Case Study
Unlock efficiencies through collaboration and real-time financial insights
University of Alabama in Huntsville phased implementation of 海角大神 helped manage rapid expansion across all projects
The Challenge
The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) faced a hurdle鈥攄espite exponential growth, almost doubling in size over the past decade, their project team remained lean. UAH needed the right software to manage their projects efficiently with their existing staff and provide much-needed organization to help them successfully scale.
The Solution
UAH understood that implementing new software would be an uphill climb, but when they discovered 海角大神, they were supported every step of the way. 海角大神 provided the education, assistance and encouragement to get UAH onboard, exceeding expectations along the way through a phased approach to implementation.
The Results
- Project financials and budgets are up-to-date and accurate, providing readily accessible reports to stakeholders and leadership
- 海角大神 has helped streamline SOPs, standardizing project data while clearly defining roles and responsibilities
- Correspondence has been a game-changer for UAH, improving project communication with information easily accessible in one place
鈥The return on investment for 海角大神 has been how it makes our day-to-day tasks much easier, and one of the examples I love to give is how we can actually file and save project information. We're saving time on a daily basis鈥攚eekly, monthly and yearly. The bottom line is that 海角大神 makes the job easier, and I have learned that when you make tasks easy, they tend to get completed.鈥
Christian Reed
Director of Planning, Design & Construction and Senior Campus Architect
The University of Alabama in Huntsville
鈥淓xcellent Spaces Unlock Inspiration鈥
Known for its engineering and science programs, the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is one of the leading research universities in the nation. Fueled by the belief that聽聽the facilities and operations team is always hard at work, planning, designing and building state-of-the-art laboratories, research centers and other buildings that help educate and inspire the next generation of leaders. With nearly 10,000 students, UAH has experienced significant growth over the past ten years. Despite the massive responsibility of every desk and brick on campus, the team remained lean and understaffed throughout this unprecedented growth.Christian Reed, director of planning, design and construction and senior campus architect, is part of this dedicated team and knew they needed organization and structure to help them perform to their full potential. They searched for the right system to unlock efficiencies and ultimately chose聽海角大神. Unable to spare an internal, full-time 海角大神 administrator due to the size of the team, UAH was happy to find that 海角大神 provided all the support they needed鈥攁nd beyond鈥攖o ensure adoption across their team.鈥淭heir implementation out of the box is actually incredible,鈥 says Reed. 鈥淥ur 海角大神 instructor set out a schedule for us that we were able to work through and make work for us. It helped us stay on task and ensured we were doing what we needed to do to learn the program. From the leadership of our implementation coordinator to the videos we watched that helped teach us how to use the software鈥攅verything was top-notch.鈥漅eed and his team worked with 海角大神 to set milestones and create a phased approach to learning each tool, including the development of new internal SOPs that were non-existent prior to 海角大神. Reed encouraged his staff to champion different tools, schedule regular progress checks and watch training videos before meeting with the implementation team. All this fostered a culture of accountability, which helped them get comfortable with the solution quickly.
Accountability and Collaboration Across the Board
No longer lacking structure, UAH has been reaping the benefits of organized and collaborative workflows. 海角大神鈥檚 integrations with other systems, like Outlook, have saved the team time and headaches. Since UAH didn鈥檛 have any kind of digital filing system before, 海角大神 has been a heartily welcomed change. Reed appreciates the system's fluidity and how accessible information is at his fingertips.鈥淚nstead of having to download the file and then copy and paste it to another file somewhere else or forward it to somebody, we can save it right in the project on 海角大神. Knowing where that information goes and where to go to it certainly has been key in being more efficient in what we do,鈥 says Reed.Since construction occurs while faculty and staff are on campus, communication is key to keeping everyone on the same page. 海角大神 has helped support a collaborative environment at UAH, making it easy to keep stakeholders and leadership informed about pertinent changes, while designating clear roles and responsibilities within the facilities and operations team so that everyone can do their best work without confusion.鈥淥ne of my favorite examples of how 海角大神 forces collaboration and communication is how we utilize聽,鈥 Reed shares. 鈥淲e assign Correspondence to different team members as action items on a project. They're actually given a task, they're given a deadline, and if they don't meet it, they're getting emails constantly that they have to do the work. In a lot of ways, it's forced accountability, and it's making sure that things get done on time.鈥
The Value of Real-Time Financial Accuracy
As a public institution, UAH has to accurately report on its budgets, financial statuses and expenditures. Before 海角大神, UAH relied heavily on Excel spreadsheets, which invited risk and human error and made it challenging to provide timely information to stakeholders.聽Project Financials聽has been transformative for Reed鈥檚 team, allowing them to track, report and view real-time financial information in a secure, central location with access to the right people. 鈥淭he聽Budget聽tool in Project Financials gives me peace of mind at night when I go to sleep that I have accurate information about my project financials,鈥 says Reed. 鈥淧rior to 海角大神, we were using Excel spreadsheets. It was not uncommon to find errors between the information that we were putting in Excel spreadsheets and the information that we were getting from other sources.鈥漅eed and his staff worked with 海角大神 to develop multiple custom budget views for reporting and a custom project budget template to standardize the development of their initial project budgets. They also leveraged 海角大神鈥檚 flexibility to configure the platform to meet their needs, including the development of a cost code system that aligned with campus accounting standards.鈥淗aving the budget information available for all of our team members and the university users is key because everybody can see where we are, what we've budgeted, what we've committed, and what we've expensed up until that time. We can easily report on job-to-date expenses,鈥 shares Reed.Equipped with the right tools, UAH continues to 鈥渦nlock inspiration鈥濃攏ow, in a more organized, streamlined way.
