Schimberg Group Case Study

Overview

Founded in 2004, Schimberg Group is an architecture and interior design firm with teams in the US and Turkey. With distributed teams, Word documents were no longer an effective way to manage schedules and projects, prompting Selma Wilson, architect and project manager, to seekz a visually sophisticated project management tool. Today, Schimberg Group uses ProjectManager to build schedules, manage subtasks for lengthy projects and reduce time spent on data input.

Key challenges

Task management on lengthy, complex projects was causing frustration and poor schedule management

Difficulties conveying key information to clients in a streamlined, sophisticated way

ProjectManager’s solutions

Sheet view provides a color-coded way to manage subtasks for visual clarity

Project templates streamline the planning process and save time

Standout features

Dashboards
Reporting
Collaboration
Resource management

Location
Sarasota, FL and Izmir, Turkey

Website
theschimgroup.com

Industry
Architecture & interior design

Size
6-7 employees

An Introduction to Schimberg Group

Schimberg Group handles a range of projects, from substantial renovations to larger, campus-scale new builds. These projects are long and complex. Without project management software, scheduling and overall communication were suffering across geographic locations. Schimberg Group needed a systematic way to update schedules and to determine the time-allocation impacts of delays.

Tools like Word documents simply weren’t cutting it for change management, progress tracking, and resource allocation, and their team was spending too much time entering data. This kick-started the years-long journey of finding a best-in-class project management software.

Other Software Options Were Falling Short

Schimberg Group was looking for something seemingly simple: the ability to schedule projects that had hundreds of subtasks, including those of their consultants. After three years of trying various software and entering project data only to be disappointed by the software’s functionality, they realized there weren’t many options that supported their architectural needs. After feeling disappointed with other software, they found ProjectManager.

“Other platforms couldn’t cope with even the third level of subtasks. They were slow and crashed, and I could never see six months of subtasks in a logical way.”

Selma Wilson
Project Manager at Schimberg Group

Why ProjectManager?

ProjectManager has the ability to enter a nearly unlimited number of subtasks within the work breakdown structure. This capacity, which was a critical failing point of previous software, allows Schimberg Group to detail its complex architectural processes. Their projects have extensive preamble phases that were once overlooked; now, those phases are fleshed out.

Wilson also appreciates ProjectManager’s graphics and how straightforward it was for her to understand navigation. Their small office handles big work, and the software minimizes time spent on data input.

“Everything is balanced as a visual composition. I can color it the way I want, and it automatically bolds major tasks, for example. That’s somebody designing in a logical way, and I completely appreciate that,” Wilson said.

ProjectManager helps in the following ways:

Real-time schedule visibility improves accuracy and client communication
Determines time allocation across projects and how tasks are impacted by delays
In-depth work breakdown structure to manage multiple layers of tasks effectively
Data-sharing with clients via customized PDFs
Hands-on support should Schimberg Group need assistance

Sheet Is the Preferred Project View

Wilson noted that architectural projects are notoriously long, and the sheet view is the ideal format to track various subtasks in a visually appealing and organized way.

“I find the sheet very useful. I color-code the phases of a project, so that’s made things visually clearer,” Wilson said.

They also utilize the custom templates feature to make starting projects easy, and Wilson notes that they have two main templates that they work from. The ability to track all four types of task dependencies is another essential aspect for Schimberg Group.

“I absolutely love how you can put a lag and how you can attach tasks from the front end or the back end. Nobody has that. For our purposes, that is very critical,” Wilson said.

Should data need to be shared, Wilson generates custom PDFs in a few clicks to email to stakeholders.

Leveraging Other ProjectManager Features

As the company continues to take on large, dynamic projects, Schimberg Group is excited about using other ProjectManager features like the Gantt chart, workload feature and the roadmap view.

Wilson is eager to see what else the software can do, and she is confident that the Support Team will continue to provide hands-on guidance as their relationship with ProjectManager grows.