How Cardno Transformed Their Business with 12d Synergy: From QA Management to ISO 19650 Compliance

Cardno’s journey with 12d Synergy spans nearly a decade from solving quality assurance challenges in 2014 to embarking on a full ISO 19650 digital transformation in 2021. This case study shares how a global engineering consultancy used 12d Synergy to first fix the fundamentals of document management, and then evolve towards world-class information management. 

Cardno (now acquired by Stantec), is a global infrastructure, environmental, and social development company. Founded in 1945, Australia, the company has grown to 8,000+ employees across 85 countries, providing over 280 services and accumulating a revenue of $1.2 billion (at the time of the 2014 12d Technical Forum). With over 60% of their workforce based outside Australia, Cardno required a platform that could support truly global collaboration. 

“As a frustrated manager I could see we needed to make some improvements.” 

— Dion Mead, Former Survey Manager, Cardno NZ 

Watch: ISO 19650 and 12d Synergy with Cardno

Phase 1 (2014): Solving Quality Assurance with 12d Synergy

The sheer scale of Cardno’s operations presented a number of obstacles from quality control and managing multiple offices to meeting strict deadlines on multi-national projects. Cardno needed a dependable QA solution with full version control and the flexibility of remote access worldwide. They found 12d Synergy at the 2014 12d Technical Forum. 

Testing the Platform 

Only selected projects were used by Cardno when first implementing and testing the platform. Three features were central to their evaluation: 

Folder Structure 

Cardno took the folder structure from the directory of many Australian offices and used it as a guide, moulding it throughout the testing process. This paved the way for 12d Synergy to create a connected network of offices across New Zealand, all working from the same standardised folder structure. 

Attributes 

The ethos Cardno followed during testing was “Rubbish in = Rubbish Out”, meaning if poor data goes in, only poor data comes out. A system-wide effort to attribute all projects, folders, and files was implemented (e.g. job number, client, location, office), enabling Cardno to harness 12d Synergy’s lightning-fast attribute searching, precise reporting, and quality assurance management. 

Templates 

With 12d Synergy’s ability to create, save, and manage file templates, Cardno could guarantee that their rigid control procedures were consistently met. Project Templates were set up enforcing only one of two project types: single or multi-stage. These templates included folder structures, naming conventions, tasks, and roles. Email templates were also meticulously planned, ensuring quality assurance management across the board. The major time-saving benefit: no need to recreate these from scratch each time. 

Benefits Realised from the 2014 Implementation 

With a well-configured DMS in place, Cardno rolled out the system knowing that QA management was completely secured by 12d Synergy. Any employee could step into a project at any time and understand where they were up to, what was next, and where all files were located. Key benefits included: 

• Quality Assurance Management :12d Synergy enabled seamless integration between new and existing quality processes — mandatory reports on tasks, standardised templates across all jobs, stored QA forms, and a complete audit trail. 
• Email Management: Automatic filing of emails to specific projects with an airtight audit trail. Mandatory descriptions for filed emails and stored attachments contributed to a centrally stored, lightning-fast searchable platform. 
• Version Control: Check-In/Check-Out provided a complete log of all changes and revisions. If a mistake was found, Cardno could roll back to a previous version in a couple of clicks. 
• Global Collaboration: Over 60% of Cardno’s 8,000-strong workforce were based outside of Australia. 12d Synergy facilitated collaboration across the world, allowing anyone with access to seamlessly retrieve, edit, and work on files — whether remotely, internationally, or from home. 

Phase 2 (2021): ISO 19650 Digital Transformation 

In 2021, Cardno embarked on the next stage of their digital transformation: implementing the information management principles of ISO 19650 within their existing 12d Synergy environment. Blake Feehely, Transport Digital Engineering Manager at Cardno, presented Cardno’s approach at the 2021 12d Tech Forum. 

By this point, 12d Synergy was already being widely used across Cardno for document and data management, with over 400 users. The goal was now to configure the system to meet ISO 19650 requirements. 

As Blake explains: “Essentially a CDE is a single point of truth environment, an area where we have assurance that the information we use is current, is relevant, and can be applicable to tasks and activities on a project. ISO 19650 helps us add colour to the picture, highlighting how to track information in this single point of truth in terms of its state.” 

How Cardno Configured 12d Synergy for ISO 19650 

There are several features within 12d Synergy that Cardno used to meet ISO 19650 requirements. These are detailed below. 

Folder Structure & Job Templates 

Cardno defined and enforced a standardised job structure using Job Templates. An ISO 19650-compliant folder structure was created based on the four-stage CDE workflow, with four top-level folders representing each state: WIP, Shared, Published, and Archived. As information moves through its different states, it progresses through the corresponding folders. 

Roles & Permissions

12d Synergy’s Roles & Permissions feature was used to control access to information for authorised parties only. WIP information is accessible and editable only by the responsible task team, preventing other teams from referencing draft information. Clients and project partners were given read-only access to the Shared and Published folders. 

Naming Conventions

A Naming Convention rule was applied to all files and data across projects, ensuring correct practices were used by all parties and that information could be easily searched and retrieved. ISO 19650 requires all information containers to carry a unique container ID and this feature enforces exactly that. 

Attributes

Building on their 2014 attribute work, Cardno further configured File Attributes to meet ISO 19650 classification requirements — including status codes (indicating the permitted user) and classification codes (categorising information against a standardised system). These attributes are personalised to the organisation’s specific needs. 

Version Control

The Check-In Check-Out feature ensures there is only one single source of truth. Once a file is checked out of 12d Synergy, no one else can make amendments by eliminating double-ups and data corruption. The Version Control & Change History function automatically maintains an auditable record. This is valuable for ISO 19650 as it reduces errors and rework while improving inter-disciplinary collaboration. 

Webdrop & Publishing 

The Webdrop function is used for informally sending and receiving data externally of the CDE, allowing files to be reviewed with respective task teams before being formally moved to the Shared state. 

Issuing & Transmittals

The Issuing & Transmittals feature is used for formally issuing files to clients, with date and time stamps for every issue. This feature supports the Published state transition in the ISO 19650 workflow. 

Future Enhancements

Cardno planned to further leverage Workflows and Tasks in 12d Synergy to provide additional efficiency to their ISO 19650 configuration. Workflows enable system administrators to define structured processes with rules and automation for the creation and management of information. Tasks can provide tracking of all actionable items for each team member. Together, these features add further support to information management across the full built asset lifecycle. 

Note: Cardno’s configuration for ISO 19650 was still in production at the time of publishing and may not be suited to every organisation or workflow. 

For more on the ISO 19650 framework, read our comprehensive ISO 19650 Guide and our Guide to the Common Data Environment (CDE).