New business partners – a new way of working!
Founded by respectable Bosnian-Herzegovinian architect Zvjezdan Turkić, the private, independent consultancy firm Aksa has been operating for 30 years within the construction industry. The quality, reliability and professionalism of this company has been recognised by such clients such as the World Bank, the European Union Delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, USAID, Ina Mol, Messer, as well as the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with each completed job being rated with the highest scores. Three years ago, Aksa was offered a project by clients in the United States. As Aksa headquarters are based within Bosnia and Herzegovina, accepting the job meant finding out the best way to work and communicate with these new U.S. customers. "When a U.S. business partner appeared, the first step was to get acquainted with the technology they wanted to use. We concluded that we needed Bluebeam Revu for successful collaboration,” explains Anel Hajdarević, leader of the Aksa Group for the American market. Due to the clear user interface of Revu, the Aksa team was able to implement the digital solution into their business within a relatively short period of time. Bluebeam facilitated Aksa’s workflows and also improved the company’s knowledge of PDF-based document management.
Precision and communication
"In order to provide the client with a high-quality project with complete data precision, most of the tasks that needed to be done would be impossible to do in some other software; considering that we get projects in PDF format," says Ajla Divoš, an Aksa employee. One issue raised by the U.S. customers was the need to measure facade panels precisely. Using Revu, Aksa was able to do just that, achieving 100% precision and accuracy for surface measurements within the project. “With Bluebeam Studio, communication with customers on the other continent was excellent. Thanks to the tools for markups and the ability to send projects through hyperlinks, all mistakes were noticed in advance, and great time savings were made across the entire project,” Divoš explains. The ability to work simultaneously while commenting and working within the same tools enabled fluid and interactive collaboration between all participants.
“We teach our employees that working and acquiring new knowledge and new technologies should not be an obstacle; rather a challenge that will ultimately result in success.”
Senaida Turkić
President of the Managing Board of the Association of Employers of Zenica
Director of Aksa
Besides the calculation of the surface area of the finishing work, Hajdarević also emphasises early cooperation in data gathering with the client regarding the build space to establish a full understanding of the scope of the work during pre-construction. "I would point out the comprehensiveness of Bluebeam Revu. In order for the business to have had success within the U.S. market, we would certainly need upwards of five new software programs to calculate the quantities and surfaces. Bluebeam has not only saved us money, it has also enlarged our staff and overall business success." Hajdarević highlights the specificity of U.S. business in relation to the regional market. Namely, copyright in the AEC industry in the United States is highly protected, so project information gets exchanged exclusively through PDF formats, while in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighbouring countries, information and drafting are still most often done by sending open formats that allow changes to all elements.
Formula for success
President of the Board of Directors of the Association of Employers of Zenica and the director of Aksa, Senaida Turkić, pointed out that all business activities of the firm are based on a quality policy that encompasses the current and future needs of clients and fulfils their expectations. This involves investing in technological advancement. Since the very beginning of the company, Aksa has been open to new ideas and technological innovations as the key to their success. By investing and implementing Revu, a very successful collaboration with partners from the United States has been achieved, which opened up new jobs within Aksa and increased the company’s profits. Introducing Revu also increased the efficiency of engineers while helping them advance in skill and build knowledge. Turkić points out that thanks to the new opportunities Bluebeam helped provide within the U.S. market, the profits of the company increased by 23% in 2018 in comparison to 2017. "We teach our employees that working and acquiring new knowledge and new technologies should not be an obstacle, rather a challenge that will ultimately result in success. That’s exactly what happened with Bluebeam Revu."
* Aksa is located in Bosnia and Herzegovina and purchased Bluebeam products through Baldinistudios, a Bluebeam Silver Reseller.