PLAN ROOM ARCHIVE SERVICES

BidDocs ONLINE (BDO) also provides the full range of large format archiving services. Using our plan-link software developed for the bid document distribution, BDO can also upload your entire plan room archives on-site without having to remove your record drawings. In addition, BDO can upload and link critical documents to the plans for individual projects such as operation and maintenance manuals (O&M), specifications, record submittals, photos and submittal drawings.

At the outset, a principal from BDO will meet with you and your staff to review your current archiving practices and to develop a tailored system to allow you to easily access the information hosted on BDO's computer servers. The archive organization hierarchy includes site/location, building, projects and associated documents. This approach allows you and your staff to quickly search the archive database by various "fields". More important, this hierarchy will allow for "drop down" menus that will assist in the search. In any case, BDO will work with you to refine the archive hierarchy to meet your needs.

After the initial meeting, BDO will send an archiving team to your plan room (on-site) to commence the archiving process. In particular, the team will catalog and upload all drawings and documents (regardless of the age or condition) using the plan-link coding system affixed to each document. Subsequent to uploading several buildings or projects, BDO will review the results with you to determine that you are satisfied with the quality and hierarchy established for the archive. Upon approval, BDO will then complete the cataloging and uploading of the entire plan room archive. Note: BDO will reverse read older drawings if requested by you (black line on white background).

Upon completing the archive upload, BDO's staff will then compile and structure the complete archive database. BDO will host the database on our servers. As future projects and plans are added to the archives, you simply forward hard copies of the documents to BDO and we will upload the information onto the archive database.

Once the archive is up and running, the authorized users in your organization can easily access the information in the database. Upon entering the archive access code and the individual user password, your staff will have full access to the archive database. The user can then search for specific information by site, building, project using the "assisted search" with dropdown menus or may perform an "advanced search" using any of the data fields (such as project number, date, designer name, etc). Clicking on a specific drawing or associated document, the information may be viewed online, downloaded, saved or printed. If numerous documents are needed for a new project, for example, then the individual user only needs to click on the required documents and request a disk or hard copy. BDO will then process the request and forward the information. This archive access process ensures that you and your staff controls which individuals can access and obtain information from the plan room archive.

As with any electronic database, security becomes a serious concern. BDO has structured our web-based archiving database to be fully secure and continues to update security regularly. First and foremost, BDO maintains your archive database on servers at multiple sites (redundant backups) to ensure that your archive is always available. If one of our sites is disabled, the archive access will be re-routed to one of the multiple back-up sites. All the sites have the necessary firewalls and anti-virus scanning software.

As the Owner, you will control access into the archive. Access into the archive will have a minimum two-level security setup administered by your staff. First, an individual will need to enter the correct archive access code (selected by you and common to all the authorized users) and then an individual user password. Using the administrator function on the archive database, you determine which individuals in the organization are authorized to access the archives. You will have full control to add or delete individual access to the archive database.

In lieu of BDO hosting your plan room archive, we can also prepare and upload your archive database on hardware that resides and is solely managed by your information technology (IT) staff. You then control the full archive database information and manage the level of security and access without any link to BDO's servers.

BidDocs ONLINE has a demonstration archive to view and access. Upon your request, BDO will meet with you to demonstrate the sample archive and the various features.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON BidDocs ONLINE SERVICES, EMAIL support@biddocsonline.com and we will respond promptly to your request or questions.