Page 32 - 2016 FGM Annual Report

Technology Changes
The IT department has undergone some changes since this time last year. In addition to
eliminating the proactive support of our managed services firm, we have reduced to one
support person for the whole firm, Mike Caraker. We believed this was a major challenge for
Mike to be successful, but he has proven us wrong. Mike has done a phenomenal job keeping
up with the day-to-day support items, as well as, managing the remainder of his job as IT
Director. Mike, thank you for your support through a challenging period of time. It’s our hope,
once we get through this lean time, we can get Mike some help again, so he can refocus on
being a bit more proactive.

During this year, we’ve migrated the majority of our data into the cloud storage solution known
as Panzura. This allows us to have all the same data available to every office. The data
synchronizes with Amazon’s cloud eliminating the need for daily data backups which saves us
time and money. We also added a high availability Panzura unit which helps minimize any pains
felt if one of the units goes down. Because of these efforts, we have been able to retire all the
blade servers we had in the offices and are reducing the power and cooling requirements of
those rooms substantially. The only data that still resides locally within our walls is Vision and
Newforma plus a couple of other database programs like E-specs and Specsources.

We constantly look at improving our inter-office meeting capabilities. This year we added an
80” television and Skype connection in the Oak Brook Commons room. We’re also trying out a
different microphone system in the Oak Brook large room to try and get a better meeting
experience for those on the other end.
It’s been another big year for upgrades also. This time it was Windows 10 which is now on every
machine in the firm. At the same time, Microsoft Office was upgraded to the latest version –
2016. Additionally, we had the smoothest upgrade of Newforma to date – version 11.7.
The coming year will most likely bring us upgrades of Vision (version 7.6) along with the rollout of
iAccess, Newforma (11.8 and probably beyond) as well as the Autodesk suite to 2017. The only
constant in the IT world is change!
Committees

The Professional Development Committee (PDC) assisted the firm in its 2020 Vision of a learning
and mentoring culture by setting up a series of FGM U programs which range from “Building a
Fee”, “Roofing” to “Roles and Responsibilities”. The feedback on these programs have been
positive from both the presenters and the audience. We thank PDC for all their efforts and look to
you to continue this program in FY17. To give you a flavor of what is to come from PDC, they are
currently reviewing ideas to provide an online opportunity to strengthen knowledge as well as
meet our Professional Development goals. Thank you all for your support and efforts!

The Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) has also made great strides in FY16 with the
implementation of a new informal session entitled “Lessons Learned” as well as continued to bring
us “TAG Tuesdays” where staff learn more in-depth about the firm-wide standards in place at FGM.
We believe we are a leader in our industry in the development of a strong set of drawing and
production standards. We have spoken to firms many times our size over the years and discovered
they haven’t been able to accomplish what we have in our operations. Kuddos to TAG and