Simplex has been providing expert project management solutions to industry since 1984. Over the years, we’ve developed a family of systems that help companies manage their information to benefit the bottom line. One of our most useful systems for engineering and construction is VPO: The Virtual Project Office.
For organizations like yours, VPO is simply the best system for organizing and sharing information securely over the Web. Based on Microsoft® SharePoint®, it’s a secure collaborative tool that can eliminate many of the everyday challenges of large construction and building projects—the challenges that, left unresolved, can develop into costly delays or litigation.
Tame the documentation beast.
From submittals and RFIs through contracts, designs, documentation, change orders, and more, VPO makes it easy to keep track of every important piece of information in one place. Everybody involved with the project can access his or her information easily and securely over the Web. That means no more expensive printouts, no more shipping of documents, no more flying across the country, no more downtime. You’ll spend more time actually working on the project—and less time waiting.
Keep everybody on the same page—automatically.
Real-time data exchange over our neutral hosted platform makes for easy, fast communication and more efficient collaboration, from owner to architect to construction manager. Whether your offices are close together or on the other side of the world, you and your clients or contractors can work together with less ambiguity and more confidence.
We help you define project-specific workflows so that the right people receive the information they need. VPO Email automatically notifies participants when their input is required. The entire system integrates seamlessly with the niche solutions you’re already using across the organization.
Simplex VPO’s intuitive, familiar Microsoft look and feel means that your project participants will take to it easily and quickly. And throughout the life of the project (and beyond), you are building an electronic record of every interaction to protect everybody from unnecessary claims and litigation.
Simplex makes it easy to streamline.
Our system contains predefined content specific to your industry. We work from this starting point to customize VPO to your specific requirements. Our extensive experience has shown us what works and what doesn’t—and that saves you time over trying to develop and implement a solution from scratch.
VPO works across all platforms, so no matter what systems your collaborators might be running, it will work in their offices. VPO integrates with other project management tools offered by Oracle Primavera, Microsoft, and more.
Get started now.
Send an email or call us at 800-847-7539. We’ll schedule a time to take you through the Simplex Step1 Demo, in which we’ll listen and learn about your requirements, analyze them together, and arrive at a solution that will maximize your return on your investment.
When you decide to proceed, we’ll get you started on Simplex StreamlinePro for VPO, our specialized VPO implementation methodology. We can host and administer your VPO solution, help you set it up to facilitate the kind of communication your projects require, and train project participants in both your organization and others. We also offer ongoing technical support when we host your VPO.
Real-Life Successes
We’ve helped many clients implement VPO to great success. Here are some of their stories:
Higher Education Project
Challenge: An Ivy League university faced an ever-growing number of capital improvement projects and found that managing the bid submission process with more than 400 contractors was not feasible through an FTP site. The large volume of simultaneous projects and the thousands of bids they received were taking up all of the contract administration department’s time, leaving them with no way to handle other responsibilities. There was also a growing need to ensure visibility and better communication among university officials, construction managers, and contractors throughout the entire bidding process. University personnel decided that an all-in-one electronic solution was necessary and would allow them to have all of the bid information in one centralized system
Solution: Simplex implemented a VPO featuring a bidding module. Through it, contractors were able to bid on projects securely and then track their bids during the process (instead of just uploading a bid to the old site without a way to ensure compliance). By allowing tracking and providing clear instructions, we ensured that contractors fully understood each project’s requirements and were able to modify bids on the fly. And, when contractors encountered problems or had questions, they could call Simplex—not the university—and we’d help them out. The university now had a system that allowed their group to manage contracts without extraneous work.
Energy Generation Organization
Challenge: A $632 M energy generation company needed a way to manage capital projects in a way that ensured standardized communications with outside parties—vendors, contractors, and the like. The company had been using manual processes to communicate, but they found that the endless flow of documents and spreadsheets was contributing to big cost overruns. Because there was no way of tracking communication or managing timelines, projects would begin without sufficient information—resulting in multiple change orders and rework. With each project coming in over $100M, this lack of project control was obviously unsustainable.
Solution: Simplex tailored a VPO to standardize the company’s project management processes and ensure the proper flow of information through each project. We also trained the company and its contractors on the system to ensure proper use. Through the VPO, everybody involved in a project could access all of the associated documentation, meeting notes, field reports, and more. Every user was able to access an information log that showed who was working on the project and when, and contractors were brought into the loop with electronic document submissions. This streamlined digital project management significantly reduced project cycle times and slashed the cost overruns associated with rework.