As construction and engineering sectors rapidly digitalise their workflows, many companies have barely scratched the surface when it comes to using their digital tools. Yet maximising their capability can unlock productivity and efficiency gains for companies juggling complex projects. For companies considering digital design tools or looking to maximise their existing investment, ARKANCE offers free 30-minute demos to showcase the platform’s capabilities.
Maintaining workflows and productivity can be a challenge with remote work and projects that require collaboration with many stakeholders in the construction and manufacturing sectors. Maximising the right digital capabilities helps teams achieve strong project outcomes, yet often digital tools are not used to their full potential.
Global service and solutions provider ARKANCE supports the construction and manufacturing sectors to reach their digital potential. The company’s “Partner to Build Smarter” strategy helps customers tailor software solutions through its partnerships with technology firms such as US software group Bluebeam.
Demand for Bluebeam, a digital design, markup and collaboration platform used by more than three million users across 160 countries, has surged in Australia over the past four years. As the first and one of only two Platinum partners in Australia, ARKANCE has positioned itself as a bridge between the software’s capabilities and local industry needs, offering comprehensive support that the US-based company cannot provide directly in the region.
“In Australia, we’ve grown alongside Bluebeam, we’re at a point now where we have a lot more time and resources to spend on increasing people’s capability with Bluebeam,” said Alexander De Campo, technical specialist at ARKANCE.
“We handle the licence management, address all technical problems or questions, and host local Australian events. We’re our customers’ face to a name for the software.”
Bluebeam guidance and training accelerates project outcomes
Effective use of Bluebeam provides engineers seamless document organisation, version control and real-time collaboration that supports precise markups, accurate quantity takeoffs and accessible mobile updates. Without these capabilities, project timelines can blow out, increasing costs and other project risks.
Traditional document handling methods are often time-consuming, error-prone and lack effective collaboration tools, leading to outdated information, lost data and inconsistent feedback. Bluebeam helps manage and coordinate complex sets of documents and drawings across project teams efficiently.
“The software is a complex tool with a simple interface. People can pick up the software quickly, but are often not getting the full value of Bluebeam’s tools,” De Campo said.
Without a knowledgeable partner, companies may struggle with complex onboarding, limited in-house support and a lack of tailored workflows to fit their unique requirements. ARKANCE provides personalised onboarding, expert support, custom workflows, integration solutions, scalable licensing and local expertise.
“The impact can be significant,” De Campo said. “A pre-construction team working on a fire station project turbocharged its efficiency following guidance on the platform’s collaboration capabilities.”
“Over the course of a month, they were a week ahead of other teams,” he said. “It’s one of the only times we actually have the ability to compare the difference Bluebeam brought to this project. The client was sceptical at first and wanted to trial it with one team. When they saw the results, they rolled it out to everyone else.”
Without coaching, teams can struggle to fully leverage the software’s features. “There’s a real trend of Bluebeam being easy to pick up and learn on its own. People are using it correctly but are completely unaware of the depth that’s available,” De Campo said.
“The more you reveal the capability of Bluebeam to people, the more they realise how much they’ve been missing out on. They’re under pressure to get things done – they don’t have the luxury of just sitting there looking around at what else they can do.”
Collaboration supporting remote work
The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital tools, De Campo said, particularly as remote work became widespread.
“Bluebeam is really key for collaborating between offices and sites” he said. “When people were forced to look for these solutions during the pandemic, they learnt they’re available. They started using them and afterwards they stayed with them.”
Recent platform updates have strengthened these capabilities. “Just last month, they took their studio service and made it accessible via mobile phones and browsers,” De Campo said. “Now they can access their projects directly from that cloud service on site from their mobile, making it much more efficient for site visits and real-time updates.”
A residential builder working with ARKANCE achieved significant improvements in estimation accuracy by implementing advanced features like quantity link, which provides live connections between blueprints and Excel spreadsheets.
“It became a three-hour job instead of a one-day job,” De Campo said. “Because it became more accurate, he didn’t have to overestimate as much as he used to. When a client would request a change, it would update on the plan the same day, same hour, and the estimation would update alongside that immediately.”
The software supports large-scale construction projects with a myriad of stakeholders that require real-time updates. “It’s massive for tier-one construction companies,” De Campo said. “Those construction companies really use the collaborative features more than anyone else because there’s so many people working on one project at one time. They’ve got 40 engineers on the same plans at any given moment. It’s insane, the scale of it.”
Global presence supports urgent projects
As a Platinum partner, ARKANCE provides technical support, training and troubleshooting services. Their global presence, with offices in India, EMEA and the US, ensures support is available across time zones to support urgent project needs. “With 405 global technical resources, in four different regions, if someone’s working late on the project, they can log a support ticket and someone working in another time zone can help them,” De Campo said.
The platform continues to evolve, with regular updates introducing new features and capabilities. “Because it’s moved from a perpetual licence to a subscription model, Bluebeam introduces updates more often,” De Campo said. “People are missing things that are coming out that would help them, as they’re focused on projects. ARKANCE is their connection to the software, providing the support that they need to understand what the changes are and where the industry is going.”
For companies considering digital design tools or looking to maximise their existing investment, ARKANCE offers free 30-minute demos to showcase the platform’s capabilities. “We run demos about 10 times a week,” De Campo said, “introducing the program to people that haven’t seen it before, but also helping existing users verify they have the best practices. It’s worth checking your current workflows often since Bluebeam updates so frequently.”
Book a free demo with our experts and learn more about how ARKANCE can provide Bluebeam support here.
