Are you using Microsoft SharePoint to store your engineering drawings? You need to switch to echo. Why? We’ll break down the differences between DCM Incs’ digital software echo vs Microsoft SharePoint. You can see for yourself how echo has the advantage over these two different forms of document management software.
Drawing Management Software, not just document management software
SharePoint is a general document management software, produced to handle a variety of corporate documentation. But echo is a drawing management software .
Echo stores, maintains and improves the client’s blueprints and technical drawings. It offers peripheral supporting documentation such as equipment manuals, warranties and reports.
This has many implications with regards to how the software operates, which features are available to the user, as well as the support that is available to the user through the provider of the software.
While Microsoft’s support team may or may not know anything about technical drawings or blueprints, here at DCM, we are The Drawing Specialists.
DCM staff are well-versed in how blueprints and other technical documents work. We understand the procedures related to their utilization and storage, and have a thorough understanding of the process of bringing all the contents of a drawing room into a software solution.
And there is often a lot of content that builds up over the years, in those drawing rooms.
Echo vs Microsoft SharePoint
Implementation & Customization
One of the largest differences between implementing a software solution like SharePoint instead of echo is that, when implementing SharePoint, you are on your own. It is the client’s job to get the documents that they currently possess into the system. This includes:
- Scanning any hardcopy documents into a digital format.
- Ensuring that they are using the most current version of the documents they possess.
- Capturing information currently on the document, into a format which is accessible to the software’s searching features.
- Customizing the system such that it meets the needs of the client’s, staff, etc.
Whether performed in-house or by a third party, these operations require a large amount of expertise, and can become quite expensive. This is not a concern at DCM. Our processes are specifically tailored towards a smooth implementation of our echo software for facility managers.
DCM is ready to do the work for our clients, such as:
- Uploading digital drawings with their associated information
- Scanning, optimizing and uploading hardcopy drawings in a digital format.
- Ensuring that different versions of the same document are entered into the version control system, instead of as separate documents.
- Customizing the echo system to meet the stated needs of the clients.
- Providing infrastructure to store the documents
When sourcing this work from current employees or a third party, this can be costly and time-consuming. DCM benefits from the economy of scale—we process millions of documents for a multitude of facilities, and we have the processes laid out to do it accurately, quickly and efficiently.
Testimonials
According to a report conducted by AIIM Research, 40% of SharePoint customers do not consider their implementation of SharePoint to be a success. The same report shows that, although 35% of customers with an Office 365 subscription utilize SharePoint, only 2% of their staff were actually using it.
DCM services a smaller number of clients in a smaller subset of industries. As a result, we are able to invest much more into the business relationship that DCM has with our clients and ensure that everybody is receiving a system that meets their needs.
DCM CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
Here are some of our clients’ testimonials regarding their experiences with DCM and echo:
“Implementing echo was seamless! Our workflow has improved. DCM delivers on the promises they make. I highly recommend their product and services.”
Nancy Bishop – Brant Community Healthcare
“echo is easy to learn, quick to administer, and provides a comprehensive revision history for each drawing.”
Danica Johnston – BGIS
AutoCAD
On the whole, SharePoint does not support AutoCAD documents in any significant way. As AutoCAD is a proprietary software, it is difficult to integrate support for DWG, DWF and Xref files into any software not created by Autodesk.
That being the case, DCM has written their own proprietary software tools intended to interface with files created by Autodesk. This allows Echo to support them to a greater extent than other softwares such as SharePoint.
Searching
For customers using SharePoint, searching is one of their most common gripes. Many customers consider it to be unintuitive and difficult to customize. Often time they feel it is slower than simply looking for the document themselves.
Echo offers a fully customizable searching system with a variety of options for how individual users wish to search for their documents.
It guarantees that our search system will integrate with the way that our clients intuitively desire to look for their documents.
Document Services
Technical documents don’t just need to be stored properly, they need to be maintained. Construction, policy changes and evolving circumstances such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, often lead to structural changes. These changes then require updates to blueprints, procedures and other technical documentation.
Using a service like SharePoint, this maintenance will either need to be performed in-house or by a third party. With DCM echo, our drawing and software experts are capable of performing this maintenance on the client’s behalf, including:
- Adding new documents to the system.
- Updating existing documents with their newer versions.
- Redrawing old or low-quality documents.
- Creating CAD versions of non-CAD documents.
- Our Baseline Drawing services.
These services can all be performed by DCM at a rate which is faster, and less costly than performing them in-house.
Baseline Services
One of the unique aspects of implementing echo into your workplace is access to our suite of DCM Baseline features. Baseline is a feature wherein DCM can create a set of Master CAD documents. These documents integrate all of the relevant information from the client’s current set of masters.
This process can greatly reduce the quantity of documents through which the average staff member must search to find what they’re looking for, and unifies all of the client’s master drawings into a small set of modern, up-to-date CAD drawings.
Version Control
Blueprints and other technical drawings often come with large lists of revisions. But which is the most recent? What drawings are duplicates of each other? Which are superseded versions of newer documents? When implementing a software like SharePoint, these are questions which must be resolved by the client.
Echo, by the use of software-based auditing tools and the expertise of our staff, is able to condense our client’s documents. This ensures that duplicates are not entered into the system. After that, superseded versions of newer documents are attached to the newest version via our Version Control System.
Revisions to documents occur without the creation of new documents, allowing clients to easily find the master file, at all times.
Using our Version Control System, the user always knows that what they’re viewing is the newest, most up-to-date version of the document that is in our client’s possession.
Ease of Use and Training
As much as two thirds (66%) of SharePoint customers blame their low adoption rates of the software on the difficulty of use, as well as lack of proper training received by Microsoft. Conversely, echo is a far simpler system. It is aiming at users who are not necessarily IT & programming professionals.
Echo features a wealth of training resources. Its knowledge base contains articles about every aspect of the system. As well as including a live support line that can put users in touch with software experts at DCM Inc.
DCM also offer training courses to teach key staff members about how to use the software as effectively as possible. We make our software adoption process as easy as possible. Our software tools assist our clients staff, rather than impede them.
echo vs Microsoft SharePoint
Microsoft SharePoint is a document management system used by a wide variety of businesses.
But echo by DCM Inc is a drawing management system for facility managers.
By pursuing a niche market, we have created the best software solution for facility managers to store their technical drawings and documentation.
Our software has numerous features that support and target the specific needs of our clients, as well as a team of Specialists who understand our client’s needs.
They know how to help them improve their drawing management situation so dramatically, that they could never imagine returning to the way things used to be done.