Streamlining the Work-in-Progress Stage: Egnyte’s Role in AEC Collaboration

In the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, ensuring seamless access to the latest project documents isn't just critical—it's indispensable. Document mismanagement can lead to costly delays, errors, and miscommunications. To address these challenges, many companies in the built environment rely on Egnyte as a centralised document management platform.

Egnyte serves as a single source of truth, enabling teams to access the most up-to-date versions of documents at any time. This centralised approach enhances collaboration, ensures accuracy, and fosters better data governance across projects, streamlining workflows for teams both on-site and in the office.

Egnyte’s Role During the Work-in-Progress (WIP) Stage

The Work-in-Progress (WIP) stage of any project is one of its most dynamic and collaborative phases. At this stage, files are actively being created, edited, and reviewed by multiple stakeholders, making effective document management crucial. Egnyte’s platform uniquely positions itself to address the challenges of managing WIP files, offering tools and capabilities that ensure seamless collaboration, advanced version control, and a robust permissions model.

Streamlining Collaboration Across Teams

The WIP stage often involves diverse contributors, including internal team members, external contractors, and consultants. Egnyte enables secure and efficient file sharing, ensuring stakeholders can access necessary documents securely.

Egnyte’s file-sharing capabilities support real-time collaboration, allowing users to provide comments, annotations, and suggestions directly within the platform. This reduces the reliance on fragmented communication methods, such as email threads, and ensures all feedback is centralised and easy to track.

Ensuring Robust Version Control

One of the primary challenges of the WIP stage is maintaining control over document versions. In industries like construction and design, even minor changes to plans or specifications can have significant downstream effects. Egnyte addresses this by automatically tracking file versions, ensuring users can easily access previous iterations and confirm they’re working on the most up-to-date version.

Egnyte’s global file locking feature prevents multiple users from editing the same document simultaneously, avoiding conflicts and corruption. This capability is particularly valuable when professionals in the AEC industry work with complex file types, such as CAD or BIM files.

Governing File Approval and Review Cycles

As files progress through the WIP stage, they often require multiple rounds of review and approval. Egnyte provides tools to streamline this process, enabling document controllers to assign tasks, manage permissions, and track approval status. This governance ensures that only authorised changes are made and all necessary stakeholders are aligned before finalising the file.

Integration With Systems of Record

Once a WIP file is finalised, moving it into a System of Record must be seamless to ensure compliance and accessibility. Egnyte integrates with a number of Systems of Record, enabling teams to publish final versions effortlessly and maintain an auditable history of changes and approvals. These integrations reduce manual errors and ensure documents are stored securely for future reference.

Addressing Cybersecurity and Regulatory Challenges

The proliferation of data across the AEC sector comes with risks, including cyber threats and regulatory non-compliance. Advanced document management platforms like Egnyte utilise machine learning to monitor for unusual activity, classify sensitive data, and implement automated governance policies, ensuring security and compliance with global regulations like GDPR in Europe, PDPL in Saudi Arabia, and the Building Safety Act in the UK.

Enhancing Collaboration and Data Governance With Egnyte

Egnyte goes beyond document storage—it’s a critical enabler for collaboration and governance in the AEC industry. By providing a centralised platform for managing WIP documents and streamlining the publishing process into Systems of Record, Egnyte supports the industry’s need for accuracy, accessibility, and accountability.

Egnyte Plays a Strategic Role in Digital AEC Workflows

Through its focus on robust collaboration, version control, and permission management during the WIP stage, Egnyte ensures that AEC companies can manage their projects efficiently and effectively. As the industry embraces digital transformation, platforms like Egnyte will play a pivotal role in helping teams stay connected, productive, and compliant, ensuring project success in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Learn how McLaughlin & Harvey leverages Egnyte to streamline work- WIP management, enhance collaboration, and drive efficiency. Watch now.