High Plains Engineering
High Plains Engineering adopted Calcs.com across their whole team to handle residential, commercial, and agricultural projects in Colorado, with cloud access enabling collaboration anywhere.
“Hopefully I can get the entire team on the same page. What we want is one software that we can go to, to do 90% of our calculations.”
About High Plains Engineering
Located in Weld County out of Denver, Colorado, High Plains Engineering provides both structural and geotechnical engineering expertise for residential, commercial, and agricultural clients.
"A lot of our clients are residential people coming in. They'll want to build a house. So they'll come in and they'll have like a sketch up of the layout that they want. So we put together the architectural plans and the structural plans, and then we'll go out and do the geo-tech as well."
"We do a lot of pre-engineered metal building foundation. We also have a lot of agricultural clients up in Weld County, people who are building outhouses, pull barns and whatnots. So a lot of wood structures."
The challenge
Megan, who recently joined the High Plains team, came in with the wealth of her experience in commercial buildings. One of the highest priorities right now is increasing efficiency for the team.
Being able to do designs quickly will make a big difference to their workflow at High Plains.
Ease of use and doing things faster
For example, when training younger engineers, being able to get them into Calcs.com and have them learn to design quickly is a big plus.
"We have engineer drafters who want to get more design experience. So being able to say that 'hey, I want you to design this beam' instead of telling them what the beam design is and have them draft it is top priority for us."
"That way we're not wasting a ton of time going through designs - for example, what should take 30 seconds is taking 30 minutes."
Cloud-based for access anywhere, anytime
Being able to access Calcs.com anywhere because the software is cloud-based is a major plus for Megan, especially as she looks to the future with her evolving role at High Plains.
"So what I did when I first tried the software, I created a test project. And then I sent out an email to my whole team and said, 'hey, I created this test project. Go in and play with it'. It was nice that no matter where we were - like today, we're getting a ton of snow, so pretty much everybody's working remotely - it's nice being able to have the ability for everybody to go in online and see each other's calcs."
One-stop engineering software for everyone
Looking ahead, Megan aims to streamline the use of Calcs.com for the company's entire operation. This means having not only engineers use Calcs.com but also drafters, designers, and reviewers so the entire QA and QC processes are streamlined and more efficient.
"Hopefully I can get the entire team on the same page. What we want is one software that we can go to, to do 90% of our calculations."
Megan, High Plains Engineering
And most importantly, Megan believes having an inclusive software that is easy to learn and use for everyone is going to be the key for the team as High Plains continues to grow.
"You know, the majority of the people at our company, we're all about the same age. But what happens when we hire somebody that's 15 years older than us who's set in his ways, or what happens when we hire somebody right out of school, who doesn't necessarily know all software programs. So just the ease of learning the program is going to be top priority for when we grow as a company."
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