Summary
You’re a Facility Manager and you need access to drawings to do your job. But right now, those assets are locked away on-site at the facility. We can help! DCM serves Canada, the United States, and countries around the world with industry-leading drawing conversion services in all major industries. Convert drawings in almost any format to AutoCAD quickly and cost-effectively. Want even more control and optimized efficiency? Our powerful cloud-based drawing management software makes managing your new high-quality digital drawings fast and easy. We’re here to help your remote team when they’re working miles apart, across the country, across national boundaries, or around the world.
The work world changed overnight on March 11, 2020 when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 strain of the coronavirus a pandemic. Offices locked their doors and working remotely became imperative. Millions of people are now out of work and trillions of dollars are being thrown at the corporate machine to control damage and curb collapse.
For some companies, this sudden change away from the centre wasn’t a big transition. They had already adopted a partially- or fully-remote business process and were unexpectedly prepared to hit the ground running. But most of North America wasn’t set up that way. Most companies operated in-person, on-location, in analog.
In the coming months, businesses are going to become more reliant than ever on their digital strategy. Without wanting to sound too alarmist, in many cases, it will be the deciding factor in whether they make it through the tough times ahead. —Forbes
Remote work has been growing by leaps and bounds in the last decade. Before COVID-19, roughly 5% of Canadians worked from home already. Almost 5 million Americans worked from home half the week (Global Workplace Analytics). And 70% of the world worked from home one day a week. At the end of 2019, the number of remote workers was projected to grow to as much as 66% by 2030 (Zapier).
These numbers all pointed to a fast trend away from the office. But no one anticipated the kind of acceleration that would happen because of a virus. And not every company was ready.
Solutions for facilities managers
With physical locations suddenly closed, that left many facilities managers scrambling. Without access to drawings, operations ground to a halt. Operations grinding to a halt is bad for business.
But DCM can help. It’s time to get the gears turning again!
There is an affordable way for facilities managers to survive this crisis—and come out of it even more productive and profitable than before. The answer is a digital document management strategy designed by DCM.
Below you’ll find a detailed list of services and tools that you need to keep up and running. Read on!
4 tools Facilities Managers need to work remotely—successfully:
1. A workspace
2. Document conversion (redraw)
3. A Document Management System (DMS)
4. Support
WORKSPACE
Let’s talk about the basics: working from home means you need a secure internet connection protected by a VPN and a firewall. You need a home computer, tablet, or at least a cell phone. Then you need to download tools that keep your employees talking and working through the same problems they had before the office shut down. Take a look at Monday, TeamWork, Asana, Slack, Google Hangouts, and Zoom for task management, file sharing, chat, and video conferencing. These apps are easy to download and use. And right now, many of these collaboration apps have provided their premium level for free. Get those tools in place and you’re back up. Yay!
Then what?
Well, just because you’re up again, doesn’t mean you’re up and running. How do you run your business from a distance? By digitizing the drawings you need to work with.
GET A FREE DRAWING CONVERSION!*
Contact us to see if you qualify for a free conversion. Attach your source files or samples, scans, PDF, JPEG, TIFF files in just about any format (good or poor quality drawings) by email (or upload to FTP). Send hard copies, prints, and scans by courier.
2. GET (PROPERLY) DIGITAL
Paper drawings and old digital drawings on degrading CDs have been a problem to productivity for a while. And now, a digital solution makes more sense than ever—because you can’t work without drawings. And you’re tired of searching for lost drawings. Get all your drawings into a digital format so they’re accessible and shareable. Digital doesn’t have to be AutoCAD, but it can be. Start by scanning paper to PDF.
3. REDRAW (CONVERT TO CAD)
DCM’s redraw service converts drawings to AutoCAD when you need to make edits (planning, gathering scaled measurements) to working document. Our powerful technology converts files in almost any format into a workable, digital CAD format. We’ve been helping facilities just like yours streamline their drawing situation for over 15 years and we do it in a way that delivers the highest quality at the most affordable price.
Our process takes the hassle off your shoulders. It starts with a no-obligation chat with one of our amazing Account Managers. We estimate the time and conversion cost—as fast as 1-3 business days to get things rolling. From there, you send us your files (or we can come and get them!), we convert them, clean them up, add things like attributing, custom colours, and layers, then send them through our innovative 8-point quality control. The last step is to deliver your digital drawings.
Where we deliver those digital drawings is up to you.
A cloud drive works! But our Drawing Management Software, echo, works way better.
4. Echo DMS (Drawing Management Software)
Once your assets are digital, you are functional. You’ve organized and repaired the scattered, unstructured chaos. But now you have hundreds or even thousands of digital drawings to manage. Better than before, but not as streamlined as you could be.
That’s why we built echo, our DMS digital library that makes finding the drawing you need almost effortless. We feed your company’s drawings into a shared software system so remote workers can continue from where they left off. Login authentication keeps drawings secure for your team in the shared cloud environment. Your digital drawings are searchable, shareable, and instantly updateable. Retrieve drawings as you need them, know they are the right version, and send them to the person waiting for them in seconds. Then create reports for even better management.
echo is tailor-made for your business. You need software that keeps up with engineering drawings coming in from many sources with revisions. You need a way to manage many versions over a long life-cycle. You need up-to-the-minute accuracy for your team.
If you’re a facility manager, the best way for you to bring your facility out of the chaos and into the future is by transforming your old process into a digital workflow and letting all of the bonuses that come with that transformation turn your stress into profits.
- cost savings
- time savings
- disaster prevention (fire, flood, or theft)
- no more lost files
- physical storage space reduction
- improved customer satisfaction
- boost in employee morale
- reduced errors.
- industry compliance
- drawing security (password protection and tracking)
5. Support (technical + friendly)
Once you have your DCM drawing management toolkit (digital drawings and software to manage them) you’re charging forward again—hooray!
But you’re not used to working at home, are you? And that might mean you’re struggling with a different kind of stress. We care about that too! Our account managers are here for you. Whether you have questions about drawing conversion, want a walk-through quickstart of our echo software, or you need some positive encouragement, please reach out. Isolation has a way of… well, making us all feel isolated. And communication helps combat that. Communication is also key for business continuity. DCM’s team of drawing professionals is dedicated to client success. We back our technological services with impeccable customer service—you’re never alone!
We’re here to keep your facility functioning at its best. Help your remote team when they’re working miles apart, in different provinces or states, across national boundaries, or around the world.
Whether you want paper drawings redrawn to digital, or an online drawing library to keep track of everything, DCM is your one-stop shop. We simplify your workload with a seamless and convenient process that ends in high-quality drawings at value pricing. We deliver hands-on perfection that’s hands-down the best on the market. That’s why we’re known as The Drawing Specialists.
Contact us today to find out how we can help you right away. It starts with a conversation and a no-obligation quote.
DCM leads the way in all major industries including: healthcare, education, engineering, manufacturing, utilities, recreational, government, insurance and more. And our powerful cloud-based echo drawing library makes managing digital drawings faster and easier. Access the information you need the moment you need it.