Many architecture firms struggled after the economic downturn hit the design and construction industry hard in 2008. However, Foreman Seeley Fountain Architecture, a small Atlanta firm with 14 employees, managed to survive the Great Recession and is now positioning itself to thrive in the economy’s recovery.
What helped FSF become resilient and get through these tough times was a solution that helped them plug some leaks in their cash flow. By minimizing these leaks, they were able to increase revenue very quickly.
Hemorrhaging Money
FSF’s Vice President Jeff Seeley describes his firm as being pretty typical. “We were just like a lot of firms—just spreadsheeting it. We’d file an expense report, then months later, realize we’d forgotten to bill the client for our mileage. It was too late and too embarrassing to go back and ask for it later.” Multiply this by several similar instances and it’s easy to see how FSF’s existing billing system was costing them money.
Looking back, Seeley realizes there were all kinds of miscellaneous hours for which FSF wasn’t billing, such as additional services, mileage to job sites, and blueprinting. All this billable time was adding up, just not in their bank account.
Plugging the Leaks
According to Seeley, “All those little things we weren’t billing for? Those added up to thousands of dollars a month. That’s what we started saving when we started using ArchiOffice.” FSF started using ArchiOffice in 2007.
That made all the difference in helping them keep their doors open during hard times. “We have watched other architectural firms require severe staff reductions to survive. We’re still afloat, and I truly believe that’s because we did a better job of identifying those lost reimbursables and learning to time manage our projects better.”
Improving Project Management
Because Seeley and his coworkers could see the percentage complete of various project stages with ArchiOffice, they realized how many hours were being spent on certain project phases and started to budget their time better.
“Here’s an example: we were doing a school renovation. We had six weeks. The way we used to do it, I’d just look at it as ‘I’ve got six weeks to do it’ and suddenly, half my fees were eaten up by schematic design,” Seeley laughs. “Now, I pay attention to how many hours have been allotted to complete a task, not what day it is due. Once those hours are up, I start asking where the drawings are, and people don’t spend all their time on one phase.”
FSF’s staff also started doing a better job paying consultants now that ArchiOffice was helping them to plan before the job began, making financial planning clear and easy. They knew where they stood with the budget. “We have a clearer vision of where we’re going to be financially two or three months out, so we do a much better job of allocating our resources. If we know there’s going to be a rise or dip, we can plan accordingly, based on how much work we have ahead of us,” says Seeley.
Adapting for the Future
Recently, the firm implemented ArchiOffice’s document management and remote access capabilities. So now, their staff can access project data and documents from anywhere they have internet access–virtually expanding their office’s reach. “We were on a job site recently and someone asked for the specs. No one knew where they were. The contractor didn’t have them—they were probably stuck holding a door open somewhere. So someone pulled out a laptop, accessed ArchiOffice remotely and opened up the specs document for us right away. The amount of time ArchiOffice saves us is invaluable.”
Related Stories
Sponsored | | May 24, 2018
Water treatment facility renovation benefits from laser scanning technology
BIM and Information Technology | Apr 5, 2018
Tech Report 5.0: Why wait for 3D renderings?
With emerging real-time rendering tools, project teams can design and render on the fly, for enhanced collaboration and resource savings. But the software comes with a catch.
Building Technology | Mar 1, 2018
Small construction businesses will continue to lag other sectors in tech spending this year
A survey of 800 companies found tepid interest overall in investing in “big data.”
BD+C University Course | Jan 2, 2018
The art and science of rendering: Visualization that sells architecture [AIA course]
3D artist Ramy Hanna offers guidelines and tricks-of-the-trade to ensure that project artwork is a stunning depiction of the unbuilt space.
Giants 400 | Dec 14, 2017
Top 85 BIM construction firms
Turner Construction Co., Gilbane Building Co., and The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. top BD+C’s ranking of the nation’s largest BIM contractors and CM firms, as reported in the 2017 Giants 300 Report.
Giants 400 | Dec 14, 2017
Top 150 BIM design firms
Jacobs, Gensler, and WSP top BD+C’s ranking of the nation’s largest BIM design firms, as reported in the 2017 Giants 300 Report.
BIM and Information Technology | Dec 12, 2017
Reflecting on the future of work
'I believe in the potential for new technology to positively impact the quality of the built environment with immense speed and great efficiency,' writes Proving Ground's Nathan Miller.
Sponsored | BIM and Information Technology | Nov 30, 2017
A million small connections: Designing the new NY bridge
New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge first opened to traffic in 1955.
Sponsored | BIM and Information Technology | Nov 8, 2017
3 ways to protect your firm from cyber threats
While AEC firms may not have the vast quantity of financial information that certain other types of businesses do, the confidential and sensitive information your firm has can be just as damaging to your clients if it gets into the wrong hands.