Item: Newforma Project Center
Rating: 8
Author: Gil Lopez CTS ING

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Newforma is our preferred file transfer platform for both incoming and outgoing documents. It provides internal access to project records for teams and users that are specific to projects. It also provides an industry-standard platform that colleagues from other firms use to transfer files and information seamlessly with access management per project and per team.

Pros and Cons

Archiving of project-related communications of all in the tam
Searchable database of communication with many filters at great speed
File transfer tracking for incoming, outgoing, and receipt (download record)
Integration with Outlook and 3rd party graphics managers
Automatic organization of files types and content in the server directory

The initial file structure of shared directories needs to be set-up with a specific naming convention and order. Consistency is key to maximize the organizational capabilities of Newforma
There are many capabilities in the application that go unused due to a lack of training materials
Integration with Outlook is good but requires training across the organization for all users to consistently use it

Return on Investment

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

Alternatives Considered

Google Drive, Dropbox and Box

Newforma provides many tools for organizing and archiving project information of various formats. Its ability to search communications is often used by our team. The desktop application is great for internal organization and the web interface provides the basic tools for collaboration and project management between teams of collaborating organizations. This is beneficial to the A/E and construction industries for document control.

Other Software Used

Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, PlanGrid

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Valuable document control between projects, teams, and organizations

Overall Satisfaction with Newforma Project Center