MANCHESTER, NH--(Marketwire - December 1, 2010) - Newforma®, a software company addressing the project information management (PIM) needs of architecture, engineering and construction firms, announced today that customers Corgan Associates and SHW Group have fully implemented the Newforma® Project Center solution on virtualized servers. The Newforma PIM solution is now proven to deliver its unique benefits in both physical and virtual server environments.
Newforma Project Center indexes the information on a firm's file servers so that team members can get quick results from its search function. "The advantage of deploying in a virtualized environment is that it saves us from having to purchase and/or deploy a dedicated server in each of our offices for Newforma Project Center to index file servers in those locations," said Corgan Associates Vice President Dav Rice. "Newforma simply runs on the VMware ESXi infrastructure we already have in place."
Corgan Associates has 297 employees working in six offices in the United States and China. The firm has deployed Newforma Project Center for its Dallas and Phoenix offices on its virtualized server environment. Rice, who manages information technology for the firm, said, "We've had nothing but amazing success with virtualization and Newforma. We're very pleased. It's one of the easier implementations we've ever done. It flew perfectly on the virtual servers with no problems at all. We scheduled two hours for each installation. On both, we were through in 45 minutes.
"Our firm decided to implement Newforma's PIM solution to address a wide variety of project information management workflows," Rice said. "High on the list were functions to help us manage email, and Newforma Info Exchange, which is an accountable, secure means to manage file transfers and the sending and receiving of transmittals. Now that these are both implemented, we're finding faster-than-anticipated adoption of advanced functions for contract administration and other workflows, as well."
SHW Group is a 300-person, eight-office design firm headquartered in Dallas. Information Technology Manager David Chadwick said, "We were looking at Newforma Project Center at the same time as we were heading down the path of virtualizing our IT infrastructure in 2008. We elected to reduce the costs of deploying Newforma Project Center by putting it on our virtualized servers from the beginning, when we implemented Fifth Edition. With our recent upgrade to Seventh Edition, Newforma is optimized for virtualized environments."
Chadwick said, "The combination of server virtualization and remote desktop performance gives field workers all the benefits of Newforma Project Center's ability to find emails, process RFIs, view drawings and manage other workflows. The win/win is lower operating costs and improved service to our clients."
Chadwick's next Newforma-related task is to consolidate the firm's various project archives onto one centralized, virtualized server. "Our complete archives will be available on a virtual server for Newforma Project Center to index, making them completely searchable without having to install additional server hardware to index the firm's history," Chadwick said.
Newforma Engineering Vice-President David Plunkett said changes to the underlying technology have facilitated the ability to install Newforma Project Center on a virtual server and expect the same optimal performance. "In past releases of our software, we recommended against installation on virtualized servers because our previous indexing technology was not designed to work optimally in virtual environments," Plunkett said. "With the release of Seventh Edition last spring, with its new, flexible and robust indexing system, many of our customers, including Corgan and SHW Group, have validated that it provides both the efficiency and performance to make this option practical. This capability enables architecture, engineering and construction firms of all sizes to seek the benefits of server virtualization, including reduced total cost of ownership, decreased server administration effort, reduced power consumption and cooling costs, and enhanced business continuity and disaster recovery."
Newforma Chief Executive Officer Ian Howell said, "Importantly, implementing the Newforma solution in a virtual environment is a choice that we now offer our customers, but it is not mandatory. Many of our largest customers, managing terabytes of project information, will still be best served by dedicated server hardware, but for most of our customers, our support for server virtualization expands their options and can significantly reduce their total cost of ownership."
For a complete summary of Newforma Project Center Seventh Edition system requirements, visit www.newforma.com.
About Corgan Associates
From its founding in 1938, Corgan has grown into one of the largest U.S.-based design firms focused on architecture. Named Firm of the Year in 2007 by the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and recognized as the Best Large Architecture Firm to Work for in 2009 and 2010 by ZweigWhite, Corgan employs over 297 professionals in offices in Dallas, New York, Phoenix, Houston, Miami, Sacramento and Beijing. As its design opportunities have expanded from local to international, Corgan has developed special expertise in corporate, aviation, health care, education and mission-critical facility design, as well as digital visualization services through Corgan MediaLab. For more information, visit Corgan online at www.corgan.com/.
About SHW Group
SHW Group is a 300-person team of architects, engineers, planners and educators dedicated to studying, defining and creating environments that inspire creativity and drive student potential. The SHW mission is to design spaces where students learn best, whether those spaces are for pre-kindergarten or post-graduate studies. The Dallas-based firm maintains offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Charlottesville, Va. For more information, visit SHW Group online at www.shwgroup.com/.
About Newforma
Newforma is a software company serving architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) organizations worldwide, and the owners they serve. Its mission is to develop and market project information management (PIM) solutions which improve responsiveness to clients, mitigate risk, streamline project execution, raise productivity and facilitate integrated project delivery (IPD). Newforma® Project Center, Newforma's flagship product, is the industry's first comprehensive PIM solution to organize and share project information, drive accountability, raise transparency and streamline project delivery processes. Newforma Project Center is currently implemented on over 400,000 projects in industry-leading AEC firms. For more information about Newforma, visit www.newforma.com, read the Newforma Blog, join the Newforma Network at LinkedIn, follow Newforma on Twitter, visit our user community at www.newformant.com, or phone +1 603-625-6212.
© 2010 Newforma, Inc. Newforma is a registered trademark of Newforma, Inc., in the United States and in other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.
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