“conject provides us with desktop sharing facilities which are better than anything we have seen so far. Their deep market and process understanding coupled with their experience in the aerospace sector is extremely advantageous.”

(Dirk Noack, Senior Project Manager, Max Boegl/Zarooni Transemirates)

Strata Aerospace Plant in Al Ain

Mubadala Aerospace recently announced that it would manufacture commercial aircraft in Abu Dhabi within eight years. The projects general contractor Max Boegl/Zarooni Transemirates has been given a project time of 15 months to deliver the first facilities, which eventually will allow Abu Dhabi to bring out its first fully manufactured aircraft between 2016 and 2018. Max Boegl/Zarouni Transemirates are overseeing the building of a 21,600 square meter facility as general contractors. Founded in 1929 by Max Boegl it is among the top five construction companies in Germany with annual sales in 2008 of EUR1,3 bn and more than 5,700 staff worldwide.

conject has been appointed by Max Boegl/Zarooni Transemirates as the project management platform for Mubadala's Aerospace Plant. The priority for the general contractor and project manager was the receiving of documents that needed approval from consultants and subcontractors and the security of data. conject, who has worked with Lufthansa Technik in Germany on similar projects, will provide a complete project management system that allows the complete documentation, communication and coordination of the project on a secure internet platform. conject project management is a forward and backward compatible software system which offers security of data, archive and history of the total project documents, instant communication tools and transparency to its users.

“conjectPM is ideally positioned for this task. The project has several teams in different countries working together and there is a definite timeline to the project. We were able to go live in 10 days with a system that is focused on delivery processes and contractual relationships.”

(Dr. Uwe Forgber, Director, conject Middle East)

"Thanks to the project management software conjectPM, we are able to support the most diverse projects centrally and easily from anywhere. Access in real-time to the most current status of all relevant data allows us to focus on what really matters: professional project work – without getting caught up in complex coordination procedures."

Dipl.-Ing. Peter Melching, Assmann Beraten+Planen

Managing over 80 construction projects on new and existing buildings at the same time
For over 35 years Assmann Beraten+Planen GmbH has been a successful market player in the project planning and control segment as well as in construction on existing buildings. Founded in 1971 with headquarters in Dortmund, Assmann is currently managing roughly 80 projects of various sizes at eight different locations.

Over 50 people working together online
Since 2005, Assmann has been deploying the online project management platform conjectPM. Over 50 employees use the Internet software every day for their project communication, documentation and for the complete drawing management.

Successful combination of know-how and software
Clients can sit back and relax: the interaction of Assmann’s know-how and many years’ experience together with conject’s real estate software make it possible to easily structure and organize even complex building projects. Not only does this free the building owner from unnecessary time and effort involved in work and coordination. By using the Internet-based Project Space, he also can gain an overview of the current status of the project at any time. The rapid data exchange of documents and communication provides him with comprehensive transparency and the necessary level of security. At the same time, established process standards are accessed, ensuring the best practice principle for all processes.

Current project: VOLKSWOHL BUND Versicherungen, Dortmund
- New construction of the head office of Volkswohl Bund Versicherungen: 16-storey high-rise, at a height of approx. 60 meters

- Volume of construction costs: € 60 million

- Area: 30,000 m² gross floor space

- Project duration: October 2008 (groundbreaking) to winter of 2010 (est.)

- Participants: Assmann Beraten+Planen GmbH (project manager), Volkswohl Bund Versicherungen a. G. (client), nps tschoban voss GmbH & Co. KG Architekten BDA (architects, planners)

- Current no. of users on the conjectPM Platform: 70

As the current results of the “RealisBench® 2008” study by BayernFM, cgmunich and conject show: 175,000 municipal properties in Germany hold enormous potential to ease the financial burden on public authorities in the long term. At the same time, they are also in a position to make a decisive contribution towards environmental and climate protection.

Focus of the study was primarily on energy costs. Potential savings here in heating costs for schools nationwide add up to as much as 1 € billion annually. Only through the targeted optimization of the building management as well as energy-conserving renovation it will be possible to increase existing savings potentials (on average close to 50%).

Transparency and an awareness of their own strengths are necessary for municipalities to be able to focus on the right buildings and issues. Here RealisBench® will also be supporting municipalities in 2010 (project start in April). A new pricing model (up to 75% less participation costs), new topics (e.g. operators’ responsibilities) and participation in the selection of the "RealisBench® Energy Saver 2010" (top-class prizes to be presented at the EXPO REAL 2010) make taking part even more attractive.

The success has proven that participants were right: the 350 municipalities participating so far have managed to cut their real estate costs on average by 14%.

Find out more in the current study (in German only).

Martin Behrends would be happy to provide you with more information.

He was taking part in triathlons long before it was a trend sport. He has also managed to implement an innovative concept for customer service, while others are still merely working at it. Christian Precht of HSH Facility Management Holding AG is on the ball, especially when it comes to finding and taking new paths – our User of the Month.

“It's a win-win situation,” reports Christian Precht, Munich-born and a resident of Hamburg since 1998. Because the processing of incident reports for his company’s biggest customers could be made even more efficient. And how? HSH Facility Management Holding had introduced the FM Portal over a year ago. Without a hitch, as Precht recalls. "There was no need to train our staff and it was quickly accepted by users. As a result, eight months after introduction we had already received over 10,000 messages which had been processed via the portal.”

In concrete terms, this means that now customers can view the status of their messages at any time. And that HSH has substantially reduced the amount of time and effort involved in support. “Today we hardly communicate by phone anymore. Before, this was often very difficult for our customers and often only possible with conflicts.” Now both sides stand to benefit.

The most important argument in favor of introducing conjectFM was the option of providing all customers with the FM Portal. Christian Precht can look back over 15 years working experience as an interior designer, architect and facility manager and he’s well aware that there is always resistance to introducing software, at least at first. “That’s normal,” he says. After completing training as a carpenter, he then went on to study architecture as well as real estate economics. Today he's in charge of FM Project Management at HSH. And he is glad to have “overcome the resistance and managed to implement this innovative concept in customer service.” Experience soon proved him right. This is the best proof that you can do things in a different, more innovative way if you know how to put new trends to work for you.

Trendsetting is also an important part of his private life, as Christian Precht has been taking part in triathlons since 2001, long before it became a trend sport. “It's a wonderful contrast to everyday life in the office,” says the Bavarian who also takes pleasure in getting exercise in the outdoors of more northern regions. He likes training together with others as well as on his own – as it suits him. He enjoys sports in his free time, most recently sailing on vacation with his wife in the Baltic Sea.

… you can now read and answer conjectPM Messages directly in your email program?

And the best thing about it is that all responses to these messages that you write and send in your email program are documented in conjectPM in the “Sent” box in the Communications Module.

Don’t miss another message; you no longer have to log in to the Project Space. conjectPM sends you your new messages directly via email.

And what’s the difference between conjectPM and your own email program?

With an email, attachments are sent along automatically, which can quickly clog up your inbox. You receive your conjectPM messages automatically via email, but you decide whether attachments are included automatically or downloaded using a link.

... working with sensitive areas in conjectFM 7.5.f now functions much faster and more conveniently?

Normally in CAFM systems, a great deal of manual time and effort was involved in inserting and adjusting sensitive areas in drawings. Pick points in corners and crossed lines must be selected individually, making work laborious, time-consuming and at times even inexact.

With the new release of conjectFM, you’ll spend much less time placing and adjusting sensitive areas. Using layer information, the system “knows" where the areas need to be placed and takes care of localization for you. In addition, you'll not only work much faster and more conveniently with this functionality. Effective immediately, it is now also possible to place areas much more precisely without using of pick points. Moreover, the layers for area detection now only need to be entered once since their settings are saved for all drawings.

Here is a small preview:

And you get this result with a click of the mouse:

… conjectCM supports you in contract coverage using a budget filter?

With several budgets in one project or budgets with several items, it’s important to maintain an overview in order to allocate the proper budget items in the budget coverage of contracts. You have a budget filter available in conjectCM. It helps you to quickly locate the right budget and the correct item.

In the “Budget” tab you have three criteria available to be used either in combination or alone to filter according to the item you would like considered for contract coverage. To do so, enter the reference number of the desired item under “RN Filter” and then the items are searched according to their reference number. In the “Budget Filter” you can limit the view to one or all budgets that exist for the project. You can use the “Account Filter” to search for items according to a specific account. From the search results received, one or several items can be considered for coverage by the contract.

In 2008 conject opened its Vienna office – and can now already show positive results. Two dozen projects are currently running – in Vienna and the whole of Austria – on the conject Platform. In addition, there are also numerous projects in the entire CEE region. “Especially in economically uncertain times,” says Frank Weiß, who heads the Vienna office, “entrepreneurs must run their projects on time and without major delays.” Clear responsibilities are just as vital as modern software to generate fast and transparent workflows. In addition to this effective infrastructure for the entire project management, CAFM is an important issue. Today diverse state hospitals are already operating with conject’s help: cleaning, maintenance, building services and medical technology, area management, interfaces with SAP, and much more. Transparency in quality and costs involved in the individual trades has been achieved, helping the federal states gain an exact overview of their hospitals, for example. Central data management avoids redundant data entries through system integration and cyclical data exchange.

Take the State of Steiermark, for example – since 1985 the KAGes (Steiermärkische Krankenanstaltengesellschaft/Steiermark Hospital Association) has upheld the highest standards in nursing care. Back at that time, state hospitals were outsourced from the state segment and transferred to a privately organized company, owned 100 percent by the State of Steiermark. Based on the concept developed by the consulting firm i+o Industrieplanung und Organisation (Heidelberg), which was worked out together with the future users, the architectural competition drew to a close in December of 2008. The objects planned are a supply center and a parking garage beneath it with approx. 555 parking spaces.

Also, the Steirische Landesimmobiliengesellschaft (LIG/State Real Estate Company) provides users and owners with comprehensive and professional real estate management – from project proposal to realization and operation of a property. conject was exactly the right partner here because the software company offers IT packages suited to all lifecycle phases of a property. LIG Steiermark currently manages over 400 properties, so diverse it includes castles, kindergartens, seniors' residences/nursing homes, schools, and residential buildings. Existing - and future – properties are structured on the conject Platform, edited clearly and transparently. Managing Director Werner Erhart-Schippek was looking for a corporate solution and found it in conject: “We now have all information on the properties LIG manages in one place and digitally traceable.” In the first step, around 20 properties were migrated – and external participants were also included seamlessly into this process. “It’s as easy as child’s play to insert such data into the Project Space,” he says and praises: “If I now have all of that available via iPhone soon, then that’s the icing on the cake for me.” conject is presenting the new iPhone Application at the EXPO REAL.

Satisfied customers in Vienna as well – here, for example, the Wiener Wirtschaftsförderungsfonds (WWFF/Vienna Business Agency) has been building with conject. New construction of sterilization facilities is well underway and should already be complete by the year after next. Magister Fritz Kittel “has the impression that for the first time all relevant data and conversations from one project are found in one place.” Gone are the times when he had to stop and wonder just how up-to-date a document is. And Kittel also finds “the usability of the platform and the speed with which documents can be located is impressive.” Finding, not searching – that’s his motto. “Naturally, all the specifications for structures or workflows come from us; it’s our job after all. But how conject manages to make this possible without compromising is simply ingenious.”