The Ups and Downs of Cloud Computing. IT Forum Steering Committee Panel Presentation Thursday July 31st 3:00-4:30

The Ups and Downs of

Cloud Computing

IT Forum Steering Committee Panel

Presentation

Meeting Objectives

Real Life Cloud Applications used in Construction

• Peer based examples of cloud applications

• Decision factors on going to the cloud

• Pro’s and Con’s of those decisions

• Business benefits of “General Applications” and the

cloud

The Team

• Howie Piersma - Pepper Construction: GC Chicago

• VP IT, 30 years

• Raynald Morris – W.M. Jordan Company: GC Virginia

• CIO, 28 years

• Nige Wingate - Mortenson Construction: GC Twin Cities

• IT Director, 15 Years

• Steven Mulka - SIS Software: Microsoft Solutions ATL

• Partner, 26 years

• Cloud Man – Everyone : Contractors, Worldwide

POLLING QUESTION

Rank your knowledge of the cloud

Damn the Torpedoes…

the cloud it is

Cloud Best Practices

• Check the contract and SLAs carefully

• Make sure there’s an exit strategy • Uptime, maintenance, downtime

• Not to exceed costing/Escalation cost cap • Keep control of data access

• Understand who owns the data

• Do not assume the data is backed up

• Get in writing how the infrastructure gets upgraded over the life of the contract

• Legal – Subpoena data access

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing

Cloud Models

• Private Cloud: Cloud Services for the purpose

of one company

• Public Cloud: Commodity Software Services

• Hybrid Cloud: Mix of Private and Public Cloud

Private Cloud “Data Center”

Co Location: You own Servers/Apps in a shared

facility providing Internet Connectivity and Power

Managed Provider: You Rent Servers/Apps in a

shared facility providing rack space and

connectivity

ASP: Application: Service Provider: Providing

Public Cloud

PUBLIC CLOUD: Software Solutions delivered

over the internet from 3

_{Party Providers}

• SaaS: Software as a Service

• PaaS: Platform as a Service

Hybrid Cloud

Traditional IT

model on

premise mixed

with Private or

Public Cloud

computing

POLLING QUESTION

Infrastructure as a Service Platform as a Service

Software as a Service No Cloud Thingy

Cloud Collaboration

Raynald Morris

Chief Information Officer

W.M. Jordan Company

Cloud Collaboration

Challenge (Business Need) • Keep the field in the field

• Need access to: email, PM information, models, drawings and specifications

Methods to address challenge

• Smart devices to access Exchange/Outlook for email • SharePoint for PM information

• Autodesk products for model access

Cloud Collaboration

Considerations/Factors driving cloud based system for drawings and specifications

• Centralized storage of data and backup • Secured

• Simple to use

• Simple access for all project team members

• Subs, suppliers, designers, consultants and owners • Collaborate with project partners on the same documents

Cloud Collaboration

Cloud Collaboration

Types of Users

• W. M. Jordan Company Team 200+

• Subcontractors/Suppliers 5-10 players per project • Designers/Owners 50% utilization

Tools

• Windows platform • iOS devices (iPad) • Site office kiosks • JoBox (field kiosks)

Cloud Collaboration

Cloud Collaboration

iOS Devices (iPad) • Primary field device • Otter box/Lifeproof

Cloud Collaboration

Cloud Collaboration

JoBox

Cloud Collaboration

Business Use Examples

• Preconstruction- Bluebeam Studio

• Estimating/Marketing arranges design review sessions • Teams markup individually or collaborate together live • Construction - BB Extreme/Revu/iPad App

• Upload plans and specs • Perform linking procedure

• Index to sheet to details…finish schedule, door schedule… • Document issues

• Identify issues

• Add necessary details about issues • Distribute and track to completion

Cloud Collaboration

Cloud Collaboration

Cloud Collaboration

Zoom Detail

Cloud Collaboration

Elevation Drill down

Cloud Collaboration

Cloud Collaboration

Cloud Collaboration

Benefits

• Construction teams remain in the field • Using most up-to-date information

• Linked documents

• Drawings, Specifications, Submittals, Product info, RFI’s, • Markup documents and communicate information to project team • Speed up document review process

• Open item or punch item distribution/tracking/resolution

Cloud Collaboration

Pros/Cons

+ Low short term costs

- Long term costs may become higher than anticipated + Simple one-time setup.

- Large system complexity + Easy access to data.

- QOS or speed can be impacted by connectivity type + Data backup/redundancy

- Security/location/recovery of data/archive/owner use + Less hardware infrastructure/software administration

Cloud Collaboration

Customer Relationship Management

Nige Wingate

IT Director

Mortenson CRM

Why Mortenson implemented CRM

• Outgrew old system (combination of in-house

apps and Gentrak RFP)

• Scattered and inaccessible data

• Need for better customer insight

Mortenson CRM

Why we decided to go cloud

• Exhaustive review of all options (2006)

• Salesforce growing exponentially

• Integration of user requests (Salesforce runs a “suggestion

box” and voting system)

• Frequent upgrades and improvements (four releases annually)

• Ability to access from anywhere, very important to road users

• Minimal technical administration

Mortenson CRM

Business Benefits

• Business (not IT) configures the application

• Scalability

• Ease of use for busy marketing and BD team

members

• Extremely accurate forecasting

• Easy sharing and collaboration

• Real time data mining

Mortenson CRM

What does the solution look like?

• Different views for different roles – BD, Marketing,

customer relationship management, SLT, group

leadership, etc.

• Managed by users, including account creation /

termination (Happy IT)

Mortenson CRM

On the downside

• Reporting requires output to Excel

• Positioning plan limited by object limitations (2) • Not inexpensive (but predictable costs)

Availability

• Availability extremely high

• Some planned maintenance but weeks of notice Second Guessing

• Our users would definitely make the same decision again • But… Less additional data fields, easier to use

Mortenson CRM

Specialty Cloud Applications

Howie Piersma

VP of IT

Pepper Specialty Cloud Apps

• Applicant Tracking

• Training

Specialty Cloud Apps-Applicant Tracking

Requirements

• One location for all applicants

• Include employment opportunities & job

descriptions

• Upload resumes

• Secure and confidential

• Conforms with hiring regulations

• Ability to perform background checks

• Ability to send drop letters

Specialty Cloud Apps-Applicant Tracking

Pros/Cons

+ Great as cloud solution because there’s not much

integration to other systems

+ Available to anyone, anytime anywhere

+ Branded like our corporate website

+ Hyperlink from our corporate website

+ Notifications to HR

Specialty Cloud Apps-Training

Requirements

• System for required & optional training

• Training courses & testing

• Track results

• Send results to our in-house HR system

• Certification expiration dates

Specialty Cloud Apps-Training

Pros/Cons

+ Available anytime anywhere

+ Interactive courses

+ Ability to pause training and finish later

+ Supports videos and other multimedia features

- Required a web service interface to provide data to

in-house system

Specialty Cloud Apps-Safety

Requirements

• Safety Inspection Process

• Work with Multiple Safety Inspectors and Projects

in one place

• Safety Ratings

• Reporting

• Exporting ratings to use in other systems for

Prequal process

Specialty Cloud Apps-Safety

Pros/Cons

+ Data entry from website and mobile devices

+ Track both Safe and Unsafe observations

+ Alerts for critical observations or incidents

- Required custom report to export data and web

service to other systems

Cloud Apps-Summary

• Choose an app that has cloud benefits

• Don’t expect to have customization

• Determine any data integration needs ahead of time

• Make sure you use a reputable cloud provider

• Review and ensure you have a good contract

• Have an exit strategy if/when you want to migrate to another

system

• Hopefully future cloud systems integrate or federate more

seamlessly with AD or LDAP to avoid redundant

POLLING QUESTION

Yes No