How Southern Land Development Tracked 80,000 Project Changes Flawlessly & Preserved Profits

by | Jul 26, 2023 | Blog, Case Studies

What is more terrifying than a complex building project with 119 residential lots and 40,000m3 of earthworks? It is an all-too-common, poorly controlled common data environment that can squander time, lose money, and tank a company’s reputation.  
When Southern Land Development was selected for the Clearview Wanaka project in New Zealand, they decided to fight fear with technology. The company turned to 12d Synergy to fine-tune and customise management tools and protocols to meet the specific needs of the project. 

Here are some of the beastly challenges Southern Land Development faced and the solutions from 12d Synergy that tamed them… 

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The Challenge: High Costs of Data Errors

Land development project progress comes with a price: an ever-expanding menu of administrative tasks. Each new task, no matter how simple or necessary, carves out its own piece of a project’s limited budget of time and money. Southern Land Development was keen to curb the debilitating effects of spending time correcting errors, both human and computer, which should never have slipped through the cracks in the first place.

It was crystal clear that the success of Clearview Wanaka hinged, in part, on reliable data management in a common data environment. Southern turned to 12d Synergy for building industry-responsive bells and whistles to create a flexible, reliable end-to-end work environment that gave each participant immediate access to the latest version of data along with a paper trail of previous iterations. “The great thing about Synergy is that you don’t need to worry about losing an email,” says Grant, by way of example. “You don’t have to worry about overriding another file. You can roll back to previous data, and you can pull it back if you need to.”

Priceless!

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The Solution & Realised Benefits

80,000 File Changes Didn’t Stop Southern Land

12d Synergy equipped Grant and his team with a worry-free process to manage Clearview Wanaka by making up-to-the-minute data sets available in real time to all key stakeholders. The goal was simple: provide enhanced data control, a centralised, reliable remote work platform, and increased productivity to keep the project on time and on budget. This paid off, as ultimately close to 80,000 file changes were flawlessly tracked for Clearview Wanaka. “Issuing file sets is something that I’ve found helps the process when you’ve got multiple projects running,” says Grant. “You can just go to issue sets, and say, ‘I issued that revision on this date. There is an update here’ … You know you have the latest current data. It gives you confidence … it’s really key.”

Yellow folder with check mark

Taming Administrative Tasks and Setting Time Free

With a goal of increasing productivity by re-imagining administrative tasks, 12d Synergy had another solution to offer. Southern Land’s data was pushed into 12d Synergy’s system under the heading Attributes, an invaluable, comprehensive repository for details down to specifics of plotting, drafting, and wait for it … reporting.

With just a push of the button (figuratively speaking), it was easy for Southern Land’s team to generate a wide range of the information documentation required for various administrative needs. “(It)reduces our administrative time in terms of our inspection reports, completion certificates, and all sorts of stuff!” says Grant.

Stranded Remote Workers by Choice or Otherwise

Global partnerships that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago are now commonplace, with teams forming across countries and time zones. It would have also been unimaginable to think that in 2023 a growing number of workers would be home-based. And who could have anticipated the COVID epidemic? 12d Synergy didn’t have a crystal ball to anticipate these seismic shifts, but they did have a response that proved invaluable to Southern Land.

When lockdowns were initiated, Grant was stranded overseas. Unwilling to let the project be delayed, he intended to undertake most of his earthworks and civil design activities from his new home base in Slovakia. He wasn’t panicked. Instead, he knew Southern Land’s utilisation of 12d Synergy provided complete flexibility, revolutionising the work process. 

12d Synergy was used to manage all 12d Model customisations throughout Southern Land’s offices by pushing out all node files, user library files, feature code libraries and updates to any of their 12d Model users’ local hard drives.

Summary of Benefits

Main Problems
Poorly controlled data
Time-consuming error correction
Administrative tasks consuming time and resources
Remote work challenges due to global partnerships and COVID-19
Inefficient data management leading to errors and miscommunication
Time and cost savings
Solutions
Fine-tuned management tools and protocols in 12d Synergy’s common data environment
Real-time availability of up-to-the-minute data sets in 12d Synergy
Attributes feature in 12d Synergy
Utilisation of 12d Synergy for managing 12d Model customisations
Fine-tuned management tools and protocols in 12d Synergy
Automation and adaptability of 12d Synergy and 12d Model
Benefits
Enhanced data control, reliable work environment, immediate access to the latest data, and ability to roll back to previous versions.
Flawless tracking of 80,000 file changes, increased productivity, and confidence in having the latest data.
Increased productivity, reduced administrative time, and easy generation of information documentation.
Complete flexibility in work processes, ability to work remotely and maintain productivity, and seamless data management across offices.
Reduced errors and miscommunication, improved data accuracy and reliability, and issuing file sets for large data transfers.
Time saved on drafting, increased efficiency and productivity, and cost savings.

What Do You Say When You Save Time, Boost Productivity and Ace Projects?

With 12d Synergy software in place, Southern gained the ability to fine tune management tools and protocols to meet the specific needs of the project. They decreased errors and miscommunication, and issued file sets for large data transfers while automatically tracking which documents were issued by who and when.

Regarding Southern Land’s success with Clearview Wanaka, Greg reports, “As a civil designer for this project I was just super happy with the way that all of 12d Synergy and 12d Model could work together seamlessly. 12d Synergy could automate everything, make it adaptable and limit the amount of time I spent drafting.”

Time saved is money earned.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Success

The triumph of Southern Land over the challenges of remote data sharing is not an isolated incident. More and more companies are finding ways to save time and money by investing a little of both in 12d Synergy’s proven approach to building industry data management and success.

The highlights of Southern Land Development’s experience in Clearview Wanaka have been recorded for posterity, yes, but primarily for anyone who wants to change the way they do business for the better. Our webinar lets you watch and learn from an accomplished civil designer who speaks your language. Register below to watch the webinar now!

If you’re living in a data transfer nightmare, we invite you to wake up to smart, efficient, and secure data management and contact 12d Synergy today.
On demand webinar

How Southern Land Development Tracked 80,000 Project Changes Flawlessly & Preserved Profits

Presented by Grant Wandel

Register to watch for free…

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Nick Moseley portrait photo
Nick Moseley
Author
Nick has been a Marketing Coordinator at 12d Synergy since early 2023, bringing with him a love for copywriting and a passion for developing compelling content. Outside of work, you’ll find him cheering on his beloved Wests Tigers or exploring the local cafe scene in search of the perfect chicken burger.