SSOE Group

For challenges exactly like this one, SSOE has established a design technology group that is dedicated to both discovering the best new technologies as well as customizing them when necessary.

This team identified that while the output of the clash detection software was very valuable, the process of getting the information from the model into the clash detection software was cumbersome and time consuming. Sometimes this meant that the clash detection process was not feasible to use given a particular project’s tight budget or timeline.

To address this issue, the design technology team developed a customized application that automates the process of moving data from one software to the other. It then performs the clash detection analysis in the background and delivers actionable results directly to the appropriate team members.

“This tool is incredibly helpful for project management,” Mary Stepnick, Sr. Director of Corporate Services, shared. “It has removed the time consuming, non-value added part of the process, saving us and the client a tremendous amount of time, trouble, and money. Perhaps more importantly, it has increased the utilization of the clash detection software by making it feasible for projects on tight budgets and timelines. It’s a perfect example of how SSOE has customized technology to enhance coordination between design disciplines.”

This application has helped save SSOE and its clients an astounding 160 weeks of man-hours in 2015.

While technology can go a long way toward making existing processes more efficient, SSOE is now at the forefront of a much more fundamental shift in how companies in the design and construction world deliver projects. This shift will evolve the process itself—and it too is being enabled by technology.

Virtual Design and Construction

One of the highest priorities for the leadership team at SSOE right now is the implementation of Virtual Design & Construction (VDC). VDC doesn’t refer to any specific technology, but rather the leveraging of numerous technologies to change the way design and construction projects are delivered. It focuses on earlier and more frequent collaboration between the client, designer, and constructor of a project.

Interactive Planning (IAP) sessions bring all of these stakeholders together to develop a shared vision of success, a common strategy for achieving success, and commitments from team members on the role they will play in meeting those goals.

“It’s collaboration versus cooperation,” said SSOE’s CEO and President, Bob Howell. “In the traditional planning process the focus is on determining steps to arrive at a pre-determined destination. In an IAP, assumptions are challenged, and the collective knowledge of the group is leveraged. Contractors speak up when they see something that won’t be constructible. Owners get a chance to explore various paths to meeting their objective they may not have otherwise considered. In the end, there is a shared vision of what success looks like.”

In the context of “VDC”, a technology’s true value is recognized when it is used to integrate the project team and carry out the strategy determined in the IAP. A technology such as laser scanning, used to capture the existing conditions of a facility, contributes greatly to the execution of most projects, but especially when it is augmented by cloud technology that makes the outputs of these scans available to the entire project team. Advanced 3D modeling can be a benefit to a majority of projects, but again, it is greatly enhanced when that same model is made available to all design disciplines, the fabricator, and the construction team to use in the field.

Mary Stepnick put this into perspective in a lesson that can be applied to any industry, “When the focus shifts from ‘what can we do that’s cutting edge?’ to identifying ‘This is the most effective way to deliver the project—now let’s find or develop the technology to support it’, the technology becomes a tool for project success rather than a means unto itself.”

The leadership at SSOE believes wholeheartedly that technology will be a key enabler to their future growth. However, they also acknowledged that all the technology in the world can’t stand on its own without the proper culture to support the potential it brings.

The Role of Culture

Bob Howell, who took over as CEO in December of 2014, believes the company has a great strategy for growth. Part of his goal with the leadership team is to align the company’s culture to successfully execute the corporate growth strategy.

“We’re starting to focus on collaboration as the foundation for this cultural shift,” said Howell. “We weren’t rewarding collaborative behaviors as a business; our rewards were based on individual behaviors/metrics, which I considered a shortcoming. Now, we’re going forward focusing on and rewarding behaviors of doing what’s best for the entire company, not necessarily the individual or the individual’s operation.”

“Emotionally connecting our employees with what they accomplish every single day to us obtaining our Corporate Vision and Mission is of utmost importance,” said Dave Sipes, COO.

SSOE’s Vision is “World-Class People, Delivering World-Class Projects, for World-Class Clients”.

The same week of our conversation with SSOE leadership yielded the company’s first ever ‘all hands on deck’ meeting between the leadership and all of SSOE’s employees across their North American operations. The ‘all hands on deck’ meeting detailed the corporate-wide rollout of the company’s global culture strategy and the behaviors required to become more collaborative both internally and externally. This session concluded with breakout sessions of functional groups and individual commitments from each employee on what behavior they could personally commit to in order to drive collaboration.

Howell has put his money where his mouth is, recognizing that collaboration requires a dialogue.

“Giving people a voice at every level not only engages them, it helps us tap into a collective knowledge much greater than those of us seated around the table right now.”

In this vein Howell has instituted Millennial and Gen X advisory committees, and asked them to present their recommendations to the leadership team. SSOE also holds an annual “hackathon” which invites employees at any level to come together in an entrepreneurial spirit to solve a problem or uncover a new opportunity. Ideas are presented in the form of business plans to top leadership at SSOE’s annual planning summit.

“We spend as much time with our work colleagues as we do with our families; therefore we need to create an environment where we enjoy coming to work every day, we have fun, we trust each other, and we hold each other accountable without hurting each other’s feelings,” said Jim Jaros, CFO.

And the team emphasized their consistent belief that collaboration is essential to driving engaged and happy staff.

“It’s cliché, but a business is always about the people; happy, engaged staff results in happy clients and the reverse is also true,” said Stepnick. “This is our stated quality philosophy and it has stood the test of time.”

SSOE talked a lot about technology, and it is easy to see they are on the leading edge in the industry. That said, Howell knows that the landscape and technology changes quickly.

“While our competition can eventually copy every advantage we have, they can’t copy the results our employees achieve when they are engaged and work together in a collaborative manner as a team. The sense of the workplace, the employee engagement, the collaboration—it all combines into an open, transparent culture that will stand the test of time.”