This report on the practice management software solutions exhibited and showcased at AIA22 this year will review the various solutions and companies. It’s a topic that, as noted yesterday, confronts the reality that few architecture and engineering firms don’t use such software, to begin with, and perhaps they should. So why is this? We will explore this question later. For now, let’s look at the different solutions presented at AIA22.
Practice management apps
To plan
Planifi was born just a few years ago. In 2016, they announced their Planifi Project Visualizer solution. As the name suggests, the software aims to give leaders and managers of AE companies the ability to visualize the answers to questions such as which staff resources are overloaded versus which need more assignments? What’s coming? And what is due for all projects?
Planifi got off to a good start with a few renowned architectural firms, including Robert AM Stern Architects (RAMSA). A published case study is here for those inclined.
Plan as an application works with three main areas (tabs in the user interface): plan, manage and forecast. Planifi offers a drag-and-drop interface to add resources to your project as you plan and manage your project portfolio. Project summary details include fees, plan vs. actual, and EAC. Planifi offers color coding for visual identity and configurable filters for in-app search. The Forecast tab provides businesses with enterprise-wide analytics and performance metrics such as utilization and profitability. Planifi integrates with Microsoft Outlook so design professionals can see when things are due, what their hourly budget is, and where they stand against those budgets. Planifi is a Windows application. You can learn more here.
AEFactor
FactorAE (or Factor Architecture & Engineering) is another firm practice management software that aims to serve all sizes of businesses, from small to enterprise. It includes project planning and management features, time and expense tracking, resource scheduling, itemized billing, and QuickBooks integration. Importantly, it also features A/E-specific metrics or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
A screenshot of Factor AE looking at a Gantt chart view of the data.
FactorAE is cloud-based, which means you access it through a web browser. The company also offers additional consulting with industry financial expert firm A/E Stambaugh Ness. To learn more, visit this link here.
Highligths
BigTime Software is the third and also new practice management application for Architosh. This Chicago-based company has been around since 2002 (20 years) and has nearly 100 employees. The company not only serves A/E professionals, but also the accounting, consulting, legal, IT services, marketing and creative, and government procurement industries. The architecture and engineering sector is just one of many.
A UI view of BigTime (a SaaS program) showing the time tracking interface.
BigTime has accelerated over the past decade and, specifically, in 2019, it closed a $14 million growth capital investment, following its $4 million Series A funding round in 2011. Then in 2022, the company announced a $100 million strategic growth investment round from Vista. Equity Partners. BigTime is suddenly a very important and one to watch software company serving the AEC market.
BigTime’s flagship product is a SaaS (cloud-based) product. BigTime includes all of these features: time and expense tracking, project management, review and approvals, resource management, invoicing and invoicing, reports and analytics, and payment processing. These are essential features in most of these solutions. But BigTime also offers DCAA compliance, a mobile app version, and finally integrations with leading SaaS tools. What tools? Slack and Jira for process and project management; GSuite and Excel for connecting to business applications and documents; QuickBooks, Sage Intacct and Lacerte for accounting and finance; SalesForce for customer relationship management; HubSpot for marketing; and finally Zapier for other integrations.
BigTime offers reports and analytics to help customers get real-time insight into the health of their businesses. In terms of project management, it starts with planning and resource allocation. As projects progress, BigTime makes it possible to display projected times versus actual times. Major or minor tasks can each get their own hour, fee, and expense budgets. Also for project management, BigTime supports Gantt charts, complete with dependencies, milestones and critical paths. To find out more, visit here.
BQE CORE
BQE is home to the old ArchiOffice, which was actually built on the FileMaker relational database platform. FileMaker has long been in the rearview mirror, as has the old name, and BQE’s CORE is so much more powerful than before. BQE CORE is a cloud-based SaaS (online) application. Like others on this page, CORE addresses project planning, resources (staff), project tracking, invoicing, and many other features such as reporting and KPI tracking. It also features integrations and works with Google, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive and seamless integrations with QuickBooks and QuickBook’s main rival these days, Xero. Unlike the apps listed above, BQE CORE offers a marketplace for partner apps such as Transaction via Stripe, LawPay, ClientPay, CPACharge, Microsoft BI, Office 365 and more.
BQE CORE UI is in this picture. The simplified app has long been a leader in the A/E practice management app space.
All of these solutions require one essential ingredient and that is every employee’s time. They need to log their time on which projects and do which activities. But some activities are marked non-billable because they do not relate to a specific customer or part of the customer’s services or deliverables. Non-billable time is a key KPI for companies to monitor as it records levels of efficiency and alignment across the business. Maximum efficiency would result in minimum total time on non-billable activities. IT support within the company, for example, is non-billable time. To learn more about BQE CORE, visit them online here.
UNANET
Another new company for Architosh and for AIA’s presence this year was Unanet. This Virginia-based SaaS software company has over 350 employees and 3,200 customers and continues to grow. They also had a pretty big booth at AIA22. Much like BigTime Software, they focus on the same market segments ranging from A/E firms, government contractors, and professional services firms (creative, marketing, legal, etc.). They also focus on construction professionals, creating solutions for the entire AEC industry. In this space, they list major major construction companies as clients, including Skanska, Gilbane, Haskell and others. They also have an offering called Unanet CRM by Cosential, aimed at generating proposals to win the business.
Unanet for AE offers powerful Gantt chart functionality.
Unanet ERP AE is the software package specially designed for architects and design offices. It handles time and expense tracking, project management, analytics and reporting, finance and payroll, and lead management. In the software industry, ERP stands for “enterprise resource planning”.
The project management module enables resource planning, task management, earned value management, online invoice review, work orders, as well as reporting and analysis. Users can track ETC, percent complete, earned value. It also supports change order tracking with built-in approvals and supports budget creation and schedules. Unamet offers comprehensive Gantt chart views with support for milestones, critical path, and progress features.
Unanet AE offers Kanban-style work orders for managing project tasks.
A note on “work orders”. In Unanet AE, the concept of work orders is similar to Kanban, in which a visual system used for project management (a Kanban board) streamlines tasks with predefined information such as project, phase, job title , job codes, billing status, etc. Employees simply view their open work orders (which are visual cards in the Kanban method) and enter status updates. Unanet appears to be a very thorough practice management software system and is especially worth considering by larger practices.
Closing comments
Anthem Software was not a company that impressed us. Despite being at AIA22, the company’s focus is very broad and doesn’t really compare to the solutions mentioned above. Therefore, we exclude them from this article. Deltek, however, is an older name in the business and offers SaaS-based solutions that are very established.
Deltek has two main platforms for AEC companies. They don’t make a product specifically for architects but for the entire AEC industry. Ajera SaaS seems geared towards growing businesses and involves small and medium-sized businesses in the A/E sector. Vantagepoint is also a cloud-based solution and is mature with a list of large A/E companies using this solution. Deltek Vantagepoint offers CRM and pipeline management to help companies keep receiving and growing work.
The sheer volume of practice management solutions at AIA22 was a bit of a surprise but a welcome one. While many of the solutions above impress us in various ways, FactorAE was the one that stood out with its sole focus on the A/E industry and affordable pricing, and a concentrated set of features backed by add-on consulting options. . We awarded FactorAE the BEST of SHOW award for this year’s AIA22. You can read more here.
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