CMiC and Vico Software Create ERP for Construction

Construction is the only industry which asks its constituents to create the end product with only one try. The building that you see on-site is both the prototype and the finished product.

The advent of BIM allows design and preconstruction teams to behave more like their colleagues in discrete manufacturing: they get to build a prototype on the computer in order to test design and construction feasibility. The computer model also allows the construction team to logically optimize the flow of materials and labor. And just as their brethren in manufacturing, construction will opt to have more and more fabrication performed off-site where quality can be tightly monitored and the job site will morph into a highly economical assembly line.

With this partnership, CMiC and Vico Software are creating an ERP for Construction – a database and process flow for all the information surrounding a building project. As BIM expands beyond the design, preconstruction, and product control realms, the impact is felt throughout the organization. A building information model takes on a life of its own as soon as it is augmented with change orders, estimates, budgets, and schedules. These changes orders, estimates, budgets, and schedules each have their own department, their own process, and their own workflow. But now with ERP for Construction, it is the project that has ONE workflow through the organization.



Here is how the initial integration will work:



Estimating. Whether the user operates in Revit, Tekla, or ArchiCAD, he/she can simply publish the BIM to Vico where construction quantities are generated. These construction quantities are the linchpin for more precise estimates and schedules. The quantities and estimating data are shared between Vico and CMiC’s job costing and bid and procurement modules, sharing the information with additional upstream colleagues who need the data for their tasks.



Scheduling. Again relying on the construction quantities, the scheduler now combines crew efficiency rates and locations. With this information, Vico Control produces a line of balance schedule (flowline) which indicates the optimal flow of trades and materials through the jobsite. These schedules are integrated with CMiC Workflow into CMiC Activity Manager and Resource Scheduling modules. As the schedule is updated with real-time conditions, the schedule can be adjusted to stay on target.



Change Tracking. Commercial building projects typically generate hundreds or even thousands of changes to the drawing files. Not properly resolving these issues can lead to dramatic cost escalations. Vico Change Manager will pass this RFI information to CMiC documents, communications the CMiC RFI manager. Units complete information, such as the quantity count of materials used in a location, will be represented in the forecast in CMiC. In addition, document logs will be shared between the two systems.



With CMiC’s proprietary Project Management, and Vico’s unique 5D BIM solutions, it’s easy to see how valuable it is to sharing this database of project information across the enterprise. This shared database becomes the source and the repository for all project-related data, and serves as the hub for all departments.



The news follows:



CMiC and Vico Software Partner to Take BIM to the Enterprise



Relationship Formed by Two Leading Construction Software Providers Responds to Industry Demand to Move BIM from Design and Preconstruction to the Construction Lifecycle



Boulder, CO and TORONTO, ON – Monday, March 23, 2009 – CMiC, the leader in providing software solutions for the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry has formed a strategic development relationship with Vico Software, the pioneer in 5D BIM for Construction, to jointly develop deep integration between their BIM and ERP solutions. The partnership provides the framework to exploit the advantages of BIM throughout the full construction cycle and all operational departments.

“Our customers have pushed BIM beyond 3D modeling and preconstruction planning. They see the advantages in integrating full BIM data with business functions such as procurement, contract management, AR/AP, and even CRM,” said Mark Sawyer, CEO and president, Vico Software. “CMiC and Vico working together tie the power of the BIM with the day-to-day business operations. Our customers have been asking for this and we are delighted to work with CMiC in direct response to that request.”



“This partnership represents two software vendors truly listening to their customers,” Gregg Davis, CIO, Webcor Builders. “The future of our industry is in virtual design and construction so tying together Vico’s and CMiC’s solutions is a huge leap ahead for their clients. Webcor is ecstatic about this development and looks forward to continuing to work with both organizations.” Webcor Builders has been consistently ranked among the ENR Top 100 General Contractors and the Forbes 500 largest privately owned companies. Webcor Builders chose CMiC in 2007 and has been using Vico since 2005.



“This changes the way BIM will be used,” said Bassem Hamdy, vice president, solutions, CMiC. “With the rise of BIM, the challenge emerged how to make the information in the model useful to all aspects of the organization. We’ve heard from our clients, particularly during a session that we had at our annual user conference in 2008, that there was a need to get BIM into the hands of builders and executives and not have it confined to the design and preconstruction stages of the project. Having the scope of information provided by Vico 5D BIM integrated with CMiC’s solutions in areas such as job costing and general ledger and provides advanced document management and project controls, is the answer that the industry and our clients have been waiting for. In the current economic situation, making BIM more useful for the entire organization is definitively a competitive advantage.”



CMiC Project Management will serve as the hub for the fluid exchange of 5D BIM data, such as RFIs, job costing information and documents. The access to information that CMiC’s integrated software provides means that BIM information will flow seamlessly across the organization, eliminating the need for re-keying data and reconciling data from multiple applications, improving business processes and accelerating collaboration.



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About Vico Software
Vico Software, Inc. provides software and services to the building construction industry. Building owners, general contractors, and construction managers use our software and our services to reduce risk, manage costs, and optimize schedules on complex building projects. Vico’s 5D Virtual Construction solutions pioneered the category of BIM for Construction, and they remain the industry’s most integration approach to coordination, quantity takeoff, cost estimation, project scheduling, and production control. Vico Office continues this tradition making it possible to work with all major BIM files, like Revit, Tekla, and ArchiCAD, from all the project stakeholders. The benefits of our solutions and services have been proven on hundreds of building projects to date.



About CMiC
CMiC is the leader in creating the most complete, integrated and advanced enterprise-wide software solutions for the AEC industry. Designed to enhance your company’s efficiency, CMiC’s technologically superior solutions allow organizations to streamline processes and maximize profitability. CMiC brings experience and industry expertise to each project and continuously pushes for innovative solutions.