One of the many ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was, and continues to be, the necessity to continue to produce the same amount and quality of work, but while working remotely. Some of that happens seamlessly, but companies and workers are still constantly looking for better and more efficient ways to collaborate with coworkers and fellow stakeholders without being in the same room or building. These tools are becoming more and more ubiquitous, and are constantly improving. This is the exact mission BIM SyncShare is aiming to complete, and they have announced another step in continuing along with that mission, announcing a new integration within the software with Autodesk Construction Cloud.
BIM Syncshare, based in South Carolina in the United States and founded back in 2009, is a subscription-based software platform that allows for easy collaboration between stakeholders on a construction project. In addition to the collaboration piece, the software also provides predictive insights for teams involved in these projects. All of this can be put into working folders, that can then be easily shared between workers and other stakeholders on both internal servers as well as externally for those not on the internal servers, bringing us back to that remote collaboration.
Now, with this newest integration that was just announced earlier this month, users will also be able to import and share construction files from Autodesk Docs, Autodesk Build, or BIM 360 directly into BIM Syncshare.All of these programs are part of the Autodesk Construction Cloud package, which also serves to connect different stakeholders through a project for seamless remote collaboration. With Autodesk Build, users can manage all construction drawings, RFI’s, and submittals throughout the team via web and mobile apps. Autodesk Docs allows for the same to happen with all relevant documents, to have everything in a centralized location.
By having this integration available, users can now combine files from different places and servers all into one solution, reducing the amount of time spent searching for information between multiple platforms. Now, as an example, if separate files are in Autodesk Construction Cloud and on a Google Drive, those can all be integrated together into BIM SyncShare for a more seamless experience, combined together into relevant folders which can be accessed internally and externally by the parties who need to see that.
At this point, most everyone in the construction industry is well aware of the now-infamous McKinsey report indicating the frequency with which projects come in over budget and/or well behind schedule. It is a major issue that companies have been dealing with and working to fix since that report came out in 2016, and this kind of technology is a big way to take steps in that direction. One of the reasons that these projects can so often be delayed is the difficulty at dispersing relevant files between different stakeholders, especially in this time with more remote work being done. Any solution to make that easier and more efficient is going to be welcomed by the industry.
In a recent webinar from Geo Week News, we talked to a panel from within this industry about its readiness to hop into the digital age. One of the barriers that was pointed out in that conversation was the fact that there were now so many solutions to tackle a lot of the problems, but it can be overwhelming dealing with so many options. The next step is consolidation and integration, which is exactly what we’re seeing here. In the press release regarding the announcement, director of partner integrations for Autodesk Construction Solutions James Cook remarked, “[BIM SyncShare's] integration with Autodesk Construction Cloud across the most common cloud storage tools helps customers achieve tighter collaboration and stronger alignment for on-time and on-budget projects."
