Brosnan adopts Bluebeam company-wide for streamlined efficiency

Customer challenge

With five offices around New Zealand and a large, multidisciplinary team, Brosnan needed a complete solution for PDF documentation sharing, annotation and collaboration. After contacting Cadpro in 2022, they trialled Bluebeam with 10 licences, and today Brosnan has over 140 licences running the software company-wide.

‘Previously, the team had been using a mix of different PDF software – some people used Adobe, while others used the Microsoft Edge web browser to view things. It was a piecemeal system that wasn’t really working,’ says Richard Ertel, Chief Information Technology Officer at Brosnan.

‘It was critical to move to a more consistent and secure solution, as we deal with large volumes of drawings, specifications and contracts. And a single platform and system would have the potential to significantly speed up document sharing and reviews.’

‘One of our commercial managers had used Bluebeam before, finding it intuitive, fast and custom-designed for our workflows, so we contacted Cadpro to find out more.’

Project goals

Brosnan needed a construction-specific software solution that could be rolled out company-wide to provide a unified way of working. Capabilities include creating customised markups, document control and manipulation, embedding images and photos, combining and comparing documents and quantifying take-offs.

‘Bluebeam is the industry standard for PDF markups, digital workflows and effective project collaboration,’ says Brian Bowler, Sales Specialist at Cadpro. ‘We helped Brosnan run a trial with about 10 people across different roles and responsibilities in the business. The hypothesis was that Bluebeam would be a much more productive tool, saving them money and reducing time spent on PDFs with different tools.’

‘The trial was an overwhelming success,’ says Richard. ‘Feedback was that Bluebeam is faster, more intuitive, and allowed people to focus on their jobs rather than figuring out how to use the tool, and the trial quickly moved into a commercial rollout.’

Solution

For many companies, implementing new software systems on a large scale can prove highly challenging. For Brosnan, the change affected staff across a range of disciplines, so Cadpro’s training in using Bluebeam needed to ensure a painless changeover.

’Initially, there was some resistance from staff who were accustomed to using Adobe Acrobat,’ says Richard. ‘So Cadpro’s classroom-based training was crucial for transitioning our users to Bluebeam.’

Bluebeam was rolled out to all Brosnan’s project managers, site managers, junior site managers, quantity surveyors, construction managers, commercial managers, and regional managers in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown and Tauranga.

‘We tailored the training to meet their specific needs,’ says Brian, ‘with sessions conducted both in person and remotely. Cadpro created their training resources, which were so successful that ongoing support hasn’t been needed.’

Brosnan licenses Bluebeam at two tiers, 93 Core and 48 Complete. ’We split our users across two different planes,’ explains Richard. ’Project managers, site managers, construction managers and commercial managers received Core licences, while quantity surveyors received the complete version of Bluebeam.’

At the company’s request, their training delved into additional advanced topics, ensuring key staff can utilise Bluebeam's capabilities to the fullest.

These included techniques to redact PDF content permanently, enabling secure handling of sensitive information. The training also covered how to embed 360° photos and videos in markups using Capture, enhancing the visual documentation and communication of projects.

The training introduced Brosnan to creating formulas in custom columns for advanced calculations, allowing for more efficient data handling and project management. Brosnan also learned to link real-time data from measurement markups to Excel worksheets with Quantity Link, streamlining data integration and reporting processes.

Another advanced topic covered was the use of Dynamic Fill to section off and fill drawing regions, facilitating the generation of markups, measurements and spaces with greater precision and efficiency.