Now an official AVAIL Desktop feature, Palettes enhance content management capabilities within the AVAIL platform, empowering all users to curate unique lists of content. Designed to help support a firm’s project workflow, Palettes are already transforming the way our AEC industry customers work. Director of Customer Success Clay Watson has checked in with our most prolific Palettes users and put together a playbook of his findings to help your firm benefit from the versatile feature, too.
Jump to
- Palettes 101: educational resources for your team
- Using Palettes to scope, launch, and collaborate on projects
- Your next steps: maximize Palette potential at your firm
- See what’s trending: unpacking your firm’s Palettes analytics
Palettes 101: educational resources for your team
We designed Palettes to be intuitive and accessible, streamlining content management workflows within AVAIL. This feature breaks down barriers between Publishers and Consumers (roles with AVAIL), allowing all users of AVAIL to collect favorites and share Revit content for specific projects, and more.
Explore how to use Palettes by checking out our Help Center article What are Palettes?
Palettes are an AVAIL Desktop feature and available with version 5.0.
One of the many benefits of Palettes is the built-in PDF Exporter feature. The PDF Lens in AVAIL is exclusive to Palettes and allows you to export your details as PDFs for mark-up purposes.
Find out more about how to use PDF Exporter by checking out the Help Center article Using the PDF Exporter.
Using Palettes to scope, launch, and collaborate on projects
As the Palettes feature moves from preview to full production in AVAIL 5.0, we’ve been gathering feedback from early Palette adopters. Here are three key ways we’ve seen Palettes transform workflows so far.
One of AVAIL's project collaboration tools, Palettes gives all users the ability to curate unique lists of content and share them with the team.
Three ways we’ve seen Palettes transform workflows:
1. Kick-start projects
One of our top Palettes users leverages the new feature to help scope and launch project work.
In this use case, Palettes become project starting blocks. The team lead (project manager) will use a Palette like a shopping cart, to pull together all related details for the project from their AVAIL-hosted Detail library.
Once this is completed, the lead schedules a kick-off meeting to present and share the Palette with their team, who then take action and begin work.
In the AEC industry, effective project collaboration tools are essential for success. Here, Palettes are used as the centerpiece of team collaboration and are the focal point for project work.
2. Resource sharing and content delivery
Palettes simplify cross-team content sharing in AVAIL. With the feature’s user-friendly interface, isolated view, and easy sharing capabilities, teams can now collaborate and exchange content more efficiently than ever before.
During my conversations with our most active Palettes user, one Publisher spoke to this point saying, “On my side I'm using Palettes to help deliver smaller content packages to the office from our main Channels.”
Creating consolidated packages of content with Palettes helps this team deliver and access content effectively.
3. Personal content favorites
Palettes allow users to conveniently bookmark and organize their most critical resources, providing quick and easy access when needed.
Whether you're gathering client-specific assets for future projects or compiling a collection of frequently used materials, Palettes offer a proactive solution to minimize time spent searching and scrolling to find the information you need, faster.
With your most important resources just a few clicks away, Palettes offer a way to boost both productivity and operational efficiency.
Your next steps: maximize Palette potential at your firm
To maximize the impact of Palettes on your AEC firm's project workflows, we challenge AVAIL Champions (what we call the leads administering AVAIL) to take the lead in Palette adoption. Here's how:
- Introduce Palettes to your team as a collaborative content management tool.
- Encourage team members to create their own content collections.
- Experiment with different ways of using Palettes across various team workflows and build your own best practices.
- Gather feedback on how Palettes are used and how they can be improved.
- Take the Palettes user survey to submit your feedback.
Keep in mind, content added to a Palettes does not affect the source content. Users also do not have the ability to index new content via a Palette.
See what’s trending: unpacking your firm’s Palettes analytics
How is your team using Palettes?
For Enterprise customers, Palettes activity has been added to AVAIL Analytics in the Manage Portal and includes a host of actions to monitor trends.
Here are all the actions you can view on Palettes:
- Add
- View Content
- Create
- Delete
- Download
- Drag Content
- Open Content
- Preview
- Share
Develop insights about your team's Palettes usage to further streamline project workflows with AVAIL Analytics.
Since users can freely create a Palette, analytics give administrators the ability to unwrap which users are creating, sharing, and adding content to Palettes.
Referencing analytics is also a great way to understand how and why your team decides to create a Palette. Breaking down usage and overall adoption trends will help reveal how you and your team can best leverage Palettes into your daily project workflow to make the most of this feature.
Access your firm’s AVAIL Analytics dashboards.
About the Author
Clay Watson, AVAIL Director of Customer Success
Clay Watson brings over seven years of SaaS Customer Success experience to his role as Director of Customer Success at AVAIL. Clay is passionate about helping customers maximize product value to achieve their business goals. Prior to joining AVAIL, Clay served as the Director of Customer Success at Hippo Manager Software, Inc. His educational background includes a Bachelor's Degree in Communications and Information Studies and a Master's Degree in Information Communication Technology, both from the University of Kentucky. Clay's expertise in Customer Success and his academic foundation in communication and technology inform his leadership of the Customer Success team at AVAIL.
About AVAIL
Founded in 2016 as a solution for architecture and engineering firms to find the information they need faster, AVAIL creates software for the global architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. AVAIL’s content management system (CMS) platform and Revit application tools help designers and engineers take control of their intricate network of files in one visual, streamlined solution. AVAIL’s customers include industry leaders Gensler, Perkins&Will, IMEG, LEO A DALY, and Populous.
