Portland, Maine (December 1, 2020) – Chalkline, Inc. has published a case study on the selection, implementation, and success of deploying and using VisiSpecs at Black & Veatch.
Black & Veatch is an employee-owned engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, Black & Veatch has helped its clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries by addressing the resilience and reliability of our world’s most important infrastructure assets.
The Challenge: Black & Veatch was using macros in Microsoft Word which were difficult to maintain and keep current across the company. They needed a spec-writing application that would be easy to use, save time in writing and coordinating specs, and support the wide range of formatting required by projects. With more than 500 engineers globally using the new spec-writing application, the solution also needed to be easy to deploy with high user adoption across the organization. The system also needed flexibility and functionality to support various project types, including design-build and design-bid-build.
The Solution: An evaluation of available spec tools quickly showed VisiSpecs not only met the company’s needs, but provided additional submittal reporting, editing features, and publishing capabilities that exceeded expectations. Specific features users liked were the automatic Doc Outliner spec editing tool, submittal reporting, automatic header/footer and table of contents creation, and Microsoft Word familiarity. The ability to easily insert required specs from masters or projects was also an appreciated feature. Since engineers are not writing specs on a daily basis, the solution needed be very easy to dive back into even after months of non-use. The option to further improve processes utilizing the VisiSpecs BIM integration and keynote coordination in the near future made the decision an easy one.
The Results: Black & Veatch has already had more than 260 user installs and almost 500 projects around the globe with little to no tech support required. A short 30-minute introduction was available to users, yet most were up and running in less time since VisiSpecs is built on the familiar Microsoft Word application. It has also proven easy to import, edit, and publish custom, client specs for project use. This centralization of all projects edited with the same user interface helps users as well as the central Black & Veatch team supporting applications.
“VisiSpecs was very easy for us to roll out across the company and did not require a large amount of preparation time that other applications have required,” states Brian Melton, Chief Technologist at Black & Veatch. Technical support needs have been very low as users are familiar with Microsoft Word. Software updates are automatic, and the quality of VisiSpecs products is very high. There were only a few minor install issues needing tech support out of the 260 users who have installed VisiSpecs so far, and those were resolved quickly. With the solid platform for managing specifications in place, Black & Veatch is planning BIM integration just a year after its engineering team rollout.
Case Study Key Benefits:
- Time-Saving Features
- Enterprise-Wide Deployment
- High User Acceptance
- Minimal Tech Support Needed
- Automatic Software Updates
Read the complete case study and other customer testimonials here.
Visit www.chalklineinc.com or email info@chalklineinc.com to learn more about the VisiSpecs applications, request a free trial, register for live webinars, see customer testimonials, and download product information.
