Archio

Summary

How Archio gains greater visibility of its projects and the overall health of its business.

Situation

An architectural firm based in London, Archio has received widespread recognition for its work. Each Archio staff member believes that access to decent and affordable homes, buildings, and spaces provides the foundation to help individuals and communities grow and prosper.

Archio knew it needed better oversight over the business and better job forecasting, so it reached out to other architectural firms to find out what they were using. The resounding reply was that CMap was the best solution, so Archio, too, began using the software to meet its goals.

However, when Saaya Kamita came aboard as Archio’s Studio Manager, she realized Archio wasn’t using CMap to its fullest potential. Saaya sought to change that.

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Solution

CMap helps architects win more work and deliver that work more profitably by providing a solution specifically tailored to their needs. It eliminates the use of multiple spreadsheets and systems that don’t communicate properly with one another and instead delivers a single source of truth for project and practice information. 

“It’s the single source of truth aspect that we love about CMap,” said Saaya. “The thing we look at most is the forecast calendar. We have a resourcing meeting once each week with all of the teams to gather project information about the status of each project. CMap helps us see what projects we are invoicing each month and to whom.”

Archio also uses CMap’s timesheet and expenses function. This simple and attractive interface is where team members enter the amount of time they have spent on a particular project along with any expenses. With time properly entered, Saaya gets a handle on the resources available for that and other projects. She can also determine whether the firm is making a profit or experiencing a loss on a project. 

Additionally, timesheets flow directly into the work-in-process function, and everything flows into billing. This process flow keeps Saaya up to date on all of the firm’s financial matters.

Results

• More Effective Forecasting - Saaya can immediately see if the firm is earning a profit or whether it needs to win more work to cover expenses. “This is a feature that’s really working well for us,” she said.
• ‍Greater Overall Visibility - “With CMap, team members can look at the data and answer important questions about the state of the practice’s business,” said Saaya. “It shows all the projects, the project’s project manager, the fee, whether the project was completed, and the time it took to complete.”