Quantity
surveyors document storage software
Ridge - Six-figure order for ‘Workspace’ from Union Square enables Ridge to implement best practice measures for document and email control
60 year old multidisciplinary construction
consultancy, Ridge, a provider of construction services to the
Formula One motor racing industry, has placed an order in the
region of £130,000 with Union Square Software for its
portal-based knowledge management software.
Ridge will now be able to easily store all corporate information
including email correspondence and scanned paper documents in
one central repository. Employees across the company’s six UK
offices are then able to access information relating to specific
projects, regardless of their location, and have confidence that
they are working with the most up-to-date material at all times.
Established in 1946 by Harold John Ridge, a local Chartered
Quantity Surveyor, Oxford-based Ridge currently employs around
250 people and enjoys major commissions and projects all around
the world, including several research, manufacturing, training
and corporate facilities for the Formula One motor racing
industry, working with organisations such as British American
Racing, Jaguar and the British Racing Drivers Club at
Silverstone. As a consequence of its evolution, the company
acknowledged a need to standardise and improve its workflow
practices and the management of its daily business operations.
Workspace was selected to enhance and replace incumbent internal
systems for document storage and communication.
Ken Brown, a Partner at Ridge comments, “Although we had an
adequately robust system, we were reliant on the traditional
Microsoft Windows folder method for data storage. Additionally,
in recent years there has been a change of emphasis on the use
of email in the construction industry, instead of more formal
correspondence. Like many other companies, we had thousands of
emails that were not being adequately filed in the relevant
project folders for later retrieval if necessary. An email is
now considered to be a legal document and our insurers and
partners require that we can produce them in any given
circumstance. We needed an appropriate solution so that IT works
better for the user without incurring a greater workload.”
Union Square’s Workspace software is designed to provide a range
of benefits associated with capturing, storing and retrieving
information through a single system and interface. Ridge will be
utlilising the Workspace system to manage both its corporate and
client documentation, e-mailing and searching facilities.
Brown continues, “We have six UK offices located in Oxford,
Reading, Bristol, London, Leicester and Birmingham and a
significant number of staff will often be working from home or
from other remote locations. With staff now able to use
Workspace via a Virtual Private Network we can be sure that all
data is being stored accurately and efficiently, improving
internal communication.”
Commenting on the decision to work with Union Square, Brown
concludes, “Although we had already heard of Union Square, when
we identified our need for a new solution we approached the
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, which provided a list of
preferred software suppliers for the industry. Out of the list,
Union Square stood out as being the only provider with a viable,
value added product. The project team has been particularly
helpful, clearly demonstrating to us that they understand the
Building consulting market and the specific needs of our
business. We have been particularly impressed at how flexible
the software can be.”
Email: nataliet@itpr.co.uk