Client: Clark Construction Group LLC Title: eSnap’s™ Integration of Critical Project Management Data at Clark Improves Productivity and Collaboration. (PDF)

CHALLENGE

Clark Construction Corporation, a leader in the construction industry with over $2 billion in annual revenue, has decades of success in large-scale commercial, institutional and heavy construction projects throughout the United States.

The company is widely known for its design-build, project management expertise and in developing a diverse construction portfolio including convention centers, sports stadiums, office complexes, hotels, highways and bridges. With so many specialized divisions and subsidiaries, Clark must ensure that each project is matched and managed with appropriate resources and expertise.

The company relied heavily on data from multiple data sources and recognized the need for a new approach to the way project information and communication was managed. Project managers and business divisions needed the ability to quickly share various sources of information with internal and external stakeholders. Clark was seeking a single application to centralize data access and eliminate employee time spent learning multiple platforms. Their top challenges were:

• A legacy, LAN-based core business application on a mainframe.
• The need to access data from the mainframe database as well as other databases on the network.
• Decentralized islands of data residing in diverse operating environments and a mixed infrastructure that included Microsoft Windows, Novell, AS400, DB2, SQL Server and others.
• The need to share files in varying formats located on different servers.
• The need to restrict access to different users depending on their privileges and their project subset.

3H SOLUTION

3H Technology conducted an assessment of Clark’s existing system and identified user needs to uncover the commonality between all required data sources. 3H determined that “job data” was the core business element utilized and the “job number” was the core data element. 3H then deployed eSnap™, a real-time, scalable Enterprise Information Integration solution to centralize job number related data from multiple sources, both inside and outside of Clark’s enterprise. Working closely with Clark, 3H prioritized and built user views to the data called Snapins.

The primary Snapin entitled The Global Key Performance Indicator (KPI), allowed users with permission to view ongoing projects, to filter and search specific projects and to “jump” to individual job pages. Executive, managers and decision-makers could see the status of different project management components such as budgets and schedules at-a-glance. Problem areas were identified according to a defined set of business rules. Remote locations with limited bandwidth gained quick access to vital data by virtue of the eSnap™ “Load-on Demand” architecture.

At the click of a button, users are presented with integrated information from structured and unstructured data sources. Legacy applications are accessible through the web, directories were made available for sharing with no risk of tampering, and users are presented with the views of the data that are pertinent to them without the lengthy and unwarranted process of learning an entire application.

Security parameters in eSnap™ were configured to grant access to pages and Snapins based upon the user’s group affiliations with permissions and restrictions. For example, East Coast Project Managers were given access only to East Coast job data and Executive Program Managers were able to view company-wide project information and job records.

3H’s Enterprise Information Integration solution has transformed the way Clark Construction does business. Disparate data has become organized knowledge, helping managers allocate resources and monitor finances more efficiently, and providing executives with the ability to respond to project challenges more effectively.

Within a few short months, Clark benefited from the implementation of eSnap™. An in-house eSnap™ administrator, trained by 3H, allows Clark to easily address new applications and changing user needs. The company now has the tools, resources and knowledge to rapidly respond to market challenges with updated or new Snapins. Today, Clark Construction enjoys all the advantages of eSnap™ while preserving their past investments and allowing for future growth by virtue of the flexibility of the system.