Engineering and IT

Infrastructures and platforms

SPM consulting started developing an IT platform for managing great engineering projects in the Nineties. Based on the experience gained by the company in works design and supervision, it would be designed according to two determining factors: the needs of the market and the actual approach of professionals to tasks. The result is Projectmate, the only integrated document management platform to have been developed with engineering in mind. The implications of the underlying approach are clearly shown in its logical structure, in the way data are organized, in its interface, in the data consistency and update control systems and, above all, in the actual process of database design, which always starts from an analysis of real-life work-flows.

Ad hoc logical solutions

Projectmate’s data structure differs from typical document management solutions in that, rather than being based on IT only, it is mainly modeled on processes and processing specifically pertaining to the field of engineering. The PBS and WBS, which represent the fundamental structures supporting the platform, are created according to best practice in this field and specially tailored to the project’s requirements, as well as the customer’s organizational needs, with a high degree of customization that ensures an optimal integration with engineering activities.

ASP

Projectmate services are exclusively delivered through the ASP (Application Service Provider), including software maintenance on SPM consulting’s servers and web access by users and recipients. In this way, customers are free to focus on their work, leaving SPM consulting’s IT team in charge of the activities of maintenance, updating and servicing, with clear advantages in terms of practicality and simplicity.

Project database

The platform hosts all the software needed to visualize documents, in any format. The storage system makes it easy to find documents quickly, ensuring their latest versions are always available, while the management of reports and messages enable a clear overview of ongoing processes. Projectmate is, thus, a unified work environment and a virtual place where to find all necessary materials, eliminating any redundancy and overlap.