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Design management is, obviously, central to the whole design process – but it is also connected to everything else that takes place in a design practice. It follows that tools to enhance design process must interface with all the other tools that practices use, such as accounting systems, practice management systems, document management systems, CAD systems, and communication systems – and more.
No system does everything, and we don’t think that it is very likely that this will change in the future. So, we are working on ways to improve interfaces with other systems, and in a few cases reduce the need for them. Here’s what we’re working on:
Communication : At the top of this list is communication, particularly email management. You simply cannot manage design without an integral contact system, which is part of iProjects. But there needs to be a seamless flow between our contacts and the communication we have with them – so developing a robust email system is at the top of our list of areas for further development.
Document management : The new Email system dramatically improves and simplifies document management - but we want to take document management to the next logical step: Providing a comprehensive, user-definable matrix for organizing all project documents. The facility for this is built into FileMaker v12, now available. We will be building this function in the immediate future.
Fully electronic tools : Some of the tools in iProjects are still legacy paper-based templates. We will be finding good ways to computerise them.
New discipline templates : We need DDNA templates for the various engineering disciplines as well as several related to architecture, such as interior design, landscape architecture, etc.
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for each. The completed Plan can be used to create the project budget, or to confirm the cost of completing each of the Tasks and Stages in the project budget.