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Looking to implement a collaborative platform for your construction project but unsure which deployment to choose? Our experts are here to help you make sense of it all!
Decision criteria
The first constraint, of course, is whether company policy encourages the use of Cloud solutions. While trust in major collaborative platform providers is now widespread, some companies—due to their history or industry—remain hesitant to outsource document and BIM processes and tend to favor an Intranet approach.
The IT department manages numerous projects in addition to the company's daily IT operations. If you are leaning toward an Intranet solution, assess the resources the IT department can allocate, both in terms of budget and the required skill sets.
In your internal service agreement, you will need to specify, for example, the desired platform availability and the procedures to ensure a return to normal operations in the event of an issue. The expected performance level will naturally impact the internal cross-charging costs for the platform.
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If you are hosting "top secret," "restricted," or "defense confidential" data, an Intranet platform will be necessary. This choice should be supplemented by access restrictions, such as requiring a local connection or a VPN for remote access, or even disconnecting the platform from the Internet entirely in the most secure cases.
Pro tip : Some of our clients choose to compartmentalize their information, using an Intranet platform for sensitive data and a Cloud platform to facilitate exchanges for all other types of information.
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Project location is also a decisive factor. Some areas may have limited Internet access. In other cases, local authorities may mandate that data for projects carried out within the country cannot be hosted abroad. In these situations, using an Intranet platform is the ideal solution to avoid relying on remote server connections while remaining compliant with local regulations.
The business models for Cloud and Intranet platforms often differ. (Types: subscriptions/licenses and maintenance; pricing bases: per user, by volume, by project size, or as a percentage of construction costs, etc.).
Furthermore, when budgeting for an Intranet, account for the costs associated with acquiring (servers, networks, OS, and databases) and operating (IT administrators) the infrastructure that will host the collaborative platform.
Finally, the urgency of your project launch is also a factor. A Cloud deployment is much faster to set up since the infrastructure already exists. With an Intranet, procuring hardware, installing it, and calibrating the infrastructure can significantly impact the platform's implementation timeline—taking weeks or even months.
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