Outsourcing firms - You MUST be world class in quality, lowest in international cost and faster than Speedy Gonzales in a Mexican bordello bedroom.

This contribution is an extension from the discussion "What country would you recommend to outsource an IT project to?" from our Linkedin group CAD Outsourcing.

This piece has been contributed by Mr. Charles Traylor who is a registered architect in Texas (formerly a holder of 21 state registrations), holder of an NCARB certificate, and a member of the AIA. He currently resides in Dallas, Texas. His take on the question asked above is as follows,

I would like to make a contribution to this discussion. Briefly stated, outsourcing works-with brass knobs on. It is a killer cutting edge 21st century resource, and anyone, who ignores or bypasses using outsourcing is as upside down, inside out and backwards as a latter day 19th century blacksmith, trying to compete with a horse and a surrey with the fringe on top at last year's Indianapolis 500.

I am a US Citizen, a registered architect in Texas (formerly a holder of 21 state registrations), holder of an NCARB certificate, and a member of the AIA. I work and live in Dallas, Texas, and in a month I will be relocating to Princeville, Hawaii, where I will be expanding our company's services to Guam and the Orient. I just returned from spending 5 months in West Palm Beach Florida, where my wife and I sat out the winter months to dodge the cold weather in Texas.

My company has been outsourcing CAD work product successfully for over 17 years. We have been outsourcing BIM work product for the last 2 years. During all that time I have worked from a personal computer station in my home or out on the road. I coordinate a wide area network of CAD and BIM architect collaborators, who are located in countries all over the world.

I WILL say this. Most companies in the outsourcing business, who are competing for work in the United States don't have a clue. It is axiomatic in this business. You MUST be world class in quality, lowest in international cost and faster than Speedy Gonzales in a Mexican bordello bedroom.

Big multinational companies would have you believe that there is this huge consolidation of business into the oligarchial hands of the tew. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that outsourcing makes potential Daddy Warbucks out of every person on the planet. We all are equipped with basically the same body parts and brains. The winners in this global ever increasingly outsourcing and international collaborating and trading economy are the ones, who like Johnathan Livingston Seagull, have the guts and the vision to get out there and to do aggressive wing overs, nose dives and smack down on the deck flat out full throttled flying.

Carpe diem, baby!

Outsourcing BIM - The Process & Mr. SPOC

Judges Honourable Mention for Team OBELISK

Team Obelisk gets a Judges Honourable Mention at the Build London Live 2009 competition.

Team 8: Obelisk

Well done to everyone associated with the competition.

Build London Live 2009 - Winnners

Build London Live 2009 winners posted at the link given below

BLL2009 Winners

Congratulations to all the winners

Build London Live 2009

OBELISK participates in the 48 hour BIM competition - Build London Live 2009.

Please click on the link below to check out our and other teams entries.

Build London Live 2009

It was a great experience for everyone. Will post the entries on the blog soon.

Obelisk features in AUGI AEC EDGE

Debasish Karmakar had compiled an article on Navisworks clash detective tool along with Abhishek Tyagi.

The article has been published in the current issue of the AUGI AEC EDGE, the link for the article is below. Debasish’s article is on Page 13,14,15.

NAVISWORKS CLASH DETECTIVE – Reduce Risk and “Save Lives” on a project

Good work Debasish and Abhishek.

Navisworks Tutorial - Clash Detection

This a Navisworks tutorial for using the Clash Detective tool

Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ0PcEt-o08

Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdeCcOzuWcI

Part III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqyBeaUQNKg

Navisworks Tutorial - Clash Detection

Part 3 of the Clash Detection Tutorial,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqyBeaUQNKg

Navisworks Tutorial - Clash Detection

This a Navisworks tutorial for using the Clash Detective tool developed by the BIM team @ OBELISK

Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ0PcEt-o08

Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdeCcOzuWcI

Part III

Coming Soon.

Paper to CAD ..................... CAD to BIM

Remember the days when all the drawings and drafting was done on paper and to make one simple change required the whole drawings to be redrafted or scratching of old sheets & redrafting over them. What a waste of time and effort.

Then CAD came along and took over as an effective drafting tool. To change a wall just required typing 2-3 commands and, WOW!!! It was done. However, the transition was not that easy. There was a lot of resistance from the architecture community and it took a lot of time to be widely accepted.

I remember in architecture school some of us who were proficient on CAD were not allowed it to use for submissions by our professors and we ended up taking plots on CAD and then extended lines with our drafting pens to make it seem as hand drafted.

In the present day scenario we can't think of life without CAD. CAD helped us improve our efficiencies but it still was a tool and not what you can call an intelligent platform.

PRESENT DAY: ENTER BIM (Building Information Modeling)

Again to define it simply BIM is an emerging technological and strategic approach for the AEC industry. It has positioned itself as an approach to address many of AEC’s numerous inefficiencies.

But, do we see the same resistance as we saw for CAD.......................... maybe more.

What a lot of us have not realized is that shifting from paper to CAD in principal was much simpler. You were doing the same thing on the computer which you initially did on paper. It was more of a platform and technology shift. Putting it very simply, CAD just facilitated your drafting.

BIM on the other hand is just not about drafting or documentation. BIM IS NOT A DIRECT REPLACEMENT TO CAD.

To move to BIM is just not about a CAD upgrade but more like a strategic and business decision by the firm’s principals. A firm needs to understand how BIM will impact it at all levels. The primary aim of the platform however is to create, share, contemplate and apply knowledge and to take the concept of 3-d modeling to an infinite number of dimensions.

In my subsequent posts I would be discussing effective pointers on understanding & implementing BIM within organizations, let me know your views and suggestions.

BIM CAPABILITY & BIM MATURITY

An interesting read on BIM Capability v/s BIM Maturity. This article describes that even though after achieving BIM capability organizations are still not ready to take on projects.

Paste the link below in your browser

http://changeagents.blogs.com/thinkspace/2009/06/bim-episode-11-the-difference-between-bim-capability-and-bim-maturity.html

(Source: The source of this information is the changeagents.blogs.com posted on June 03, 2009)

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