In a world where information is always at your fingertips and communication is instantaneous, managing product
and material safety data is a growing challenge for architects, engineers, builders and product manufacturers alike. As the
time between updates shortens and regulations, (e.g. International Organization for Standardization (ISO)), Norwegian Standards (NS)
tighten, the importance of having the right information in real-time cannot be understated.
Rapid Information Access for Risk-free Information Compliance
At coBuilder, ensuring that all stakeholders in the construction process have the information
they need is mission critical. Since
the company's first CD-ROM-based database was released
in 1997, coBuilder has been developing its business model, partnerships, and
technology to constantly improve its robust and easy-to-use platform. Today, manufacturers are able to update their information in
the coBuilder system, and at the same time, a sophisticated aggregating system regularly checks manufacturer websites to ensure the
most up-to-date information is available.
Increasing Capabilities and Enhancing the Customer Experience
coBuilder's vast repository of product data enables product manufacturers to easily disseminate product information and enables
construction companies, architects, and other end-users to keep track of the regulation-required documentation they need — as
well as finding and ordering products. But as the system and its capabilities have grown, the company's existing information access
system could no longer meet customer needs.
According to IT manager Christer Gronvold, "Our ability to find information was not
good when we started. Before VirtualWorks, customers could only perform a query on a company name or a document name or other specified
details."
Since the VirtualWorks implementation, the customer experience has improved significantly, Gronvold clarified, "Now
we enjoy a federated view of all content, and they can find whatever they need." Additionally, "VirtualWorks has given us a
better ability to serve our customers because we go out to find all kinds of documents on the internet and that is a huge amount of
information to find," he continued.
System Integration Across Platforms and Countries
Given this aggregation of content from a variety of sources, integrating VirtualWorks with coBuilder's other systems, Gronvold explained,
"We had some challenges because we don't have a direct relationship for all applications. We have several systems and have made some
cross register." But throughout implementation, he said, "VirtualWorks worked to understand our problems and really made an
effort to meet our demands. They were really good in that process."
Building upon success in its home market, coBuilder has established
operations in Sweden and plans to open an office in Denmark in late 2011.
With this growth, the company is working to ensure that its systems and indexing capabilities are aligned to handle the
linguistic and regulatory differences that accompany the expansion. And as it grows, it can be sure that VirtualWorks will be there to
help it continue enhancing the customer experience through rapid, precise access to mission-critical information.
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