New Revu Improves Collaboration Control, Efficiency
BY AsphaltPro Staff
When Solid Earth Civil Constructors, Pueblo, Colorado, was required to use an estimating software on a residential project, the company’s Co-Founder and Senior Estimator Don Peters was concerned about the use of new technology.
“I’ve been estimating for over 30 years and so when I look at technology, it’s extremely scary,” Peters said. Within three days the company had invested in Revu, a project efficiency and collaboration platform from Bluebeam, Inc., Pasadena, California.
Drake Carter, a field operator and supervisor for the company who became the first Solid Earth employee to use Revu, digitally remade the paper-based takeoff Peters had prepared for the residential client and discovered an error in Peters’ original manual takeoff that would have cost the company $50,000-$60,000.
In August, Bluebeam launched the newest version of Revu 20. The update aims to maximize platform efficiency, flexibility and user experience.
Since then, Revu has enabled the company to speed up the estimating process, more than tripling its bid submissions. Revu’s real-time remote document collaboration tools have also improved communication throughout the company. Carter said the company’s employees no longer rely on paper plans in the field. Instead, they use Revu on iPads.
Revu is used by dozens of state and county transportation agencies, with representatives from Nebraska, New York and Wisconsin DOTs sharing their experiences with Revu on civil projects at the 2019 International Highway Engineering Exchange Program (IHEEP) Conference.
According to Todd Wynne, Bluebeam Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships, COVID-19 has illustrated the importance of efficiency and collaboration tools.
“One of our customers’ biggest challenges has always been the way they work between locations,” Wynne said, highlighting how Revu customers are often working between the office, their truck, the field, and now, their homes. “This is what Revu was designed to do. It connects people on the same set of documents in real-time or at any time, while giving them an incredibly powerful set of mark up, measurement, takeoff and submittal tools that make any job faster, easier and more accurate.”
In August, Bluebeam launched the newest version of Revu 20. The update aims to maximize platform efficiency, flexibility and user experience. For example, the update improved Studio in Revu, , which allows multiple users to mark up documents at the same time and automatically track comments, providing administrators with more flexibility and control.
“We’ve made it easier than ever to invite and manage project partners, ensuring the right people have the right access to information,” Wynne said. “We also introduced enhancements to the powerful markup tools in Revu 20 to improve project data management when reviewing, commenting, marking up, tracking and managing project documents.”
The updates are a result of Bluebeam’s partnership with its customers to understand and evolve with their needs.
Also within Revu is Studio Projects, a centralized cloud storage space for documents.
According to a Bluebeam Global Services’ customer survey, 88 percent of Revu users reported improvement in work quality, 82 percent reported saved time, 76 percent reported improved efficiency.
Revu is used by nearly 2 million individuals in more than 130 countries working across architecture, engineering and construction industries.