Newforma Project Center vs. Raken

Newforma is a great tool to collaborate with large teams and between firms. It allows for great documentation of transfers, activities, and other procedural aspects of projects that require collaboration between disciplines, for example, MEP, electrical, architectural and technology. For internal use, Newforma has been great for communications tracking and archival, as well as for record-keeping of all the users in a team or number of teams. Many great options are features are unused due to a lack of training or exposure to them, for example, the graphical viewers that can preview CAD, Revit, and other formats, or the markup tool available with the desktop client.

Incentivized

Easy sub-contractor management ability, time tracking, resource planning and the easy tracking of project equipment using Raken is even enjoyable. Team coordination and project comments and recording sharing among the team members, this is a great tool for that.

Incentivized

• Newforma sits on top of our previous filing system (Windows Explorer). This was very important to us because we didn't have to change the project numbering system in order to fit Newforma's design. Also, if we were to decide we didn't like it, we could easily revert back to our previous methods.
• Newforma does a great job of indexing information, making searches much easier by being able to use keywords instead of knowing the exact file location. No more traversing through countless folders before finding what you need.
• Newforma keeps a read receipt for everything that you submit through it for issue tracking, and keeps an easy to read record of your workflow.

Incentivized

• Great iPhone application - The application makes reporting and adding photos very easy.
• It's easy to navigate different days and reports. Or to find keywords or subcontractors and when they performed work.

Incentivized

• I have found it difficult to locate audits.
• Some users have issues while uploading project data.

• Sometimes the app will run slow or crash on the guys in the field. It doesn't happen too often though.
• An easier way to download all project Daily Reports at one time.

Incentivized

While I have never asked for support myself, a Newforma representative has been in the office annually to give training seminars and info sessions on how to fully use the product. I find this essential to keep the product relevant and make sure everyone knows its full capabilities and an important part of customer support.

Incentivized

Raken has an excellent support team. Raken are pretty prompt with getting back to you. Raken also has a convenient chat feature on their website. All their support members are friendly and are good at helping you understand and resolve your issues.

Incentivized

A good competitor against other similar solutions and support is excellent.

Incentivized

Vista is TTI's accounting software program. It is extremely well suited for the construction projects. Team, which is similar to Raken, is more advance however the program is also more expensive.

Incentivized

• Newforma makes it easy to transfer, share, archive, and search extensive data sets in a single GUI
• For it to be effective, all users in a team must receive a basic training and use it consistently
• Adoption in the industry is good (A/E); many teams use it consistently. Learning to use it once produces time-saving in subsequent projects

Incentivized

• Less need to travel to each job site.
• Automated emailed reports to clients reduces the number of meetings/conversations about what is happening on the project.

Incentivized