Iterare Arquitectura slp
Customer Profile
Iterare Arquitectura slp (Iterare, www.iterare.es)is a multi-disciplinary Architect firm with offices in the cities La Coruna and Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Their business portfolio includes Architectural Plans and Costing, Town Planning / Urbanism,Technical Building Management, Project Management work. and Consultancy work related to their area of expertise. Iterare Arquitectura is mainly active in the public sector, both for Local, Regional Authorities and for the Central Government.
Reasons for choosing O3Spaces
Throughout 2008, Iterare carried out the gradual transition from IT systems based on MS Windows, towards Linux systems and Open Standards based applications. The goal of this transition was to comply with the applications’ legal licensing requirements, while securing the best value for the money spent on licensing and version control of all project documentation.
The lack of proper document version control, as well as the lack of means to control the flow of paperwork were the primary reasons for Iterare to start searching for a document management and collaboration solution. Adhering to their software philosophy and the different software in use by their clients, the new solution had to be platform and application independent.
"We migrated towards Open Standard Based Applications because we found they delivered better price/value propositions. With this in mind, we made the transition to a mixed environment while using our Ubuntu server. Consequently, Sharepoint was no option for us. O3Spaces on the other hand fitted perfectly into our software philosophy and working method thanks to its outstanding price/value proposition,its platform independence and its user friendliness. O3Spaces perfectly meets our organization’s data management requirements" says Daniel Dapena, project manager at Iterare Arquitectura, slp.
Implementation of O3Spaces
The deployment and implementation of O3Spaces Workplace at Iterare was concluded within a week. This efficient process was realized through mix of O3Spaces professional services and Iterare staff being able to become self sufficient by reading into the available documentation.
Use of O3Spaces
At Iterare O3Spaces Workplace is used to support projects, Dapena explains: "At Iterare an architectural project can be initiated in two different ways: By winning the bid in an open public tender or by direct client’s commission.
In the first instance, work starts with the preparation of a preliminary draft. Documentation is generated by the people assigned to the work team and shared through O3Spaces Workplace. Once the bid is won, the work process is identical to the direct client’s commission process.
At the beginning of a project a Workspace is created: Project = Workspace. Each project has its own calendar, document archive and communication zone for team members (forum and bulletin board). The document archive and version control functionality are fundamental in the process. The forum substitutes electronic mail and ensures that all team members informed on time, accurately and effective.”
Since Iterare's quality control is based on ISO 9001 Standards, every Workspace has an identical directory structure. Because of ISO 9001 Standards, they are required to digitally file and classify all communications (usually via email or fax), even with agents outside the work team: Clients, external engineers, suppliers, etc).
“The aim of our working method is to make it re-traceable, in other words, to be able to revise the process and detect, isolate and correct any possible development errors.”
Benefits of using O3Spaces
“With O3Spaces Workplace we can manage our document archives and projects effectively and we have full control over the security of our documentation and project information” says says Daniel Dapena, project manager at Iterare Arquitectura slp .
“Effective communication among team members and the control of information are other crucial benefits for us.”
When asked about possible additions to O3Spaces Workplace that would be beneficial to his company and other architects, Dapena names native AutoCAD integration and extended calender functionality. These additions are on the O3Spaces roadmap and will be added to the O3Spaces Workplace feature set in the near future.
