Description
Key Learnings
- Learn how to recognize the benefits of an open data-driven approach to enhance Infrastructure project delivery processes.
- Discover the benefits of a connected data platform architecture such as, speed to insights, self-service, and data governance.
- Discover the challenges of embracing, adopting, and implementing on the people side of change management.
- Learn more about how infrastructure project delivery process plans to utilize a digital backbone that is platform inclusive.
Speaker
- KBKelly BarberKelly Barber, P.E., is the Division Chief of the Engineering Automation and Services Division (EASD) within the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Kelly has over 20 years of experience with the Department and has held multiple positions through out her career with the Department progressing from Design Project Delivery work to Project Schedules, Specification and Constructabilty to her current position in EASD within the Bureau of Construction and Materials. Kelly is the lead for the Department's Augmented Reality, Uncrewed Aircraft Systems including construction analytics, e-Ticketing and Design Collaboration efforts. She has a B.S. in Civil Engineering and M. Eng in Engineering Science from The Pennsylvania State University. Kelly is also a registered P.E. in PA and MD.
KELLY BARBER: Hello, everyone. My name is Kelly Barber, and I'm the division chief for the PennDOT's engineering automation and services division, which is situated within the department's Bureau of Construction and Materials. Thank you for the opportunity today to share with you how PennDOT is proceeding with our e-construct initiatives and bridging those opportunities to support digital project delivery.
This session will provide a brief background on how we got started with a focus more on our recent e-construct initiatives and how we plan to bridge those innovations moving forward.
So first a little background on the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Our organizational structure consists of a central office with 11 engineering districts spread throughout the Commonwealth. We are responsible for over 40,000 road miles and a little over 25,000 bridges are within the Commonwealth that we're responsible for. And on the average, we let between 600 to 800 construction contracts annually with the program being a little over $2 billion in lettings annually for that. And for design on the design side, we typically have two to three times more projects in the works at any given time.
The department started leveraging technology early on with our electronic bidding system. It's called ECMS. And we've expanded to multiple in house systems over the years to address key interactions with our partners, whether it's Federal Highway Administration, other state agencies, our contracting associations, and our business partners, our consultants.
So this type of technological involvement expanded into our construction world around 2010. And as you can see, our construction projects alone had a lot of paper and our goal was to streamline those processes, collaborate, and really just get rid of all that paper. So this was the start of our e-construct efforts.
So this is a snapshot of some of our key solutions developed as a result of our efforts to date. They cover the entire project delivery process from planning to design and then on to construction and maintenance. And this is not an all encompassing list. We've got a lot going on here at the department. So this is just a fraction of what we have that we developed ourselves.
So as mentioned earlier, that contract management solution, ECMS, has evolved from that first rollout in 2002 and continues to advance as the needs are recognized today. But we've also developed multiple mobile applications, as shown here on the bottom right hand of the screen, for our construction staff. So all of our construction team members are equipped with an iPad to perform their daily duties in the field.
And with the support of our State Transportation Innovation Council, we've been able to explore multiple opportunities over the years with recent projects, including e-ticketing, augmented reality, our UAS, our drone implementation, and RFID tags for construction materials. The pilot projects utilized the solutions from the providers listed here.
So with all of these innovative opportunities at our fingertips, it's important to the department that we have a digital backbone that is platform inclusive. So by having this, we're able to capitalize on the investments the department and its business partners have made. It allows for change to be more accepted as we as a department are providing solutions that will work with others as long as they can provide that data exchange that is needed.
So an example of this is our scheduling solution, Asta Powerproject. This was implemented back in 2015. Our contractors are able to utilize their scheduling solution of choice. And then within the Asta program, we're able to have that conversion into the Asta file and the department's team is able to review it. So you'll notice a very similar theme throughout this presentation, working with business partners and systems that they have in place as we roll out change.
So moving on and kind of jumping into our e-ticketing efforts, the department has been piloting e-ticketing for aggregate, asphalt, and concrete over the past three construction seasons. We ramped its usage up annually starting we had a handful of projects the first season for each district. So there were about 33 pilot projects that first year. And this past season, we included our e-ticketing specification in all of our projects. So it was required on all projects this season. Still under a pilot phase, but required on all.
So in coordination with the department's IT delivery center, we developed our own e-ticketing mobile application to accept vendor supply tickets. The e-ticketing systems connect to the supplier's e-ticketing systems. Make sure we got that clear here. Connect to the department's application through an API, allowing our inspectors access to that ticket information in real time.
We do plan to store this information in our material system, which is called eCAMS. And we did go live with our application on July 1st of 2021. But in the meantime, we have created an e-ticketing portal to store this information. So our app is on the left here and our portal, just a little screenshot here, is on the right.
So the department, we've been working with multiple vendors on the connectivity through the API to our application. And through this outreach and as a result of our first pilot season with our after action reviews with industry, we at the department wanted to make sure and ensure that everyone had an equal opportunity to connect to our application. So making sure those suppliers that maybe weren't part of a pilot project that first year, we wanted to make sure they had that ability to connect and be able to provide tickets in the future.
So the department has contracted with HallHub to assist with our transition to e-ticketing and being able to assist those suppliers and producers with this transition and change. HallHub has the ability to work with multiple e-ticketing solutions and is providing that bridge to the department's application at no cost to the supplier or contractor. Because again, that contract is with us for them to be able to provide that opportunity to them.
So we currently do have three options available to our suppliers and producers and our contractors. So our first option is if they are set up and they have an internal IT application, they have the resources on staff, they've been provided the coding to be able to connect to our system and we've been working with them to make sure that they're up and running and connecting.
The other option we have is that they may have an existing e-ticketing system in place. And their vendor is going to be setting them up through an API connectivity. And if that vendor is already set up and up and running, they're able to continue to move forward with that. But if the vendor hasn't been successful yet in pushing those tickets to our application, they can work with Hall hub to assist with establishing that connection until their software provider is able to perform those functionalities.
And then the third option we have, for those producers that have minimal resources, no ticketing solution really to date, it's usually paper, HallHub is able to provide a very simple solution to get the tickets to our portal.
So once the supplier is able to provide that information to the department's application, it's going to be available for all of those ECMS projects. So all those contracts that we put out, one supplier, once they've made that connection, any project they're associated with, we get that information. And here we are continuing to analyze our own application that we've developed, continue coordination with our district and the industry on what's working, what they would like to see enhanced within the application itself.
We still have and will be maintaining our HallHub contract for the next couple of years here, and we will be revisiting that as we kind of move forward with things and see what the need is for our suppliers. For e-ticketing, our goal is full implementation with the release of our 2024 edition of our publication 408, which is our specification manual.
One key thing to note to help assist with this change, we've made our e-ticketing a lump sum item as a part of our contracts to allow suppliers and producers to help recoup some of the costs if they needed to upgrade their systems. But once it is rolled into our publication, it will be becoming an incidental item of work. So again, it will no longer have a pay item to that. But we've been having pilot projects and we'll have pilot projects through next construction season as well for those suppliers and producers to take advantage of that opportunity. And then in the future, we're looking to expand this to our maintenance materials as well.
So as we look towards the future, piggybacking off of moving e-ticketing to maintenance, looking towards the future, the usage of augmented reality and uncrewed aircraft systems and rapid visualization tool sets are currently under review for the benefits to the department and our partners.
Moving on to augmented reality, the department was able to pilot the usage of Imajion, our district 11 office, which is out of Pittsburgh. And they did test drive it for bridge inspection, construction, design, and material testing. And Imajion, you can kind of see here a little bit, Imajion is the platform which connects the office to the field via a Microsoft HoloLens to allow for that hands free device and communication tool out in the field.
So the benefits of using AR allowed for the team to coordinate with key staff without really the need for additional travel and expenses. It expedited problem solving on site and real time collaboration. It also provided for all of the contract documents at the touch of a button. So if you have someone back in the office and you needed to share a plan set or a specific document or detail, they would be able to pull it up and access it and those individuals in the field and also joining in the call would be able to see that and have that conversation piece around what they're looking at.
And then specific to where we're going here at the department in the future, the Imajion team is working on incorporating 3D modeling so that you'll be able to walk the project with the model overlay, again, hands free, being able to look out and see what's going on around you and have that conversation with your team members. And I always get a chuckle when I say this, but our district 11 construction team referred to Imajion as FaceTime on steroids. So they were able to get a lot of assistance and help with their projects by utilizing it through their pilot.
So with that, I'm going to jump into some examples here with district 11. You're not going to be able to hear them necessarily, but I'm just going to walk you through what they're talking about so that you have an idea of what that is. So this is, pardon me, the district 11 team. You can kind of see them here on the right within the platform. And they have a member of their team out in the field.
So again, this is just them kind of showing the plan set, having that conversation, and troubleshooting with that. And you can see the project location. So the gentleman is showing you where he's standing and being able to flip through the plan set here. So again, they're walking you through where they're at. And you can see here with the cursor and where they're actually standing in reference to that.
And we have another example. That's going to be setting them up as far as pins and measurements. So we'll get this video starting. But really kind of having that conversation about being able to capture the imagery, how you capture the imagery, the accuracy of it, what they're working on, and being able to use the OBJ file, pardon me, with that.
So again, it's really just kind of bringing things in. And you can see how the inspector is out there learning how to utilize and navigate the tool set. But again, they're going to be doing their points. They're going to set up their mesh. And we'll see that here in a moment. So again, pins measurement. 3D scans. So they did do a scan of this particular bridge. And we'll show you that here in one moment.
So again, taking that mesh layer. You've gotten that information. Bringing it back in. How does that work? What does that look like? And this is just going to walk you through bringing in that spatial mesh. And again, just having that visualization for you there.
So some other areas that the district was able to capitalize on the usage of the HoloLens and having augmented reality was for our virtual asphalt acceptance testing. And this we did for hands on local acceptance testing on 100% state contract. So no federal funds were involved. But it allowed the inspection staff to witness the test remotely, which was key, because then they would actually be able to get in more inspections during the day if they had multiple that they needed to get done from a management and booking and time perspective.
And they thought it was a good option for smaller facilities. The plant that they were at had actually installed cameras throughout the entire plant and had a communication line set up. We wanted to see how the HoloLens would work in this situation.
Some other areas here are for bridge inspection. Again, just being able to go in and measure cracks. Having people there with you live so you can go in and troubleshoot if there's any issues, taking measurements in the field, and being able to share that information back with the team and get that back to them in a timely manner. So on the bridge inspection side.
And then another portion of Imajion. They're coming out with a product called SiteLink. It'll be out here in the near future. But one of its key features that we're looking for to be able to test drive is to capture images in the location that they're at. So this utilizes LiDAR technology, getting those accurate measurements, and then being able to bring that information back in and share that with those team members that need it. So again, geolocation of the photos with LiDAR.
So the other augmented reality device the department is currently piloting is AMA Xpert Eye. And as you can see from this picture, the headset itself is a lot smaller than the HoloLens. It has the ability to move, just kind of like my headset here. You can move it up and down, view it wherever you need to.
And the department's structure material section in our bureau of bridge in coordination with high steel utilize Xpert Eye on our district 6 Betsy Ross project for steel fabrication. And the team was able to document the advantages to utilizing AR for remote visual inspection, kind of similar to what we talked about a little bit earlier here with district 11. A lot of benefits to be had by utilizing an AR device for this.
So based off of their usage of it, we have procured two additional devices for us to use. And we're looking to pilot it a little bit further back out in our Pittsburgh office in district 11 for all of those things that they used Imajion for. Test driving the different type of headset, what works, what doesn't work. But then we're also bringing it into the Bureau of Construction and Materials, our laboratory testing section for any asphalt retests.
Again, key things with this is hands free. So you can do what you need to do and be able to share that information with people at different locations. And our structure materials section is also going to be going out and utilizing it for concrete.
And then wrapping up our AR efforts, for today's conversation anyhow, we've also participated in some field demos with Trimble's Site Vision product. And Site Vision is going to allow our teams to be able to walk our projects real time with the 3D model overlaid on the site. And as you can see from the picture here, Site Vision can be used with a phone or with an iPad. And again, it's being able to be out on site walking that model and being able to capture any issues or concerns with the design or field conditions for construction.
So kind of wrapping up, again, that was AR. Tying in now to our usage of UAS and construction analytics. The department continues to expand its use of UAS, testing its capabilities and performance for various operations from design to construction and maintenance. And again, in the district office, district 11, we're currently piloting a handful of software. So we'll walk through those here. Reconstruct data mate and multi vista. And they all utilize drone imagery to monitor construction progress. And then depending upon the program, some additional analytics.
So the first solution they were test driving is called reconstruct. And they utilize it on two projects, the Kenmore bridge replacement, which is shown here, and then the McLaughlin run roundabout. And the pilot projects for this specific instance, they do not have a 3D model associated with them. So unfortunately, we weren't able to really test any of the functionality of these three products with a 3D model. But again, just based off of the drone imagery and what was captured with that, we were able to see a lot of benefits to the process.
And with that, I'm going to walk you through high level overview. This is the McLaughlin roundabout in our district 11 project. And so again, we're just going to go through this video together. And I'll navigate it for you so you can understand what the ace of the project is demonstrating. So right now the cameras have been turned off. You will see what they bring in here in a little bit. But again, you can go through and you'll see the different time frames. You'll notice that the cursor here was down at the bottom portion. And you can see that they're looking at different times associated with it.
So one thing with reconstruct, it does tie into the Asta Powerproject software. So you can time and see if you are ahead of schedule, behind schedule, and then you also have the ability to almost like a slide rule see where the projects are at at certain times. So again, they turn the cameras back on here. We're going to come in, zoom in here on the structure here. And some of the initial things that we're going to demonstrate are the measurement tools within the product itself to be able to measure distance, height, and area.
So again, taking that distant measurement. And they're going to measure the height from the bottom of the structure there down to the top of the water. You'll be able to get that measurement. Again, all from imagery. So if your inspection staff is not able to be out and maybe it's a risk based inspection and you have a drone that's out flying the project on a regular basis, you're able to see what those differences are and measure that and maybe not necessarily have staff out every single day on a project depending upon availability. And again, here this is just measuring your surface area.
So closing out of that image. The next thing that they're going to demonstrate here is being able to go in and do that cut fill measurement. So they'll zoom in on that particular photo. And then it's almost like they go and they have the tool set to draw their polygon around to get those cut and fill volumes.
So again, you can see over there that the accuracy and actually what the actual measurements are, the estimated cut and fill. So turning the cameras off. Kind of tying in.
So we're going to pull in-- there was not, again, not a model for this project. But they did go in and create some solids for the different quadrants around the roundabout, just to show if you tie it into your Asta schedule one, you can show the visibility of the model overlay of the project site and where that is at. But then you can also tie it into site progress with the schedule. And that will show up here in a moment. So state of progress.
So depending upon you can see that timeline going across the bottom with their cursor there. You can see whether or not they're behind schedule, on schedule, or on the verge of being behind schedule. And that's what's depicted by the colors. You can see over in this area where it's at.
So the next solution that's being piloted is Datumate on the Freedom Road project. And the district was very early on in its usage with these video captures. But again, they're planning to fly this for different milestones. And you can kind of see, we'll show in the next couple of slides how the key functionality for DataBIM construction analytics.
So this side here, you can see they're going in for cut and fill. Similar to reconstruct, you're able to go in and compare the different surfaces that they have. So they did bring in the CAD files with this particular instance. You can do your draw polygon. And you can do the change you just saw there, that command of the delta of the volume. So again, we'll let them kind of run through this for you.
And at the end, one nice thing within the DataBIM product is you're able to develop reports and have those reports linked into your construction projects. So you have all that backup information and documentation available.
So here we're going to be demonstrating-- it'd help if I went to the next slide. Here we go. So we're going to jump in here for distance. And similar. So you're getting CAD file overlay here of the drone imagery. You're going to see them going in and measuring distance and angle. So the first one will show the distance. So you can see how to do that. Again, accuracy. Being able to go out and figure out your quantities and do different things, length, volume, length, width, volume, angles for your projects. And here's a sample of the angle portion.
And then at the end of all of these, you'll see there's a report generated. And you're able to open that up and view that as well. So this is just a sample report that comes out. You get your imagery with it and it shares that data.
And then jumping over to safety, you'll notice down here on the left, there is a safety toggle. You can zoom in. So specific to this one, you'll see the time frame analysis going along with this. Here up in the upper right, you can capture your images. So right now the area is covered. You can see it in November it was also covered. Nice slide rule there to be able to show those differences. But at some point in time, pardon me, and you'll see here soon that area was not covered. There was a safety issue and a hazard on the project.
And I think the last thing anybody wants is to have an employee or a piece of equipment fall down a hole on the project site. So again, this is documenting what that is and the time frame that it took for that to be addressed. And similar to the other things, you can generate those reports and have that conversation.
Jumping over to the cross section trim. So you are able to anywhere within this project, again, CAD files are there. You're able to pick point A to point B and do that cross section. And you'll see here it'll pull it up and you'll actually be able to see what the cross section is of the roadway at that point in time. So it is time specific on where things are at.
And again, you can download it and you can create your reports. This video here depicts the cross section design. So again, zooming in, coming down into the roundabout. Utilizing that cross section progress feature.
So you can see they have what's there as of that point in time. But then you'll notice they'll come in here momentarily and they're going to pull in the file. You'll see it here. Roundabout final surface, what it would look like. And then they can kind show you the progress of where they're at at this point.
So again, walking you across. And all of this is done. There isn't the 3D model. This is the CAD file and the drone imagery that's utilizing this. And then that report would be generated and available.
Volume calculations very similar to the previous show of the volume calculations. You go in, you're going to create that elevation. You can also show that there's contour lines available within this solution as well. But you're basically going to go grab your polygon and you're going to do the volume. So again, generating that report with the new volume. And it can compare to other previous versions of it as well. And develop that report for you.
And then this is the final slide for Datumate and DataBIM. But this is kind of a-- I was talking about that slide rule. This really kind of brings that to life. You're going to pick your two dates with your differences and you're able to see that project progress out in the field where you start it and where you're going to end once you get through towards the end of the project. But you can go in and see those differences and what they worked on and then the ability to overlay those CAD files in and be able to do that as well.
So the other product that the district is using is Multivista for their group projects. So group projects are mill and fill type projects I guess would probably be the easiest way to explain it to the group. And that's what they're utilizing it for.
But the one thing that they thought was very helpful and beneficial to them was being able just to capture those before and after photos, especially when dealing with property owners. Sometimes they feel we may have encroached a little bit upon their property. So you can kind of see here in these images, this was the before and this is the after. And they actually have more space now than what they did before. So just being able to open up and have those conversations and have those visualizations, especially on projects like this, are very helpful.
So again, as far as the UAS efforts for the department, we do have a steering committee and we continue to review. There's potential opportunities for us to UAS devices to assist our workforce in the future. We continue to perform outreach to our districts and knowledge share, not only with them, but with our industry counterparts as well. Always willing to hear some good lessons learned and maybe there's opportunities that we're not aware of. So again, always open to that.
So with all of these opportunities available today, one might ask, how can we bring it all together? How do we bridge these innovative technologies? And this is where the department, we're looking to utilize the Autodesk Construction Cloud. So as you can see here, all of the solutions mentioned today are accessible from the My Home screen within ACC. They already have the connectivity through their partner cards. They just have to be set up.
But it brings all these different innovations to our fingertips. So no more remembering the sites or needing bookmarks. It's all here. It's all accessible. These cards do expand, so you can see more to it and you get access to it. And you can kind of see through here there's projects and you can set up the project templates. So it's been very helpful to tie all of these different things together.
So the department, we had a handful of our construction staff this past season test drive ACC's functionality. And so just want to share what we did along those lines. So kind of picking up where the other video left off. We have a handful of projects that we were working on. And just kind of wanted to test drive it from a photo perspective, because that's one thing where we do not have an application for specifically is photos.
We don't have a home necessarily to put all those files and for things to make sense and be organized in a fashion. So this video kind of follows the photos throughout the ACC process. So when you log in and you have your dashboard here, you can see the recent activity they had added some pictures in.
And while this is loading, as you go through, you're going to come into the photo gallery. And I will give you a heads up, these are all pictures from our construction staff. So nothing was necessarily handpicked. This is stuff that they thought would be useful and helpful to them, I guess we could say. But as you go through the gallery, there are options you can put in the photo type, whether it's a video or if it's a photo.
You can reference it by if there's any submittals, forms, wherever it may go. Again, these are all filter options. But then you can also put tags in those photos as well just to be able to filter in if there's any issues. And the other part within this photo part is you can also map where those pictures were taken.
So kind of bringing it into the ACC process itself and construction. Going over to that sheets functionality within build, the team went in and they were utilizing the markup functionalities and just kind of going through that. So again, just wanted to tie this in with the photo side, which you can see their markups on this. And this was only probably with a week in that they were able to do all of this. So there's a photo identified here, dense woods. So you click on the photo. You can kind of go in and see what the dense woods are for this specific project. But again, we did a role play for them for that particular project file.
So then if we jump over here to issues and we get in there, you'll see a very similar consistency. There's a lot of ability to collaborate, communicate, and share the information across the platform. So the example here is with potholes.
We're able to go in and make the statement, let them know what the issue is, but then also have that picture of the issue with the pothole so that if the manager needs to know what's going on, if someone wasn't at the site, and they go in and they go, oh my goodness, [INAUDIBLE] a pothole. What's going on? But you can have those references and have everything tied in on the issue side.
And even with the forms, the department has a lot of construction forms. And this is not even a sampling. This was just a handful for the teams, again, just to test drive. But all of these are interactive PDF documents. And you'll notice here that on the left side of it, there's a lot of different details. You can add those references in, and that's where you can put those photos in if it was applicable to it. So again, the picture is there.
And we'll jump over to RFIs. So you kind of see a lot of interoperability between the different areas within ACC that the team was able to capitalize on. So going into an RFI. So that Request For Information from the field. Street closure. They were able to add in a get to work sign.
One other thing about this system, and I joked with the construction team, if you're going to put something in it, we're going to know who put it in. So there's audit trails for everyone to know who's doing what. So just a reminder on that one. But if you go through the different submittals, similar there as well.
And this particular one wasn't necessarily a PennDOT type of example, but a quality assurance for fire extinguishers and adding your photos in there. And you can notice you can filter it if you wanted to get to it a little bit faster. So again, just adding an image in for that particular area.
And then also within build, there's meetings, there's correspondence. You're able to manage your schedules. Everything is within the one platform, which the construction team really appreciated. Again, that one stop shop.
So I know today's presentation has been very focused on our e-construct efforts. But just make note that all the technologies that I shared with you today have been coordinated or even piloted with our design and maintenance staff. So as augmented reality and UAS, they're going to be instrumental moving forward for everyone within our industry.
And speaking of moving forward. [COUGHS] Pardon me. Our design community is also spearheading a very large IT project for the department. And it's called the Project Delivery Collaboration Center. So in short, we call it Design Collaboration.
And Design Collaboration is envisioned to be a project manager's web portal. It's to be used from project creation through final design, including but not limited to a project portfolio. So we want to be able to tie into the schedule and have those look ahead, cost and budget, how does that tie in, project dashboards, and project reviews.
So the intent is that it's going to allow for those file management changes from how we do things today to the business process, including automated workflows for project reviews, concurrent reviews of documents, and knowledge of the other reviewer's comments while we're making our comments. And the portal will be able to provide links to other PennDOT systems and share key information with the system. So I touched on all of our legacy systems. Being able to work and have that flow with those systems and get information from them or feed information to them.
So it'll be a collaborative environment to allow access to those key project development stakeholders. As you can kind of see, that's listed here. Federal highways, business partners, and those other agencies. And the usage of multiple device types, making design mobile. And we're looking at this solution needs to be flexible in nature. So not how necessarily we do business today. Yes, we need that covered. But then also how we plan to operate in the future and beyond.
[COUGHS]
Pardon me. The benefits of Design Collaboration that we're seeing is increased communication between the design team members, our partners, federal highways, and our executive staff. We plan to be able to leverage the consistency across our districts and central office with those standard submittals and file naming conventions as well as streamlining our processes by having those electronic workflows and reviews. So no more paper. No more email trail trying to figure out if things got lost in someone's inbox. A system that's going to hold all of us accountable because we're going to know who has the document, who's reviewing it, and how long it's taken them to review it.
The department, we are going to be utilizing the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform. Specifically it's going to be utilizing Docs, BIM Collaborate Pro, and Build to make this design collaboration project a reality. So at a very high level, once the team has selected their project from that initial portal stage that you saw earlier on in the construction video, they're going to see a dashboard somewhat similar to this one. They'll have access to their files, their reviews, issues, and schedule information.
And then so Geo Decisions, they are the team that's leading this effort on behalf of the department. They are leading the configuration efforts, I should say, for the department. Creating custom cards, communicating that key data from our legacy systems. And then the dashboards that we will be having, which you can kind of see here, are going to be project specific. And they'll also be for the overall portfolio for executive management to utilize.
So another key card for the department is our scheduling card. And we utilize Asta Powerproject for all of our department scheduling. So running parallel with our Design Collaboration effort. [COUGHS] Pardon me. Is the upgrade from our current on prem web portal to Asta Powerproject Vision.
And what you'll see here, again, that was the portal page. You come in and we're developing setting up that project. I mean, it's showing construction here, but we use it for design and for construction. Our designers are going to be able to access their schedules directly from ACC. They'll be able to go in utilizing that card and create their projects within the Asta Vision portal. You can see here where the projects are at and you'd be able to go in and create. But then also they're going to have their portfolio overview with the Gantt chart to be able to see where all their projects are at and tying that in.
So one key thing that we've heard over the years, everyone loves to schedule, but sometimes we don't necessarily have all of the time in the world to schedule when PMs have multiple projects, 20, 30 projects that they're managing. And even if it's 10, sometimes the schedule-- if there's ways for us to be able to update that schedule in a timely manner for them and maybe streamline that process, they would always be very excited and happy for that.
So as part of Design Collaboration, we are working with Elecosoft and Autodesk to work on NGO decisions with that connectivity with ACC so that once that workflow, those parent or child activities, are approved within ACC, we're working to be able to have that feed and update the schedule within the Vision product. So that way when they're hitting those milestones, they're able to do that.
So just wrapping things up here. Overall we as a department are very excited about all of the opportunities that technology is bringing to our industry for today, and we can't wait to see what it's going to bring for the future. We are going to continue to strive to keep our department ecosystem of solutions platform inclusive. It's very important to make sure that we have not only working towards our efforts but coordinating and communicating with our business partners as well.
So thank you all for your time today, and I hope you enjoyed the presentation.
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