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Back in 1988 it was the most innovative, user-friendly software tool for our market and, in my opinion, it has just got better and better

Neil MacLeod, planning manager:
Foster and Partners

Asta Powerproject helps award-winning architect firm, Foster and Partners, manage resources and projects.

In the world of architecture, planning and design, Foster and Partners (www.fosterandpartners.com) needs no introduction. The London-based, 300-architect 600 strong practice has an international reputation for design excellence and has received more than 260 awards, including the Queen's Award for Export. The practice has been responsible for the design of world-class landmark buildings including the new German Parliament in the Reichstag, Berlin; The Great Court for the British Museum; Hong Kong's new airport; the Metro Bilbao; Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich; and the Research Centre Stanford University, California.

The Business Challenge

Business growth always brings new challenges. This was certainly the case for Foster and Partners when strong demand for their expertise and services resulted in the expansion of the 100-strong team of architects alone to 300, within a space of just five years. As the practice grew, it became increasingly difficult to manage the work of individuals and teams, particularly in relation to current and upcoming projects. With up to 70 live projects being handled at any one time, the challenge for the practice was to manage its internal resources in order to plan more effectively, optimise resource utilisation levels and, at the end of the day, maximise fee-earning potential.

Neil MacLeod, planning manager commented: "Before Asta, our resource management was handled using manual paper-based systems. This was an effective process when we were a small team. But as we expanded from 100 to 300 architects, it became more difficult to keep track of what everyone was doing. It was also difficult to identify which individuals were fully utilised on project work, and to plan our future resource requirements accordingly. We knew that we needed a project and resource management solution that would consolidate all project-related data across the business."

Asta has the Answer

For a company where the central concern is design excellence, presentation is key. This is another reason why we chose Asta Powerproject.

Having used Asta Powerproject in a previous role, Neil MacLeod was keen to introduce the software to the planning department within Foster and Partners when he started as planning manager, almost seven years ago. Neil MacLeod said: "I have been using Asta Powerproject since it was first launched. Back in 1988 it was the most innovative, user-friendly software tool for our market and, in my opinion, it has just got better and better."

He added: "For a company where the central concern is design excellence, presentation is key. This is another reason why we chose Asta Powerproject. The software demonstrates resource implications in striking graphical
representations such as resource graphs and schedules. This means that we can use these images in our presentations to clients, rather than having to create new ones."

With such a large number of Clients and Contractors also using Asta Powerproject it seemed sensible to use the same system in order to easily share information.

Customisation and Integration

Swiss Re Headquarters, 30 St Mary Axe, London

Asta Development worked closely with Foster and Partners to develop a bespoke solution to meet its particular project and resource management requirements.
The company integrated Foster and Partners' proprietary timesheet accounts system to enable it to extract resource data into Microsoft Excel and then into Asta Powerproject where this information is converted into bar charts. Through these charts, the software identifies graphically the resources used in the project as well as highlights future resource requirements.

I can quickly and effectively allocate resources and forecast for future requirements thus ensuring our resources are optimised and our business is running at maximum efficiency

Neil MacLeod said: "With a single capacity plan in place, I now have visibility across all current and future projects. I can quickly and effectively allocate resources and forecast for future requirements thus ensuring our resources are optimised and our business is running at maximum efficiency."

Resource Management is Critical

Neil MacLeod concluded: "At Foster and Partners, we recognise that the design and architect professionals we employ are the key to our success and underpin our world-class reputation. So managing their workload, and creating
realistic yet challenging schedules is a critical business process for us. With Asta Powerproject, we have a professional tool that helps us manage our resources, increase fee-earning income and provides us with the visibility we need to make
our planning decisions with confidence."

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