15 July 2009
Gauldie Wright and Partners have become the first practice to adopt Workspace mini
Gauldie Wright and Partners, a seven person architectural firm based in Dundee have become the first practice to take on Workspace mini, a new and revised version of the well established Workspace product from construction software specialists Union Square Software.
Workspace mini has been developed to serve smaller companies in the construction industry that want to achieve the same world class business management practices as larger companies but have limited resources to embark on ambitious software implementations. Workspace mini for professional services is delivered pre-configured and out-of-the box and is based on the "best practice" learnt over the last decade. Gauldie Wright is implementing the core Workspace mini platform with additional modules for timesheets and document control. The implementation is expected to be completed by August, taking less than a third of the time of a traditional Workspace implementation.
Director Peter Kingston comments on their decision to look for a practice management solution, "We have been using an alterative system for about 18 months and have found it to be unreliable and too rigid for our needs; our staff were becoming increasingly frustrated especially with the system crashing. As a company that invests in information technology and is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 accredited it is important that we have systems that can meet the demands of our staff and support our quality procedures. Also, remote access to information was becoming more important and it was clear that this was not something that could be supported by the current system."
An industry contact recommended Union Square Software. Peter comments: "The Workspace mini solution proved to be ideal for us. We wanted something that we could implement quickly as we had just invested in new hardware for the company so wanted the two changes to coincide. We also weren't keen to spend a lot of money as it was only 18 months ago that we invested in our current system. The Workspace mini product is a perfect fit for our business and delivers many features that were lacking in the current system such as integration with Outlook for email management and integration with phones and PDAs for contact details. SharePoint was also a consideration for the practice but we realised that it was untested in the Architectural space and our development costs could have gone on indefinitely."
Gauldie Wright and Partners were impressed by the references they got from current Workspace users and is looking forward to starting work with Union Square, "We spoke to three clients who were all extremely enthusiastic about Workspace. We got a sense from the industry that a lot of companies were switching to Workspace which helped make our decision easier." Director at Union Square Software Will Yandell comments, "Most clients come on board because of the quality and functionality of the Workspace product; but they remain supporters of the product long after the purchase date due to the standard of customer support and the involvement of the user community in ongoing product development. Workspace mini is an exciting new development for Union Square and we are keen to start serving smaller companies with the same level of quality and diligence that we have larger companies for many years."
