Managing your projects and team with an all-in-one tool

This was the case for Greg Turner, co-founder and director of architectural consultancy GNR Studio. The company was originally using proprietary timesheet software, but needed a tool that would instead allow project times, budgets and tasks to be quickly and simply matched.

Enter Clarc – an all-in-one digital project management solution for architects, designers, engineers and surveyors that has been built on real industry experience. It was brought to life by Owen Xing after running his own architectural firm and feeling defeated by the administrative tasks of completing timesheets, invoicing and organising the team around project deadlines – critical tasks that were taking up too much time.

Owen knew he needed to streamline his workflow, and similar to GNR Studios, needed more than just a project management tool – it needed to be a project management and collaboration management tool.

“I ran my architectural practice, X Studio Architects. There were so many apps I needed to open to deal with the increasing amount of admin work but there was nothing on the market that did all of these things together in a way that made sense for an architect and professional consultants,” says Owen.

“In March 2019, I had a dream about having this all-in-one cloud-based tool. I woke up with a smile and since then our team has been bringing our ideas together.”

Combining services found on other platforms – contracts, timesheets, invoices and calendar scheduling – Clarc helps those in the industry take back control of project coordination and collaboration.

“Out of my own frustration, I saw the need for similar consultants. The most important aspect that sets the software apart from other office automation or productivity tech, is the collaboration tools Clarc offers. Whether it’s assigning jobs, communicating with clients and consultants or reviewing documentation – everything can be done through a single portal,” says Owen.

This is something that was also important for Kimi Sheng, director at engineering consultancy K Design Group.

“For teams like ours, many management tools end up just being a time-consuming overhead,” says Kimi, who wanted to find a system that wasn’t costly or complicated and could grow with the company. “They provide a fantastic amount of functionality and options, and only about 20% of those are useful to me. What sold me on Clarc was that it’s intuitive, easy to use and it’s got a clean interface. For anything I need to do, it’s just a few simple steps.”

With an in-house support team, Clarc was able to assist K Design Group with transferring its existing data over to Clarc, and even held training sessions to help the clients understand the new software.

“When I set up my first project in Clarc, I was impressed by how easy it was. What really wowed me though, was when I went to invoice for that project – half the invoice was already done,” says Kimi. “The way they’ve connected projects with timesheets and invoicing really works.”

By integrating all workflow needs into a single tool, Clarc answers to all of the pain points faced by architects every day – and with first-hand experience in the industry, the Clarc team knows how to help.

“Customers like the idea that we are architecture focused and save them time on their daily admin life. We’ve created a very easy to use platform that gives customers time back for their creative side of the business,” says Owen.

Learn more about Clarc on ArchiPro, or get in touch with Owen and the team.