IT Advisory

A regional, award winning architectural and planning firm offering Architecture and land use services, visualization works, project management, energy and environment solutions.

Architectural firms are continuously relying on computer Aided design in their work due to continuous and increasing demands from developers ; developers who have constrained space, who requires environment friendly buildings and always pushing the limits of what is possible today. Computer Aided design has led to generation of large files that needs to be processed, stored and shared.

Architects are also required to work with other architects within the firm and also with other firms locally or abroad. In addition the architect is also expected to work with other project stakeholders in a project from contractors, project managers, consultants to government agencies.

These scenarios paint the picture of an architect’s workspace which supports high levels of communication and collaboration. A workspace that enables instant communication in the most efficient method be it telephony, video conferencing, sharing of desktops to discuss designs,  online meetings, exchanging large files on email , working from the field  etc.

Despite these expectations the workspace for our client had a very traditional outlook that only supported physical drawing and printing of architectural work.

In order to create the required collaborative environment, the client required a reputable firm to chart a technology roadmap. Our client’s challenges were summarized as follows:

• Obsolete ICT Infrastructure that could not support a collaborative architectural workspace.
• Low productivity levels due an environment that could not support instant exchange of design works with stake holders for quicker decision making.
• Facilities maintenance and management challenges since the current infrastructure could not support video surveillance capabilities
• Challenges collaborating with other international architectural firms
• High communication costs

Onelife Consultants Ltd proposed to work with client in transformation of the current ICT environment to a modern ICT environment that would support a collaborative workspace for all staff. The transformation process involved the following

• Review & audit of the current Infrastructure through site surveys & questionnaires. This covered
  • Power systems
  • Physical security (Video surveillance)
  • Network Infrastructure
  • Compute & storage IT infrastructure
  • Communication infrastructure & collaboration solutions.
• Development of a technology roadmap through discussions with key stakeholders
• Documentation of key findings from the audit and reviews.
• Identification of key projects required to achieve the desired state.
• Documentation & presentation of technology roadmap and recommendations.
• Documentation of specifications for the various projects identified.
• Selection of suppliers for the various solutions identified in the projects.
• Project management & Quality assurance

• Improved staff productivity through use of the right tools and computing resources
• Lower communication costs through unified communication solution
• Faster decision making and project delivery through Rich-media conferencing with external parties and partners.
• Increased competitiveness as staff are able to respond to clients’ needs faster.
• Business continuity plan through a data disaster recovery mechanisms.