Balancing firm capital & ICTs use in architecture firm

Balancing firm capital & ICTs Use in architecture firm is the Eighth article of a series. Articles about design management in architecture practice. I have discussed in the previous articles what is design management, who is the design manager in practice. Also, firm or project design management plan, what are the key functions of a design management plan in practice? In addition, what needs to be managed in architecture firm. This article is the third article on building and writing a design management plan.

Architecture firms around the world want to balance in their operations two operative characteristics. Surely, they include firm capital, and ICTs use (information and communication technologies). Firms, depending on their scale, size, and types of service they provide, have also different types of systems. This system becomes bigger and includes the use of various ICTs that require more capital.

The amount of work that members of the design team work on can create burnout and stress. These two psychological characteristics create damage to members of staff and reduce the amount and quality of work produced in the firm. According to academic and professional publications firm’s capital is divided into four categories:  

Human Capital: Knowledge and talent of employees.

System Capital: The Firm’s process and documentation held in past projects on a database.

Customer Capital: the value of a firm’s relationship with clients.

Collaborative Capital: is the shared knowledge between collaborating organizations.

In practice, large to small-sized firms consider in the employment process various aspects. For instance, employing people with sufficient knowledge, academic qualifications, and expertise. These that fit the firm’s needs and future firm plans (Human capital). Every firm uses certain processes to finish design work and uses its documentation and project directories efficiently. That based on using their expertise in handling the design management of the previous work and ongoing work (system capital). All, without any exception, firms in the world focus on and work on client satisfaction as the base for firm success and the fuel for firm continuity.

Firms, through the owner, keep excellent relationships with their clients to get more projects for their firm (customer capital). Small firms provide help to their staff in professional development training. Also, they help in providing knowledge to others, either through seminars or architects’ unions and bodies. In larger-scale firms, they provide support for development differently. They help in training on a continuous basis based on studied programs that include all staff (collaborative capital). See Figure 1, which shows Balancing firm capital & ICTs Use of Fijusto types of firm capital that are similar to the above.

The design management plan must focus on client satisfaction and their positive evaluation of the firm providing the service. Large to small firms have similar capital that fits their needs. Large firms have more capacity to provide more work when the client is not satisfied with the work submitted and the firm’s service. Customer capital is the key to the firm’s success and smooth operations, and growth if planned for it. The firms, regardless of their size, are similar in holding the same capital for that the gauge of the firm’s strength is the customer capital and how it is managed.

If the firm does not manage customer capital properly, the firm will not get more projects. Surely, that will cause the company to decline to provide consultancy and architecture services. Customer capital and its good management are the key to providing a flow of funds for the firm’s operations and its continuity.

The design management plan focuses, when considering capital, on the proper type of communication with clients throughout the project lifecycle. Also, the plan to pay attention to clients in any meeting and progress meetings. The plan should allocate high-level staff members to communicate and attend meetings. The plan should include responding to client needs and concerns positively. Finally, providing the agreed quality of work as per the project timeline.

 Balancing firm capital & ICTs use in architecture firm. The use of ICTs in architecture and consultancy firms includes:

Core/process-wide / techniques that include Programming packages, spreadsheets, and presentation applications. Electronic data interchange, Project extranets, 2D & 3D Modeling Tools, integrated databases, and intranet applications. Project and management systems, onsite communication & management tools (PDAs). Supporting tools and techniques computer-aided planning programs. Decision support tools, virtual reality tools, sketching programs, risk analysis applications. Building information modeling and video conferencing. See Figure 2, types of ICTs in the design business.

In practice, regardless of the size of the firm and the type of services they provide, they use and hold the same ICTs. However, the reality of operations and design management is that the firm focuses on many aspects when building a design management plan. First, the risk of taking a project that depends mainly on consultancy fees. I have managed several projects in practice, and the consultancy fees represent the main factor that a firm takes into consideration when taking on a project.

The design management plan builds a registry or database of finished projects. Including the size of the project and the allocated fees that cover the project cost. This comes from previous work experience. Alternatively, analyzing how much staff a work needs, the time to finalize. Also, how much past outsourced work the firm has sent, and how much money the firm spent to use programs and software.

The firm does not, in practice, look into how many talented people they have or how the firm uses the system. Also, which staff the firm will allocate to the project work in terms of outsourcing when they bid for a consultancy service. They normally visit their database of information on the fees for a similar project. No firm takes a job that has a high risk and might lose upon completion. Risk analysis in the design management plan focuses on the fees calculated for every project. The design management plan must include a database of project sizes and the covering fees based on a concrete analysis of the factors mentioned above.

Second, the design management plan, for any firm size, must focus on the method to accomplish design work within the allocated time. Firms upgrade their system and inform their staff of this upgrade, like using REVIT instead of AutoCAD in the design process. Software and program usage provide more flexibility in accomplishing firm work on time. The design management plan must include what type of software to use in every stage of the design process of any project, based on an analysis of how much time this software or another could finalize work when used by staff.

Third, another major factor for consideration in building and writing a design management plan. The plan includes how communication is conducted. And how data and production work are transferred between staff members till the project completion date. The only difference is that large-scale firms that have department staff movement are not preferred. So, communication is conducted by internal software like TEAMS by Microsoft. The use of this software and similar ones make communication easier, and data transferred easily without wasting time and the requirement for more space and time for internal meetings.

The design management plan in reality and practice, when considering ICTs usage, focuses on the three major factors that a project reaches its final milestone and accomplishment date. First, analyze the risk of taking a job (fees). Second, Time allocation and the method to accomplish work on time.  Third, the method of communication and data, and work production transfer. Here, I have shown in practice an in-depth expertise in balancing firm capital & ICTs Use in architecture firm. Other related articles you can find in these links ^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7}