AVAIL’s dedicated development team is not only building functionality into the software company’s content management solutions to increase efficiency at AEC industry firms today, but they are also thinking ahead to what will be most useful to firms in the future. The latest version AVAIL 5.0, now available as a customer Preview Release, includes the new feature Related Content, that is helpful today—providing Publishers with a way to connect different pieces of content to enhance navigation and build relationships between content—but is also laying the foundation for AVAIL’s plans for the future. CEO and Founder Randall Stevens shares the inspiration behind Related Content, how it is useful to support AEC workflows today, and the team’s plans for development in the future.
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It seems that most everything in my world is connected now. I’m talking about the electronics in my home. My wife and I live in a 1,300-square-foot condo with, at last count, 34 devices connected to our network router. Those range from our phones and tablets, TVs, Alexa speakers, and now light switches, washer, dryer, and kitchen appliances. It sounds excessive, but often when something new arrives and knows how to connect, I ask myself, “how did I live without that!?”
How is it that our physical world of electronic devices has figured out the challenges and inherent value in being connected while our digital world in AEC largely remains thousands of “islands” of data and information?
At AVAIL, we believe connecting that data and information in new, structured ways is key to improving information delivery and improved workflows in the AEC industry.
There are inherent relationships between the information you create and sometimes refer to frequently. Those relationships range from explicit relationships such as a PDF document that “belongs” to a manufacturer-provided Revit Family file to more implicit relationships such as “lessons learned” database entries that could be referenced from a construction detail.
Once you begin thinking about how the information you’re creating and—more importantly—ingesting on a daily basis are related to one another, you realize that one of your biggest challenges is not only keeping these things “together” (e.g. putting files next to each other with a common naming convention so they can be sorted and found) but making it obvious and clear to others that they are associated with one another.
Add to the challenge the complexity that this information could take different forms such as discrete files on the file system, knowledge management systems such as Microsoft SharePoint or Knowledge Architecture’s Synthesis, or external URLs to services like Autodesk Construction Cloud, Miro, and even manufacturer product pages or regulatory references … That’s a lot to digest!
Is it any wonder AEC professionals spend an inordinate amount of time each week searching for and piecing together the information they need to do their job?
Now with AVAIL’s latest feature, Related Content, you can take advantage of explicit and implicit relationships by “connecting” information and having those relationships express themselves clearly in the AVAIL Desktop interface.
AVAIL’s mission is to bring you “the information you need, faster.” You can think of Related Content as a way of bringing relevant information to you rather than you having to search for it. What may be most important is that users will know there is relevant information that can be easily accessed and digested rather than being oblivious or confused in their journey.
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How many “lessons learned” databases have been built across the AEC industry that remain seldom used? I’ve had several conversations with customers over the years about this problem, and what is now obvious is that, unless the information is somehow “connected” to relevant, contextual, timely workflows, it won’t be used.
Why would you proactively read through hundreds of “potential” problems that “might” affect your next project? You wouldn’t. And “they” don’t.
I had a customer tell me the story of a roofing installation problem that plagued the company with leaks over multiple projects and years.
“How can we know about the problem but not be able to stop it on the next project?” they asked with contempt. How should the lessons learned from a project be communicated?
In a large organization, it is difficult to disseminate information efficiently. This customer spent the time to set up a central repository of information for these types of problems available to everyone in the firm via a SharePoint intranet location, but the exercise ultimately failed over time. No one used it.
Why would they? No one is going to proactively scour something like this for “potential problems.”
What might work is referencing that lessons learned entry directly from the detail in the central library. When that detail is used in the next project, there’s a relevant, and—better yet—convenient reference to something that is important to your immediate workflow. Then—and only then—do you stand a chance of that information being digested in the context of the actual work being done.
How much frustration, pain, and expense could catching just one of these mistakes alleviate?
We’re excited to introduce the Related Content feature in AVAIL 5.0 that allows you to create relationships between information being managed in AVAIL, ranging from technical content such as Revit Families and Details to external PDFs and URLs.
In the AVAIL Desktop, there is now an interface for building these relationships. However, we think, over time, we’ll be able to begin building the relationships “automatically” using analytics data, workflow analysis, and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques. The core database infrastructure is now in place to build upon. There is a world of possibilities for the problems this can solve for the AEC industry. We look forward to the conversations with customers and design technology leaders in the coming months that will lead us.
AVAIL customers can now download the AVAIL 5.0 Preview Release and access the new Related Content feature.
Learn more about Related Content.
Founded in 2016 as a solution for architectural 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 like Gensler, Perkins&Will, IMEG, LEO A DALY, and Populous.