Customer Solution Case Study

Construction Firm Speeds Project Completion with Centralized Content Management

OverviewCountry or Region: MexicoIndustry: Construction

Customer ProfileICA is a construction company in Mexico with operations in the Americas and Europe. Projects include highways, ports, subway systems, and housing projects. ICA has 3,000 employees.

Business SituationICA wanted to gain control of burgeoning document stores, which could not be searched easily or properly secured. Document management problems delayed projects and hurt competitiveness.

SolutionICA created an enterprise content management system by using Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. It provides a way to organize and search terabytes of documents and create knowledge communities.

Benefits Faster project completion Enhanced document security Better knowledge capture and

exchange Improved profitability Cost-effective scalability

“I estimate that employees spend six of their eight working hours each day inside ICActiva. Accessing information faster helps us finish projects on time and within budget.”

Carolina Villarreal, Web Infrastructure Manager, ICA

Behind every dam, highway, and airport that ICA builds are thousands of documents that need to be referenced by dozens of people to keep projects on track. The company recently used Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 to create an enterprise content management (ECM) system for better organizing the 500,000 documents used by 3,000 employees daily. ICA employees can now locate the documents and internal expertise they need to finish projects on time and within budget. Profitability has improved because ICA can now track and charge for change-orders. Project documentation is far more secure, and ICA has created online communities where it can capture the knowledge of internal experts. With data stores expected to grow to 15 terabytes in three years, ICA has a scalable ECM system that can keep up with business growth.

SituationICA is a large Mexican construction company with operations in North, South, and Central America and Europe. It is engaged in developing and building infrastructure projects such as highways, hydroelectric plants, ports, airports, and subway systems, as well as urban facilities such as hospitals, sports arenas, university campuses, and office buildings. ICA, based in Mexico City, posted 2010 revenues of U.S.$2.8 billion and employs nearly 3,000 people.

Every ICA project generates hundreds of documents, ranging from proposals to engineering drawings. In 2008, ICA deployed Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in an effort to remove these documents from individual PCs and file-share servers and compile them in a central location. Employees eagerly embraced the new software and, over the next few years, created more than 700 SharePoint team sites.

However, ICA had no way to search for documents across sites or ensure document security. “We needed to find better ways of managing new content and finding content across teams,” says Carolina Villarreal, Web Infrastructure Manager at ICA. “With data growing at an extremely fast pace, this was absolutely necessary to meet deadlines and optimize resources within the company.”

ICA had a complex matrix of links between SharePoint sites so that people outside of a team could get to documents, but it was difficult to do and very time-consuming to maintain.

Document security was also a concern. “We did have some controls, but sometimes employees accessed documents that they were not authorized to see,” Villarreal says. “We operate in a very competitive market, and we do not want documents related to high-profile projects finding their way into competitors’ hands.”

When employees could not locate documents quickly, or referenced incorrect or out-of-date documents, projects could be delayed. Also, because it was so difficult to track customer change-orders, ICA did a great deal of work that it did not get paid for.

“Even though we are in the construction business, we are also in the information management business,” Villarreal says. “The longer it takes to find and share documents, the longer it takes to finish projects, so creating a top-notch ECM [enterprise content management] system became a mission-critical objective for us.”

In addition to wanting to gain better control over its document stores, ICA wanted to capture and organize employees’ expertise. It had hundreds of workers with more than 40 years of experience in everything from safety procedures to materials handling best practices and did not want to lose that knowledge when those employees retired. ICA wanted an ECM system that would make it easy for employees to share their knowledge and for other employees to find it.

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“We operate in a very competitive market, and we do not want documents related to high-profile projects finding their way into competitors’ hands.”

Carolina Villarreal, Web Infrastructure Manager, ICA

ICA was winning new business and expanding employees and sales, and the company knew that if it did not get its document management problem under control, it would risk losing its competitive edge and future success. In January 2010, ICA won two huge projects—to build the largest deep-drainage system in Latin America and to build a major extension to Mexico City’s subway—and knew that both would generate reams of documentation. “We already had more than 500,000 documents in our SharePoint sites and expected our document stores to grow to 15 terabytes within three years,” Villarreal says. “We had to gain control of our information before the problem got much worse.”

SolutionIn February 2010, ICA called in longtime partner Zseni, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network with special expertise in Microsoft SharePoint products and technologies, for help. “ICA is a huge company with knowledge tucked away in thousands of corners,” says Roberto López Castillo, Cofounder and Chief Technology Architect for Zseni. “Our vision was to create a central infrastructure for sharing information across the company.”

Zseni realized that Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 would be an ideal foundation for ICA and recommended that it create an intranet with an integrated ECM solution. “We agreed that SharePoint Server 2010 was the perfect fit for us because of its many new capabilities,” Villarreal says. “We also felt that SharePoint Server could accommodate the tremendous amount

of information that we expected to have. Plus, there are great search improvements in SharePoint Server 2010.”

Seven-Month Development PeriodIn August 2010, Zseni helped ICA deploy SharePoint Server 2010 and began creating the new ICA intranet/ECM system, which ICA calls ICActiva. The ICA and Zseni team used Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 to customize SharePoint Server and create an attractive look and feel that was familiar to employees yet fresh and exciting. The team used the Microsoft InfoPath 2010 information gathering program and Microsoft Visio 2010 drawing and diagramming software to customize forms and workflows.

ICA and Zseni divided the existing ICA document stores into three parts, corresponding to the three ICA business units, to simplify their migration to ICActiva. Only active existing team sites were re-created in ICActiva, with new ones created on request. The new intranet/ECM solution was completed in March 2011, after only seven months of work.

ICA runs ICActiva on two servers: a database server that runs Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise data management software and an application server that runs SharePoint Server 2010. Both run the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. Documents are backed up to a storage area network.

ICActiva ECM

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“ICA is a huge company with knowledge tucked away in thousands of corners. Our vision was to create a central infrastructure for sharing information across the company.”

Roberto López Castillo, Cofounder and Chief Technology Architect, Zseni

ICA used Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 to create ICActiva, a central place for sharing information companywide.

ICActiva functions as the enterprise intranet, which ICA never had before, and an enterprise content management system. Every time a new construction project begins, ICA creates a SharePoint team site for it in ICActiva, where all plans, documents, schedules, and contacts are stored. Team members are able to quickly access and share news about their project and collaborate with other personnel.

A search box on the ICActiva home page gives employees easy access to all the documents stored in the ECM system that they are authorized to see. Team site owners can set security permissions at the site, library, and document level. Within two months of launch, ICActiva was receiving 4,500 search queries a day and about 190,000 visits a month.

By using the content tagging features in SharePoint Server, employees are able to rate information by usefulness. This helps ICA become smarter and more efficient with every search, as the most-useful information percolates to the top of the search results, saving employees time and returning higher-quality information.

“The built-in search capability in SharePoint Server is very fast and extremely accurate,” Villarreal says. “We have used the search engine to optimize search times and find documents faster. At first glance, employees can identify the type of document and tell who the author is so that they don’t waste time opening irrelevant documents. All this helps improve productivity throughout the day.”

ICA uses workflows in SharePoint Server to automate routine business processes. For example, it created a Lessons Learned section in ICActiva where employees can share best practices by completing an InfoPath form. The best practice is automatically submitted to an approval process and then automatically published.

Knowledge CommunitiesICA has taken advantage of the My Site feature in SharePoint Server to have knowledge workers create personal webpages in ICActiva where they share their expertise through presentations, webinars, reports, blogs, and other documents. To date, employees have created 300 My Site pages and 150 communities on topics such as construction machinery, environmental responsibility, pavement, quality control, and specific project types. Employees can search these knowledge communities to find experts inside the company and contact these colleagues from within ICActiva by sending an email or instant message.

“ICActiva has really changed how project managers control projects,” Villarreal says. “They can keep the entire team or community informed about things going on in that community. Our people are spread out all over Mexico, so it’s hard for them to communicate. By using ICActiva, all of us can more easily locate the documents and people we need so that we can do our jobs.”

Future PlansICA plans to deploy PerformancePoint Services for SharePoint Server 2010 to

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“With SharePoint Server, we have much tighter permission control, which reduces the risk that valuable information will find its way out of the company.”

Carolina Villarreal, Web Infrastructure Manager, ICA

track key performance indicators for raw materials usage, costs, and time surrounding construction projects. For example, PerformancePoint Services could indicate deviations between planned and actual project costs or projected and actual income.

ICA also plans to use SharePoint Server to create a records management system. This will help the company comply with complex legal, quality-control, environmental, governmental, and other regulations and provide a way to archive critical project documents after project completion.

BenefitsWith its new intranet and enterprise content management system, ICA has a centralized place to share documents and experience, which helps it complete projects on time and within budget. Documents are more secure, which enhances competitive advantage, and ICA is finally able to capture and share the experience of longtime employees. ICA is also better able to track and charge for work done and scale its ECM solution to accommodate terabytes of data.

Faster Project CompletionWith a single, central place to share information and collaborate, ICA employees are able to find needed documents and experts faster than ever. “Thanks to ICActiva, employees save time throughout the day looking for information,” Villarreal says. “I estimate that employees spend six of their eight working hours each day inside ICActiva. Accessing information faster helps us

finish projects on time and within budget.”

It also helps ICA serve customers better. Each time ICA finishes a project, it gives the customer a book that contains all project documentation. “It used to take six months to gather all this documentation; with information stored in ICActiva, it now takes two months,” Villarreal says.

Enhanced Data SecurityICA has more control over project documents stored in ICActiva. “Only people who are authorized to have access to documents can view them,” Villarreal says. “With SharePoint Server, we have much tighter permission control, which reduces the risk that valuable information will find its way out of the company. This enhances our competitiveness by safeguarding our intellectual property.”

Better Knowledge Capture and ExchangeWith ICActiva, ICA can capture decades of knowledge shared by experienced workers, many of whom have worked in the construction industry for more than 40 years. “Many of these employees will be retiring in the next 10 years, and we now have a way to capture much of their knowledge,” Villarreal says. “We have a community of electrical engineers, for example. Every quarter, they publish information on what they know, through blogs, articles, and lessons learned. Our new electrical engineers can now learn from their more experienced peers.”

Improved Profitability

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“We finally have an ECM system that can keep up with our growth so that we are not drowning in documents; rather, we are using every document to our competitive advantage.”

Carolina Villarreal, Web Infrastructure Manager, ICA

Because ICA stores and organizes project documentation in one place, it can better track customer change-orders throughout project life cycles, which can add up to tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of work. “Previously, it was difficult to charge customers for these changes because they were not well documented,” Villarreal says. “Now, we can track and document every task completed so that we can bill for it.”

Cost-Effective ScalabilityAs ICA continues to grow, so do its document stores—as fast as 75 percent a year, in some areas of the business. “We are expecting our document stores to grow to 15 terabytes in the next three years, and SharePoint Server is fully capable of accommodating this growth,” Villarreal says. “We finally have an ECM system that can keep up with our growth so that we are not drowning in documents; rather, we are using every document to our competitive advantage.”

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is the business collaboration platform for the Enterprise and the Internet.

For more information about Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, go to:www.microsoft.com/sharepoint

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Zseni products and services, visit the website at: www.zseni.com

For more information about ICA services, visit the website at: www.ica.com.mx

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published July 2011

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio−Windows Server 2008 R2−Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010−Microsoft SharePoint Designer

2010−Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Enterprise

Hardware Two HP ProLiant DL 460 blade servers

Partners Zseni