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If you are an Architecture or Engineering firm and you’re using Microsoft Excel to manage resource planning & forecasting, your firm is in danger. Across our industry, firms big and small place immense trust in their spreadsheets. Is that safe? After all, “we’ve been doing it this way for years.” 1. LACK OF CONTROL A&E firms love to control every aspect of the project – we have project managers, leadership sponsors, and exhaustive documentation. Why then do we manage our businesses with a process and spreadsheet with no centralized controls? Using an Excel spreadsheet to manage resource planning & forecasting means you are giving up control to a file that is emailed around the office, without oversight, and without tracking. And, once manipulation of the data begins with advanced formulas and charting, mistakes are inevitable. Would we manage our projects that way? 2. ONLY AS GOOD AS THE LAST EDITOR When it comes to finalizing a report for leadership, we need all sorts of information. We need to calculate backlog, gather staffing projections across multiple disciplines, and hassle our project managers to update their plans (many of which have their own spreadsheets). Data is flying in from every angle. Sure, you can see who made the last edits to the spreadsheet. But, how many admins have touched the spreadsheet since your last control check? How many edits are made in each pass? 3. FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY One of the big issues of using Excel spreadsheets is the false sense of security that everyone has over the accuracy of the spreadsheet. After all, if John created the spreadsheet, it must be right. He’s an Excel wizard (and we gave him that cool hat to show for it at the Holiday party). What we don’t realize is that John had a five other projects in the works and may have rushed through a couple formulas. Are we willing to risk the business on those formulas? On the “last editor” never making a mistake? 4. 88% OF SPREADSHEETS HAVE ERRORS Some of the scariest stories we’ve heard from firms that are using Excel revolve around errors that exist within the spreadsheets that the firm has been using to make critical business decisions. Studies have shown that 88% of spreadsheets have errors. 88/100. To make matters worse, a majority of errors reported were caused by human error. They were completely avoidable mistakes. 5. EXCEL CHARTS ARE NOT DASHBOARDS Once we pull data out of the ERP system and start filling in Excel, our information is out of date. We typically hear report creation takes a month, start-to-finish. That means, at best, you are making key strategic decisions a month behind schedule. Even the most die-hard Excel gurus will agree that, while Excel can create powerful charts, it just isn’t the same as having a dashboard with real-time data and graphics. You already have processes and tools to improve your project delivery and tracking. Now it’s time to escalate your business. Project Analyzer from Planifi is built specifically for A&E firms to drive growth and make better decisions with reliable, real-time data.

However, you might not realize just how much time and energy you spend managing rows upon rows…upon rows… There is no question that Excel is a powerful tool and firms have been relying on spreadsheets for years. It is also a tool that people tend to take for granted, and just assume that using spreadsheets is the simplest and best way to manage their data. After all, everyone knows Excel, right? How Much Time Are You Wasting in Excel? However, if you step back and think about it, you’ll realize that all those rows and columns might be making your job harder and causing you to waste a significant amount of time. Architects and Engineers track their time on projects, but have you ever tracked your time in spreadsheets? I didn’t think so. But you should. You’ll be surprised at how much time you are spending on a single spreadsheet. What kind of return are you getting for your efforts? A study conducted by Clearpoint Strategy found that it takes an individual 89 hours to create a management report. That’s not a typo. 89 hours. Could that time be put to better use? Seeing those inefficiencies at firms was one of the driving factors behind the creation of Project Analyzer and Project Visualizer . We knew there had to be a better way for the firms to get the information they needed without the tedious work of producing multiple spreadsheets. Multiple Spreadsheets Magnify the Problem Sure, it all starts with a simple spreadsheet: a report for the principals of the firm. But, before long, additional information is needed and modifications are made. One spreadsheet can’t do it all! So what do you do? You create another spreadsheet. And, of course, we need to link the data from one spreadsheet to the next. This begins the downward spiral of inefficiencies in spreadsheet hell. Spreadsheet Collaboration is a Unicorn The other issue we have with Excel spreadsheets for A&E firms is that there is never only one person creating and maintaining the spreadsheets. There is almost always a team of people involved, and while Excel has come a long way, there is just no way for efficient collaboration to take place with spreadsheets. Spreadsheet collaboration is a mythical thing, like a unicorn. Regain Control of your Data and your Time Okay, by now you get it, using Excel for project management reports can be very inefficient. So, how do you regain control of your data and your time? What if you could have a single view for all of your data? We’re talking “current-as-of-the-minute-you-clicked-the-button-data.” We call it CAOTMYCTBD for short (thank us for that one later). You could slice and dice like your most powerful pivot table without having to modify formulas, or link cells, or do vlookups, or any of the other “fun” commands in Excel!

With the launch of Planifi’s Project Visualizer upon us, it’s time to step back and understand how this will change the way AE firms run. In our world of fast innovation and ever-shifting deadlines, Project Visualizer provides an unprecedented level of visibility into core aspects of your AE business. Running an AE firm is complex, tracking people and profits across numerous projects at any given time. Project Visualizer takes away the headache and complexity of tracking these processes, creating project intelligence in an easy-to-view format. Project planning and scheduling are streamlined into simple, efficient graphs that allow for tracking of key metrics, phases, and milestones. Hover over jobs and projects to display key metrics such as due dates, progress and remaining work. You can drill down into an even more detailed view and customization allows users to adjust settings to their own liking. Planifi Project Visualizer Capacity View In addition, Project Visualizer offers firms unparalleled visibility into resources and capacity. You can view project activities by enterprise, office, or individual employee. View assigned/unassigned work by individual employee and use weekly views for detailed analysis. Now, with project intelligence, AE firms can use data to optimize and grow their business. While specific graphs and detailed analytics are always helpful, the greatest advantage Project Visualizer offers is relief. Tracking data and key metrics is a pain and poor organization impedes businesses from using this data effectively. Project Visualizer does all of this work for you, tracking scheduling plans and performance across your entire organization. This frees up time, reduces stress, and gives the arduous parts of business a refreshing new place. Contact sales to learn more today!

A few ago we announced the availability of Planifi Project Visualizer. Our customers have been looking forward to this product and we were very excited to release it! Since the release, we’ve had the chance to talk with some of our customers and hear how Project Visualizer has helped them better plan and forecast. One of the universal responses from our customers is that they loved the ability to really see into the future and make decisions based on real-time data. “When I ask what’s coming up and what is due across all of our projects, Project Visualizer clearly and graphically answers that question,” said Charlie Williams AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Associate and Technology Director at LPA, Inc. “It’s the killer feature that motivates our designers to use Planifi Project Visualizer.” Customers like LPA also love the ability to proactively control their resources & capacity. With Project Visualizer, they can view project activities across the entire firm – quickly compare capacity to potential new work or view by office/employee role to see who is overworked or needs more assignments! Also use this view to take the guesswork out of hiring – know exactly when, why, and where to hire new project staff. And, best of all, they can clearly see everything in a single, graphical view. There is no need to worry about spreadsheets and formulas and data entry, all the information is at the fingertips of the project managers and displayed in an easy to understand format. It is no wonder that the customers who have been using Project Visualizer are so happy with the results. They have more confidence in their projections and are truly believing what they are seeing.