Contact Information: Contacts: Kelly Murray 978-597-3377 Patrick Gillam 603-625-6212 ext. 349
Newforma(R) Announces Release of Newforma Project Center Fifth Edition
Major Release Introduces New Capabilities for Contract Administration and Project Monitoring
| Source: Newforma, Inc.
MANCHESTER, NH--(Marketwire - May 13, 2008) - Newforma®, Inc., a software company
addressing the project information management (PIM) needs of the design and
building industry, announced today that, after the successful completion of
an early release program with eight Newforma customers, Newforma Project Center Fifth
Edition is now commercially available. Building on the core,
battle-tested capabilities of previous versions, Fifth Edition advances
Newforma's support for the contract administration (CA) phase, greatly
expands the ways in which external team members can collaborate via
Newforma® Info Exchange, and introduces new and unique capabilities for
project monitoring. A complete description of all the new and expanded
functionality in Newforma Project Center Fifth Edition can be found at
newformant.com, a recently launched community site for Newforma users.
"We have participated in Newforma's product development process since the
beginning," said ADD Inc Chief Information Officer Jill Rothenberg. "Their
early vision of a solution that would have measurable impact on project
execution and the productivity of the project team has come to full
fruition. Newforma has taken great care to listen to the needs of design
professionals, and it shows in how all the integrated product features have
come together in Fifth Edition."
"Especially in these times of economic uncertainty, architecture and
engineering firms are seeking new solutions to help them operate at peak
efficiency and to better manage their exposure to risk," said Newforma
Chief Executive Officer Ian Howell. "Newforma Project Center Fifth Edition
takes major strides to address both these business challenges: first, by
reducing the manual, productivity-draining administrative activities of the
CA phase of a project; second, by improving the communication of project
activities and sharing of project information with external team members;
and third, by capturing and presenting a dashboard of project activity to
monitor project health against planned milestones. Fifth Edition builds
upon the important fundamentals of email management, search and
transmittals management for which Newforma Project Center is already
well-known, and delivers a whole new level of project process support to
our customers."
Streamlined contract administration
Contract administration continues to be one of the most vexing,
time-consuming and profit-eroding phases of project execution. The new CA
module of Newforma Fifth Edition improves support for managing submittals
and introduces support for the logging and tracking of requests for
information (RFIs). A submittal or RFI can now be created from an incoming
email in Microsoft® Outlook®, received via Newforma Info Exchange or simply
entered in the RFI activity center. From there, RFIs can be effortlessly
logged, assigned, tracked and captured in reports. In addition, through
enhancements to Newforma Info Exchange -- Newforma's solution for easy and
secure exchange of information with the external team -- submittals and
RFIs can now be shared with and addressed by external team members via an
easy-to-use internet browser interface.
The support afforded for contract administration was in large part the
determining factor in a recent decision to license Newforma Project Center
at Architectural Design Consultants, Inc. (ADCI). "It is common knowledge
to those in the profession that the contract administration process has
been burdened by the manual handling of information and the constant
monitoring, coordination and follow-up necessary to make sure that
outstanding items have been resolved," said ADCI Managing Director Of
Operations Chris Mael. "In Newforma Project Center Fifth Edition, we saw
all the elements we need to streamline our CA work processes in a way that
will automate logging, allow electronic review and response, deliver timely
reminders and greatly enhance and improve tracking."
Expanded information sharing with external project team members
In addition to submittals and RFIs, Newforma Info Exchange has been
enhanced to support external team involvement with action items and the
exchange of updated project documents via the Project Folders activity
center. For example, once a file folder or document set is published to
Newforma Info Exchange, designated external team members will be notified
of the availability of new files, and can also upload their own related
files. As work progresses, internal and external team members can
seamlessly re-publish and receive future revisions, ensuring that all
members of the design team are working from a common, up-to-date set of
coordinated reference drawings and models.
"When we first deployed Newforma Project Center, Info Exchange was a dream
come true in terms of the many challenges of transferring large files,"
said Eppstein Uhen Architects Vice President Bret Tushaus. "However, this
expanded functionality only increases the reach of Newforma Info Exchange
-- it now promises to be an extremely effective tool for managing the
give-and-take of project work with project team members outside our firm.
Many of our consultants appreciate the ease of use and the fact that all
they need is a browser and email to collaborate with EUA in a more
effective digital way."
New dashboard for monitoring project activities against the project plan
In the midst of executing a project, with the reality of unanticipated
changes in design, scope or field conditions, project managers are often
challenged by the inability to easily foresee how any one or combination of
events might impact project delivery. With the new My Project Center
dashboard and unique Project Timeline functionality in Fifth Edition,
architects and engineers can, at a glance, monitor everything about their
projects
-- from an individual action item or issue to overall activity against the
project plan as a whole. As a result, project managers have the visibility
they need to identify when project activities threaten to diverge from plan
and can take corrective action. In addition, through integration with
Deltek® Vision® software, project financial and planning data is united
with other technical project information on every project manager's
desktop.
ADD Inc, one of the eight firms involved in the early release program, is
now running Fifth Edition in production. "There is always greater risk in
being the first to upgrade to the latest version of any software," said
Rothenberg. "However, the upgrade implementation process was
well-orchestrated and, coupled with the excellent support from Newforma,
our experience was almost effortless. The new feature set of Fifth Edition
was of such high interest that we're glad we took the leap."
About Newforma
Newforma is a software company serving architecture, engineering,
construction and owner/operator (AECO) organizations worldwide. Its mission
is to develop and market software solutions which significantly improve the
productivity of the building project team by streamlining work processes,
reducing exposure from errors and omissions, improving coordination and
communication, and enabling greater repeatability of project success.
Newforma® Project Center, Newforma's flagship product, creates a more
productive environment for project managers and the project team by
organizing project information, facilitating information sharing, and
enabling more effective project process. Newforma Project Center is
currently implemented on over 50,000 projects in industry-leading AECO
firms. For more information about Newforma, visit www.newforma.com or phone
+1 (603) 625-6212.
© 2008 Newforma, Inc. Newforma is a registered trademark of Newforma, Inc.
in the United States and other countries. Deltek and Deltek Vision are
registered trademarks of Deltek, Inc. Windows, Office and Outlook are
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and
other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.