Submittal Exchange™ improves submittal process for
Kirkwood Community College

"For me to do shop drawing reviews the old way is a hassle. I find it a pain in my side because I know how much time I can save. Hands down Submittal Exchange beats the paper method."
- Marc Foster, Project Engineer, Design Engineers

Cedar Rapids, IA - Students at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa are the proud new users of a recently completed academic building. The $13 million 90,000 square foot addition to the campus began construction in fall 2007. The project team used the Submittal Exchange system for exchanging, reviewing, and tracking construction submittals and RFIs electronically to provide a less painful, more efficient submittal process.

The engineering consultant on the project, Design Engineers, is a full service engineering firm that primarily services the upper Midwest. "Submittal Exchange has been great, and I find it to be a highly useful tool," says Marc Foster, Project Engineer with Design Engineers. Submittal Exchange has definitely made the shop drawing period much smoother. Internally it cuts down on my own time as far as documentation and paperwork goes, and the logistics of getting it out the door and to the right people just involve clicking a button and it is already there for them."

OPN Architects is an architecture firm with offices in Cedar Falls and Des Moines, Iowa, and offers a full range of architectural services. "Submittal Exchange works great with contractors and we have had a good experience with it," comments Susan Bowersox, Project Manager with OPN. "Submittal Exchange works really well for moving things quickly and knowing exactly where those things are at and what their status is."

"The speed of getting submittals is great. Submittal Exchange keeps stuff on track and pretty much eliminates the bottle neck of the submittal process. It keeps everyone responsible and aware of where the submittals are."
- Mike Glavan, Project Manager, Kleiman Construction

The team has also seen a significant time savings as a result of Submittal Exchange speeding up the submittal process. Kleiman Construction is a full service general contractor specializing in commercial, industrial and institutional facilities. "I like Submittal Exchange because it keeps the project on track! The other thing we like about Submittal Exchange is the fact we can use the logs in our job site meetings. I would print them off and review it before everyone," states Mike Glavan, Project Manager with Kleiman Construction. "The logs identify the status of the submittals, we look at them everyday and the emails that we get everyday are great too."

"Submittal Exchange is a great tool for construction administration. I love the logs! We've seen people use PDF documents for electronic submittals, but this is the first project that has used a web-based system to coordinate everything," says Foster. "The nice thing is that Submittal Exchange is able to document when things are uploaded, downloaded, reviewed, where they are at, and who uploaded them. It packages everything quite nicely. You can't find that anywhere else!"

Glavan went on to say, "The speed of getting submittals is great. Submittal Exchange keeps stuff on track and pretty much eliminates the bottle neck of the submittal process. It keeps everyone responsible and aware of where the submittals are."

"The ability to have all of these projects in one location on one website is great. I know right where to go when I'm looking for shop drawings or when I want to find an RFI."
- Marc Foster, Project Engineer, Design Engineers

Submittal Exchange has also helped the project team be more organized. "The ability to have all of these projects in one location on one website is great. I know right where to go when I'm looking for shop drawings or when I want to find an RFI. I don't even have to search through our network here when finding the right folder can be difficult," comments Foster. "A one button click, and I know right where the shop drawings are at on Submittal Exchange."

"It takes more office management when you're not using Submittal Exchange. We think it's a very valuable service to have on projects. It has taken what we do and made it more efficient," adds Glavan. "Using Submittal Exchange is a no brainer when you look at what has to be sent with the traditional method."

Foster closes with, "The familiarity of having all of the information in one location is great. For me to do shop drawing reviews the old way is a hassle. I find it a pain in my side because I know how much time in documentation, logging, and sending them out to the right people and location I can save."..... "I mean hands down Submittal Exchange beats the paper method. I would much rather work with Submittal Exchange."