We sat down for a chat with Eirik Oen Lie, partner and Head of BIM and QA at Origo Arkitektgruppe, to find out how switching to Moment has impacted their operations.
By: Sturla RĆøysland
Origo Arkitektgruppe
Based in Bergen, Norway, Origo Arkitektgruppe has since its founding in 1987 been focused on complex buildings.
The office mainly works with big public building projects, such as schools, hospitals and care homes, and are usually involved in every project phase, from programming, to outline, to follow-up at the building site.
- We work with all kinds of clients, from private individuals and enterprises to big, public companies such as Statsbygg. The bulk of our hours are spent on large, complex projects for public health enterprises and municipalities.
Good, competent architecture and innovative solutions is important. Their aim is to provide buildings rich in experience for its users.
Since Origo works on large, complicated projects, they have the competency needed to do smaller projects, or āgemsā as Eirik puts it, as well. Although they participate in architectural contests, itās important that projects are realistic and possible to execute.
- The end goal is to have functional buildings for our clients, whether itās a family that needs help to simplify everyday logisitics, or big projects like the rehabilitation of Nationaltheatret (The National Theatre in Oslo) that weāre doing in a constellation with FuthArk and Ratio Arkitekter.
- It was particularly challenging when it came to reporting to our CEO in order to gain an overview of available capacity. This laid claim to a lot of extra hours from admins and project managers, and made it difficult to keep control of time spent.
Also, the need to constantly ādouble punchā data due to limitations in their systems also meant that they had less time and energy to focus on delivery.
Eirik reveals that Origo had tried to develop the software they were using, but it had kept more or less the same interface for the last 12-15 years.
- While every other software become more user friendly, we saw that we were using too much time on it. There was a relatively long process to figure out what we wanted to change to, since we wanted to make the right choice.
- We took a broad stroke at the market to see which solutions existed, and what they could offer.
The main focus was the option to reuse as much information as possible, so they could spend more time on architecture, rather than repeating things they had already done, like manually allocating hours that had already been defined in an offer.
- What we liked about Moment, was feeling that our wishes matched your offer, and that you had intentions of developing this further. We have given input on what we want, and we see that changes are happening fast - youāre listening to us and that makes this a very good solution for us.
Read on to find out more about Moment and how the solution has changed operations at Origo.
Store LungegƄrdsvann
Bergen | 2020
Photo: Helge Skodvin
Moment as a solution
Moment is a project and resource management software developed specifically for the architectural industry.
With more than 3000 architects using the system daily, the purpose of Moment is to provide users with the tools necessary to run an effective operation.
Perhaps the most crucial service Moment provides, is reducing the need for repeated, manual tasks and working in different, disconnected systems. Moment neatly gathers all operational tools in one box, where users can pick and choose the ones they need at any time.
Since Origo were looking for a service that would cover their operational needs, and reduce the time needed to plan and manage their projects, Moment came up at the right time.
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"The cost was surprisingly low, so everything was quite painless."
- Eirik Oen Lie
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We set a date for startup and mapped out the details, such as what data they would like to import and which accounting integration they were going to use.
Origo wished to transfer all historical data, so that they could maintain project history within Moment and get reference data when necessary.
- We simply set a date, moved everything over and the next day we started tracking hours in Moment. All the projects were transferred directly from the previous system. The cost was surprisingly low, so everything was quite painless.
Kronstad DPS
Bergen | 2013
Photo: Helge Skodvin
In particular, the Offers-module is helping them speed up the process of getting offers accepted and into projects.
- We frequently use the Offers-module to create client offers with deliverables, estimated hours and fees, that the client can easily accept or decline on the customerās offer page. If accepted, we create a corresponding project with all activities and estimates at the click of a button. This allows us to reuse information and saves us a lot of time.
- We started actively putting tags on our projects in order to use them as references later. For instance, if we need a reference for a health care project, we can simply filter by the tag āhealth careā and get an overview of all our reference projects. Weāre also adding information on how big projects are, what the address is, etc, so that we get project sheets easily accessible inside Moment.
- Itās obvious that less time is being spent on managing resources by people sitting outside the projects. The need for pure, administrative, non-billable time has almost disappeared.
Bergen Central Station Bergen | 2018
Employees: 10
Using Moment since: June 2019
DISCIPLINES
Architecture
Interior
Landscape
MAINLY WORKS ON
Schools
Hospitals
Care homes
- Project planning
- Resource management
- Offer development
- Time tracking
- HR and absence
- Invoicing
DATA IMPORT FROM
ProjectHelp
Visma Business