The BIM Group Simplifies Project Management, Immediately Decreasing Labour Costs & Increasing Their Revenue

“Clearstream’s solution was exactly what we needed to end our absurd attempts to manage projects over email. I would estimate that we’ve gained at least 160 hrs/month of billable employee time and now save our clients $1000s – $100,000s of dollars in delay costs.”

Profile:

The BIM Group is a young “inservicing” firm with 30-40 employees between their offices in Canada (Calgary, AB,) and India (Bengaluru (Bangalore) and Puna). Operating more like an HR firm than an outsourcer, BIM hires and trains their own employees to delegate 4000-5000 hours/month of technical tasks for their clients in engineering, architecture, and construction.

Of the highest value to BIM Group is transparency, both outside the company (regarding their employee experience in Puna) and within the company (with constant communication among the team and exacting measurements regarding billable client time).

Challenges:

• Time-consuming project management: email chains with dozens of replies
• Difficulty sharing real-time data between offices in Canada and India – a need for addressing issues in a timely manner and providing immediate feedback on tasks
• Effective document management of over 4000 project documents and revisions
• Need accurate reporting on employee work time and project costs
• Need an application that will be widely used, rather than ignored or adapted using “work-arounds” (as with a previous system)
• Project management: staying on top of multiple concurrent projects and ensuring deadlines are met

Solutions:

Clearstream Collaborative customized the QuickBase app to handle all of BIM’s inter-continental projects, with documents stored in real time on the web and easy reporting on project statuses.

• 100% of project tasks can be managed by one centralized software
• No more working off of outdated documents – all support materials are stored on the web, along with the project outline
• Ability to have full communication and complete access across the company (to designated users) on a 24-hour basis
• Reporting functions allow easy measurement of project costs and feedback on number of hours worked by task and by individual
• Customized notifications wave red flags on projects approaching their deadlines and "on the fly" changes

 “Clearstream’s demo was so impressive, we wanted to start using it before the application was even developed.” 

Results:

• Increase in revenue paid back their investment within “a month or two”
• Company-wide adoption of the new project management system within one week of development
• Saved their clients money – between $1000s - $100,000s, depending on the project
• Impeccable standards and training; documents, templates, and employees are consistent across the board
• Very little to no resources devoted to IT; adapting QuickBase as the business needs change is easily done by a BIM employee in just a few hours

“If a big project with a due date gets slid by three days, our client can lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in delay costs. If we can get the job done quicker, and get them on a job site early, they can save $10,000s in labour wages.

We can now easily track efficiencies in a way that allows us to determine where strengths and weaknesses lie on a daily and weekly basis, which then can be extrapolated across the company or addressed in a timely-manner”