They started with just 2 employees and a big dream—to be a premier high-end, multidisciplinary firm, able to provide clients with a full range of services. They wanted to meet and exceed the most discerning clients’ expectations and have Vertical Arts’ vision stamped on every aspect of production.
Since Vertical Arts opened its doors in ’05, they’ve been using ArchiOffice to handle billing and project management. They had fluctuations like everyone else during the roughest years of the recession, yet they’ve more than quadrupled their staff and have plans to expand even more in the coming years.
Their revenue has gone up 300-350% in eight years’ time. Their accountant has even started recommending ArchiOffice to neighboring firms.
They’re able to offer a full service architectural experience—coordinating surveyors, helping clients orchestrate moves or get home inspections done, and allowing consultant billing to come through them.
How Do They Do It?
They Invoice in Half a Day or So
Using ArchiOffice means they can get billing done for all their complex projects in half a day to a day. So all employees’ hours are always billable, and Parker, the company’s only administrative employee can tackle billing efficiently, getting on to his other responsibilities. “If we didn’t have ArchiOffice, we’d have to hire at least one more person, part or full time,” he admits. Instead, they can take on more jobs and projects because their staff isn’t tied up doing administrative work.
They Organize Projects Ridiculously Well
Parker explains: “We have one specific project that we’ve chosen to divide into with 9 sub-projects, so that we can individually track time and expense per sub-project. And ArchiOffice keeps that whole world organized for us. ArchiOffice allows us to manage more jobs and projects with still just one support staff member.”
Since Vertical Arts opened its doors, the firm has been using ArchiOffice to handle billing and project management. The firm can get billing done for their projects in less than a day.
Their Client Relationships are Rock Solid
“It streamlines our process and gives us access to tons of information and reports quickly so we don’t spend much time answering questions for clients—we just generate it and send it right back. I know our clients trust our billing and our process. It’s really strengthened our client relationships.”
They Became an Incredibly Impressive Firm
“Overall ArchiOffice is just a great billing and project management software—to be able to go to one place and see all your time, all your budgets, all your invoices and transactions, it just streamlines the administrative side significantly,” explains Parker.
Now, Vertical Arts doesn’t have to settle for taking on uninspiring projects. They do most of their work with a number of individual clients. They’ve achieved their dream of being a multidisciplinary high-end firm—they have an interior designer on staff, a landscape architect, as well as a full architectural team, so they’re able to provide the full range of services they know their clients deserve.
Learn more about ArchiOffice Software here.
Check out Vertical Arts Architecture here.
Related Stories
| Sep 5, 2013
Do you have the next big breakthrough for the AEC industry?
Next month's Under 40 Leadership Summit in San Francisco is your place to shine. Our third annual networking and leadership event for young AEC professionals will feature an XPrize-type competition, called Vision U40, that will reward attendees who develop the most innovative solutions to today's pressing issues.
| Sep 4, 2013
Identifying your leadership gaps
U.S. businesses spend more than $170 billion annually on leadership-based curriculum, according to the American Society of Training and Development. Is all that training producing better leaders or just more people who hold positions of leadership?
| Sep 4, 2013
Augmented reality: 12 applications for design and construction professionals
Building Design+Construction reached out to AEC professionals who have studied and applied augmented reality and asked them to pinpoint applications that are ripe for the technology. Here’s what they had to offer.
| Sep 4, 2013
Augmented reality goes mainstream: 12 applications for design and construction firms
Thanks to inexpensive mobile devices and increasingly advanced software apps, Building Teams are finally able to bring their BIM models to life on the job site.
| Sep 4, 2013
K-12 school design that pays off for students
More and more educators are being influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach to pedagogy, with its mantra of “environment as the third teacher”—an approach that gives Building Teams a responsibility to pay even closer attention to the special needs of today’s schools.
| Sep 4, 2013
Video: Autodesk Fellow Tom Wujec on why you should join the Vision U40 competition
Tom Wujec, lead facilitator of BD+C's 3rd Annual Under 40 Leadership Summit, October 9-11 in San Francisco, explains the Vision U40 competition, which will launch at the event. U40 Summit participants will collaborate in small teams to develop innovative solutions to today's pressing social, economic, technical and cultural problems related to the built environment. They will complete for $5,000 in prizes.
| Sep 4, 2013
Smart building technology: Talking results at the BUILDINGChicago/ Greening the Heartland show
Recent advancements in technology are allowing owners to connect with facilities as never before, leveraging existing automation systems to achieve cost-effective energy improvements. This BUILDINGChicago presentation will feature Procter & Gamble’s smart building management program.
| Sep 4, 2013
Twenty-nine-acre brick building complex in Watertown, Mass., to be renovated as innovation hub
The owner of a 29-acre cluster of brick buildings in Watertown, Mass., wants to reinvent the site as a 21st-century innovation hub.
| Sep 4, 2013
Last chance to pre-register for BUILDINGChicago/Greening the Heartland Conference at 20% savings
Attendees of the BUILDINGChicago/Greening the Heartland Expo and Conference can still save 20% off the at-site registration fee by registering online in these final days before the event opens on September 9 and concludes on September 11.
| Sep 3, 2013
'School in a box' project will place school in San Diego public library
Thinking outside the box, LPA Inc. is designing a school inside a box. With an emphasis on three E’s—Engage, Educate, and Empower—e3 Civic High is now being constructed on the sixth and seventh floors of a public library in downtown San Diego. Library patrons will be able to see into the school via glass elevators, but will not have physical access to the school.
