest revision is selected by default, thus avoids errors that can expose projects to potential risks. With Atvero, IMA Architects can now manage all project records with flexibility and continuity, helping the firm enhance project quality and streamline processes for improved productivity.

“During issues of revisions, we know what sits there in Atvero is always the latest version, and we can easily issue that revision out from wherever we are, using our phone, tablet or laptop, as long as we can get access to SharePoint.”

- Ben Hall, Associate Director

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All content in this case study has been approved by the client. The views and opinions expressed are the client's alone.