LH Stuttgart, Tiefbauamt
Highly efficient, deep construction
Document management system in the cloud as a project space
Complex road construction projects require a high level of organisation and coordination in addition to specialist expertise. For the Rosenstein Tunnel road construction project, those responsible at the state capital of Stuttgart are therefore breaking new ground and using DocuWare as a modern DMS cloud concept as a virtual project room solution.
Initial situation
As the responsible client, the Stuttgart Civil Engineering Office faces a mammoth task in the realisation of this major project. With a total length of around 1,300 metres, the structure passes under Rosenstein Park and parts of the Wilhelma zoological and botanical gardens.
An important part of the road construction project is the removal of existing traffic areas, which will be replaced by green spaces and make it easier for residents to access the banks of the Neckar. The aim of the planning for the project, which was launched in 2013 and is expected to be completed in 2020, is to realise the tunnel in a way that is as environmentally friendly, nature-friendly and water-friendly as possible. ‘In many respects, the scope of this project exceeds all previous construction projects undertaken by our office. This applies both to the construction challenges and to the enormous amount of documents that have to be created, exchanged and archived as part of the entire construction process,’ explains Gerd Schwertner, project and construction management employee and the person responsible for introducing the DMS in the Rosenstein Tunnel road construction project.
In order to provide the civil engineering office and the engineering offices involved in construction supervision and site management on the client side with daily access to all relevant documents, an engineering office involved in the project planning recommended the implementation of an electronic document management system as a central archive. However, as all parties involved have their own secure IT networks, which severely limit the exchange of data between them, a local DMS installation at one of the sites was out of the question.
Solution
An innovative alternative was to use a modern DMS cloud solution. Documents can be stored, searched, displayed, downloaded, edited and integrated into almost any administrative process in the hosted cloud via the Internet using the normal browser interface – without the need to install traditional software on the local computer. The documents are stored securely in the cloud.
After entering a user ID, the user is in their familiar working environment and has access to all documents and processes at any time and from any location. ‘A DMS cloud solution not only fulfils the technological requirements necessary for our project, i.e. unrestricted access from different IT networks. It also offers us a high degree of flexibility and transparency,’ explains Gerd Schwertner.
The choice fell on DocuWare Cloud, a SaaS solution that, in addition to its high security standard and intuitive usability, impressed with its wide selection of customised package solutions for a wide range of application scenarios. The civil engineering office opted for the Professional version, which allows the customer an unlimited number of users in addition to the full range of DocuWare software functions. The Professional package is equipped with a storage volume of 50 GB, which the user can flexibly expand as needed. The solution also includes the innovative Intelligent Indexing module. The web-based, self-learning service enables users to achieve a high degree of automation when classifying documents.
The cloud solution was implemented and customised by edr software. Using appropriate add-on modules, we realised the connection to the existing Outlook e-mail system as well as the option of transferring documents directly to the central document pool via Windows Explorer.
Benefits and advantages
The DocuWare Cloud has been in productive use by the project participants since May 2015. Over the course of five months, around 4,000 multi-page documents were stored in the digital archive. These include around 1,500 old documents from 2013 and 2014, which – if they were in paper form – were scanned together and archived in a structured manner. The Civil Engineering Office has high-performance multifunctional devices at its disposal for digitisation. The document inventory currently consists mainly of electronic documents or paper documents sent by post, which are fed into the system by all parties involved. The filing of more than 100 new documents per week is carried out according to jointly developed, clearly defined organisation criteria. The filing system will soon be supplemented by a linking function that will allow documents relating to a specific issue to be displayed together.
For the digitisation of large-format graphic representations, project and construction plans, those involved can use the services of the ‘Duplication’ department of the Civil Engineering Office, which has the corresponding special scanners. The proportion of construction plans in the cloud archive is set to increase significantly in future according to the plans of those responsible.
The mobile use of the DocuWare Cloud is also to be expanded. Regular project meetings with all participants and contractors directly on site in the construction offices often require access to previous meeting minutes, contractual correspondence and project plans. This is an option that DocuWare Cloud offers in its entirety, but which has so far failed due to the lack of powerful tablet computers. ‘The paradigm shift in document management towards digital solutions is also in full swing in our municipal administration, but such investment decisions still require detailed justification. However, I am sure that we will also find solutions here in the short term,’ says Gerd Schwertner.
Conclusion
According to Gerd Schwertner, the document management system has become an indispensable information platform for the 30 or so employees in construction supervision, construction management and the civil engineering office who actively use the DocuWare Cloud. According to him, acceptance of the solution has gradually increased despite initial scepticism among some of those involved in cloud-based project rooms. ‘Although we expected large volumes of documents, our fears were far exceeded. Without the use of a digital archive, these volumes of information are de facto unmanageable,’ summarises Gerd Schwertner.
In his opinion, the use of the cloud solution offers a number of advantages. Complex and sometimes cost-intensive interventions in existing IT infrastructures are completely avoided. DocuWare Cloud also offers complete cost control via the licence model and a high degree of flexibility thanks to its integration capability. ‘After the positive experiences we have had so far and in view of the increasing complexity of major construction projects, I am confident that we will continue to expand the use of the cloud-based document management solution in the future.’
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