Ideate, Inc. Publishes Spotlight Success Study Featuring Sparling and Ideate BIMLink

San Francisco, CA, 05/21/2014– Ideate, Inc., a leading Autodesk Authorized Developer and Autodesk solutions provider offering quality software, training, support and custom consulting services to the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry with a special focus on Building Information Modeling (BIM), today announced the publication of the latest Ideate Software customer success profile, “Ideate Software Presents Spotlight on Sparling: How Sparling is Solving Large Project Challenges with Ideate BIMLink.”

Sparling, a specialty consulting firm with offices in Washington, Oregon, and California, offers electrical engineering, technology design consulting, audio/visual consulting, and acoustical and lighting design services. The firm provides design excellence and market leadership to fuel smart decisions in a wide variety of markets, from healthcare to biotech, education to entertainment. With a 67-year legacy of leadership, the firm’s 130 seasoned professionals work collaboratively to deliver design excellence in their own backyard and on a national stage.

The firm is maximizing its BIM advantage with Ideate BIMLink – an Autodesk Revit tool that improves information flow, facilitates collaboration and makes managing BIM data faster and easier. R. Robert Bell, Design Technology Manager, Sparling, Lynnwood, Washington says of Ideate Software, “We are using Ideate BIMLink with great success to simplify several tedious tasks. Ideate BIMLink lets us provide a far higher level of service than we would be able to achieve without it.”

Large project challenges highlighted in the success profile include ways Sparling has been eliminating warnings in 10 minutes with Ideate BIMLink vs. “forever” without it. Also, see how the Sparling team is making asset tagging easy in a large datacenter project, and how they have been able to accommodate sudden and unexpected changes in mid-stream quickly, even for projects of enormous size and complexity.

Bob Palioca, President, Ideate Inc., says, “We are delighted to see how our Ideate Software customer Sparling is creatively using our robust, resilient Revit data management tool, Ideate BIMLink. We celebrate their success as they gain a competitive edge and fulfill the sophisticated needs of clients on the cutting edge of BIM design technology.”

Ideate has published “Ideate Software Presents: Spotlight on Sparling” online. Read the Customer Spotlight Success Study.

About Ideate, Inc.
Ideate, Inc. is a leading Autodesk Authorized Developer with 25+ years’ experience in software development and specific focus on Building Information Modeling (BIM).  As an Autodesk solutions provider, Ideate has offered quality software, training, support and custom consulting services to the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industries since 1992. Headquartered in San Francisco, California and operating Autodesk Authorized Training Centers (ATCs) in California, Oregon and Washington, Ideate is recognized as an Autodesk Gold Partner for Architecture, Engineering and Construction, one of Autodesk’s highest levels of authorization.

Ideate Software is a comprehensive set of far-reaching BIM data management tools. Ideate BIMLink powers the “I” in BIM, allowing users to pull data from an Autodesk Revit file into Microsoft Excel for fast and precise editing, and push the data back into Revit with equal ease. Ideate Explorer for Revit lets users search, filter, quantify and select to easily manage the 100,000+ elements in a Revit model. Both solutions help Autodesk Revit users solve problems in AEC workflows and help the Revit community leverage BIM to its fullest advantage.

Autodesk, Revit and ATC are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Microsoft Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

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Monetization - Why is it important to YOU !

I spent a lot of time recently trying to explain monetization to colleagues.

The term "monetization" may also be used informally to refer to … charging fees for something that used to be free, or attempting to make money on goods or services that were previously unprofitable or had been considered to have the potential to earn profits. (Wikipedia)

Monetization is the ability to make money on an idea, concept, product, or service. Money, meaning profit, and not simply revenue (at least in my definition). Why is this important to you, and your company?

• Free does not achieve the goal of profit. Unless your free product or service leads to other profit revenue (called 'give to get'), then giving something for free actually moves you away from your goals of profitability. Moving forward, the customer will expect that level of product or service for free (or even the expectation that you pay them!). 
• Monetization shows that your product has value. If your product or service is free, then it has NO VALUE. 
• Example: Bottled Water. If we get the bottled water for free, we never seem to finish the bottle. If we pay $4 for that same water, we make sure we finish the bottle. Same water, different value. 
• Technology (cool products) does not, by itself, create value. Solving problems brings value and therefore creates monetization. 
• You must have a value proposition to 'monetize' your work - see my blog post http://connectingthedata.blogspot.com/2013/08/value-proposition-why-you-need-one.html

TURNING FREE INTO PROFIT
How do you take something from free to monetized:

• Don't ever make something free. That is an oversimplification of the issue - but clearly get your 'give to get' in alignment. This is especially true of services.
• Make sure the give is defined. 
• Make especially sure when you will receive your get. Often the when is undefined and therefore the 'when' never happens, all the while the other side has gotten the 'get'. 
• You must ask your customers what opportunities they are trying to leverage, and align your product or services to those customer opportunities. 
• ADD VALUE. Value is not the special way you do your service, your new user interface, or some obscure packaging feature. It is the problems your customer is having, and your ability to solve that problem, creates value.

DATA + MAKING MONEY
So there is a lot of talk about that all data, information should be free to all.  Stay tuned later for another blog, but needless to say - data is free, but not manipulating the data to get the useful/relevant information you need.  Therefore, the monetization is the manipulation (organization, synthesis, and usefulness).

Think about how to monetize your service, your product, and most especially how you will 'monetize' yourself each day. What is your personal value proposition?

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David Haynes, NCARB, PMP, LEED AP
Ideate Director of Consulting

David is a Registered Architect, Project Management Certified Professional, who previously had his own architectural practice and was President of a commercial design-build construction company for 15 years. A graduate of University of Arizona, he has worked as an Architect, contractor, developer and as a national construction manager for a national retailer. David currently provides business process analysis, virtualization and change management solutions for AEC clients across the United States involved in the design and building industry. Follow David on Twitter: @dhaynestech 

Get it. Know it. Use it.

This post was originally published on David’s blog Connecting the [Data]… 

Big Red Button vs. Elephant Eating

When a consultant is asked how to solve a business problem, the customer/client is often interested in an over-arching, one big button solution.

This approach has two problems:

• Trying to solve problems with the 'big answer' denies an improvement  loop, both by the consultant and by the process itself. 
• It is very hard to solve any problem with just one answer.

There is an old saying "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time". It is really true. So what are the key elements:

•  Start with baby steps. This is the one bite at a time to eat an elephant.  One of the advantages most overlooked is that this method (a stepped approach) reduces anxiety those affected by the change will feel. 
•  Adjustments can be made.  If everything is defined, and set in stone, the implementation team (consultant and customer) will be reluctant to modify the process.
• But the key issue is:

                      CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Continuous improvement is one of the main tenets of lean thinking, lean services, etc. W. Edward Deming, pioneer in the field of Lean, proposed that feedback from a process and customers must be evaluated against goals. This feed-back loop allows for course adjustment, realignment, and even discovery of a different problem statement. With feedback, a better process is possible.

Eat the elephant one bite at a time and provide feedback of each bite.

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David Haynes, NCARB, PMP, LEED AP
Ideate Director of Consulting

David is a Registered Architect, Project Management Certified Professional, who previously had his own architectural practice and was President of a commercial design-build construction company for 15 years. A graduate of University of Arizona, he has worked as an Architect, contractor, developer and as a national construction manager for a national retailer. David currently provides business process analysis, virtualization and change management solutions for AEC clients across the United States involved in the design and building industry. Follow David on Twitter: @dhaynestech 

Get it. Know it. Use it.

This post was originally published on David’s blog Connecting the [Data]… 

Measure Twice – Cut Once – Think Always

It is better to think twice, before executing once.

There is an old adage in construction that says it is better to measure twice and cut once. If you have ever done a home improvement project, you have experienced this. The haste to get the job done has led to waste in time (it took longer), materials, and sometimes sanity (increased stress).

In business consulting I hear all the time the following…

• We have really smart people, they can just execute.
• Planning takes too long – it will cost money.
• We will use our past process, it will be okay.

All of these strategies are a cut once and hope it fits process, and destined to either fail or take longer and cost more.

My attorney, Sherman Knight, during my times of great legal strife, always used the military phrase “Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.” What he was trying to get me to understand is that planning (thinking) makes for better doing (performance).

Planning, and the associated thinking required, is more critical than the immediacy of starting the execution of the task or project. Risks need to be identified, as well as opportunities. Strategies can be reviewed and developed that will more than accelerate the project completion.

How do we start the planning process:

• What is the realistic schedule, which is usually different than the “desired” schedule. How will resources be allocated.
• Who are the other stakeholders, and what information and buy-in is required for a successful project.
• What are all the risks of the project, how will the risks be mitigated – and most importantly – what new processes will be needed to complete the project.
• New technologies may be needed, or required to complete the work.
• Time spent training resources on the new process, pays dividends over “they will learn as they go along.” The key here is to have the training as close to the execution of the work.

How many times do we just “wing it” and hope for the best outcome? Far too often. Planning, before doing, needs to become your personal, and company #1 best practice.

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David Haynes, NCARB, PMP, LEED AP
Ideate Director of Consulting

David is a Registered Architect, Project Management Certified Professional, who previously had his own architectural practice and was President of a commercial design-build construction company for 15 years. A graduate of University of Arizona, he has worked as an Architect, contractor, developer and as a national construction manager for a national retailer. David currently provides business process analysis, virtualization and change management solutions for AEC clients across the United States involved in the design and building industry. Follow David on Twitter: @dhaynestech


Get it. Know it. Use it.