Steven Burns, FAIA, developer of ArchiOffice® talks about how to build a software business with architectural skill set

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What made you decide to develop ArchiOffice®? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you? I opened my own architectural firm in 1993 and it didn’t take long for me to become frustrated with the amount of time I was spending dealing with business matters rather than designing architecture. The actual development of ArchiOffice started back in 1997 when I finally became fed-up with having to spend so much time each month gathering information from our staff and building Excel spreadsheets to provide me with the information I needed to understand project budgets versus actual and comparing that to what I can invoice under our contracts. It seemed a pity that mundane repetitive tasks should take so much time away from the work I really loved doing. Aside from financial needs, I also had lots of different kinds of information about the firm and our projects but they were not consolidated into a single solution. And nothing was systematized. As an architect, I understood the solution to any problem was through design; so I naively set out to design software to run my business. It wasn’t until 2004 that we finally turned ArchiOffice into a commercial solution. Within three years we had more than 500 firms using ArchiOffice. That’s a serious responsibility and I had to make the tough decision as to what to do with my own future. I had been running my architectural firm for 14 years. The firm was doing great. We had a staff of 17 and developed an enviable culture. Architecture is a great lifestyle business, but I was approaching 50 and with the growth of ArchiOffice decided that this was a great opportunity to start a new chapter in my life and become a fulltime software developer. How does ArchiOffice® help architectural practices? ? The value of ArchiOffice is realized on two levels. Our tagline: “Power your Office, Empower yourself” is really how we envision ArchiOffice brings value. To the individual employee, it depends on their level of responsibility. Young staff use ArchiOffice to understand what is expected of them and keep track of their work and tasks in a fun and intuitive timecard. They can see not only the project milestones that are approaching, but also the tasks that they are assigned and understand how they are performing against budget. Because ArchiOffice implements a “system” within the firm, the staff learns how projects are efficiently run. They understand where projects are going and can be a part of the process of improvement. Project Managers have insight into their projects and can make actionable decisions from the dashboard as to which projects require their attention. They can instantly see the progress of their projects and which staff members might need more guidance and support. We consider each project as its own business where each project manager is responsible for the P&L of that business. Giving managers access to the budget, performance and profitability information means that they can make better decisions, which generally means that the firm becomes more profitable. ArchiOffice allows managers to stay on top of the Submittals and RFIs so they are responded to in a timely manner. Our document management system ensures that all documents are standardized and filed automatically. Principals and Office Managers use ArchiOffice to do a variety of things from invoicing clients, monitoring accounts receivable and improving cash flow right down to reporting on timecards or running payroll reports which instantly breaks down Regular from Overtime pay as well as all paid time off categories. There is no defined job description for a Principal, so we allow firms to decide what responsibilities people have within the firm and ArchiOffice works for them the way they want. When thinking about how ArchiOffice benefits the firm, I believe the most important thing it does is institute a “system” within the firm. It’s very common for firms to work hard at establishing standards for how they want the work performed, but when it comes down to doing the work it’s amazing how people diverge from the standard. As an example, so many firms have a document management system where they clone a template folder each time they start a new project. The intent is that all the folders within the project folder are clearly defined as to where the staff is supposed to file things away. But if you move from project folder to project folder, you see the breakdown of the system depending on who is running the project or the unique circumstances of that project. This is a nightmare for people who need to take over a project and can’t rely on the information being where it was designed to go. ArchiOffice obviates this with its document management system that can be customized to follow the standards established by the firm. As I mentioned earlier, since ArchiOffice is real-time information, the firm is always aware of project profitability. Everything is up-to-the-minute so there is no waiting for managers to assemble complex Excel spreadsheets to evaluate project performance. It’s never more than a click of the mouse away. And by utilizing Custom Triggers in ArchiOffice, firms don’t even need to look for the information. ArchiOffice can notify people automatically when projects are nearing budgets or employees have not completed their timecards, or clients have missed paying an invoice on time. The list goes on. Do you miss working as an architect? ? As I mentioned earlier, I find a tremendous similarity between architecture and software development. It’s really not just my opinion either. If you look at the software industry today you’ll notice that the term “architect” has been appropriated. It’s not a coincidence. Buildings are composed of hundreds of thousands or even millions of pieces. Architects have to figure out how to bring them all together to make, as Vitruvius described, buildings that have firmness, commodity and delight. Software development requires the ability to take hundreds of thousands or millions of lines of code and bring them together in such a way as to make software that works on various computing platforms and engages the user so they not only get their work done, but also enjoy the process. (Source: www.archiprenuer.com)

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