Site MapArmitage Williams Construction
Construction firm builds success from effective technology use
Established in Christchurch in 1985, Armitage Williams Construction is a market leader in building construction in New Zealand. With over two decades of experience and expertise, Armitage Williams provides creative building solutions to a wide range of clientele.
Today, the name Armitage Williams is synonymous with professionalism, dedication, and quality without compromise in all aspects of commercial, industrial, office, retail, aged care, and community construction projects. The proof of this success is not just in the buildings they have constructed, it is in the passion they have for providing total project management, design build turnkey solutions, the long-term relationships they build with clients, and the delivery of quality and mutually rewarding project solutions.
The achievement of this success has been based on excellent communication and collaboration from Armitage Williams to the client, construction site, and sub contractors. The effective use of technology has been central in the realisation of the collaboration culture fostered by Armitage Williams. Since 1995 Armitage Williams has been working with Datasouth to continually improve their use of technology, with the subsequent results being the delivery of design and construction solutions that exceed their clients’ expectations.
Delivering results without technology complexity
Armitage Williams operate in a highly competitive environment where there is a constant challenge to complete projects on time and on budget. The building construction industry allows little room for error, where any mistake or delay can substantially impact a projects profit. Accordingly, good project management from the design and planning phase, to construction, and administration of sub contractors is crucial to the success of any project.
In addition, Armitage Williams face increased compliance requirements in regards to the operation of their construction sites, Health and Safety policy, and increased project progress reporting back to their clients.
The answer to these challenges has been the deployment of Microsoft Small Business Server 2008. Small Business Server 2008 has provided a simple cost effective solution for the delivery of improved project management, collaboration, and reporting without the requirement to have a team of dedicated IT support persons on-site.
"The deployment of Small Business Server 2008 has provided us with a complete technology solution that delivered on all of our existing pain points. Our inability to previously logically file and collaborate on project documents has been resolved by the built in functionality of Small Business Server 2008, resulting in improved turn around times and reduced cost of business." – Mason Williams, Armitage Williams Development Manager.
In addition to Small Business Server 2008, Microsoft Terminal Services has been deployed to provide a simple but secure method of publishing applications and data to construction site users’, ensuring continuous access to project documents.
System virtualisation reduces technology investment
The delivery of Microsoft Terminal Services has traditionally required the deployment of a dedicated physical server. However while Armitage Williams required that their construction sites had remote access to the network, the system resource levels for this access was identified to be minimal. As such Datasouth proposed the deployment of a virtual Terminal Services environment on the physical server hosting Small Business Server 2008. This solution resulted in a substantial reduction of equipment investment and provided the opportunity to better utilise the resources of the physical server.
Connectivity to the Terminal Server is via Terminal Services Gateway, an SSL virtual private network (VPN) solution that also resides within this virtual environment. This solution provides a simple but very secure solution to remote users’ with no traditional complicated VPN configuration required.
The network perimeter is secured by a multi-tier firewall solution consisting of both a hardware firewall and ISA Server 2006. Again virtualisation was used to deploy ISA Server 2006, keeping the production network secure and providing a solution for the deployment of a 32-bit application in a 64-bit environment.
"Virtualisation has provided us with the ability to maximise the effective use of technology without the traditional investment level that had previously been required. Our ability to provide effective and secure remote access to the construction sites without the requirement to replace the existing physical terminal server has resulted in our ability to redistribute this investment into other IT projects." – Mason Williams.
Technology streamlines business processes
The deployment of Small Business Server 2008 provided Armitage Williams with access to Windows SharePoint Services, a web based platform designed to increase the efficiency of business processes and improve team productivity. During the design phase of the network, Datasouth identified with Armitage Williams a number of pain points in regard to the management of project documents, project management, and HR procedures.
Historically Armitage Williams utilised a file hierarchy structure which had become cumbersome and difficult to manage. This resulted in users’ lacking knowledge of certain information assets, which at times delayed access to project information. The solution was the deployment of a document library which would provide the ability to consolidate all related documents and emails into one location which previously had not been possible. It also provided the ability to search on document content rather than document title.
Project Gantt charts were integrated into the project sites, assisting in the forecasting of staff requirements and project progress. This provided the ability for project managers and site foremen to easily track progress and make decisions on future resource requirements.
With multiple projects occurring at any time, tracking of equipment plant was constantly challenging and historically managed by excel spreadsheets and access databases. SharePoint provided the ability to control and track assets for the various projects on one platform.
"The deployment of SharePoint has provided us with the ability to better utilise our information assets, resulting in improved knowledge management. The ability to securely share this information to all users whether they be office based or on the construction site has greatly enhanced our ability to make effective decisions. It has also provided us the ability to control processes around Health and Safety compliance and tracking of equipment assets between sites, resulting in improved communication and collaboration across the entire organisation." – Mason Williams.
