KTGY: Breaking Down Siloes

KTGY is an international full-service architecture and planning firm that combines big picture opportunities, modern sustainable practices and impeccable design standards into innovative building developments.  KTGY prides itself as a firm filled with problem solvers, who are able to translate its clients’ complex requirements into simple and elegant solutions.  When KTGY realized that they had an internal problem with BIM (Building Information Models) content being siloed across their seven different offices, they turned to UNIFI and its cloud-based solution as the answer to empowering its employees with a consistent, single source of standardized BIM content.

Challenge

KTGY builds beautiful spaces, but they were creating silos when it came to managing their BIM content.  Each of the seven KTGY offices across the globe had its own way of storing content and there was no consistency nor sharing of content among offices. This led to waste, inefficiency and created walls between offices and amongst its 120 designers.  Enter Troy Gates, KTGY’s Director of Design Technology, who was tasked with breaking down these barriers.

Troy, an early adopter of Revit himself, wanted to find a content management solution that provided a single source of truth and allowed users to easily find content without having the hassles of managing the content.  Troy wanted a content management solution that put the power into the hands of their users, while also addressing the inefficiencies inherent in the siloed approach employed at each KTGY office.

Solution

Enter UNIFI – where Troy found a cloud-based content solution that delivered a single source of content and company-wide standardization. “KTGY now looks like one company regardless of whether our Oakland, Irvine or Pune office is designing,” says Troy Gates. “All seven offices have access to content at any time with one source.”  KTGY designers are able to focus on design, rather than searching and managing content.  UNIFI’s cloud-based access and powerful search features including saved searches and favorites, empower KTGY users to easily find the content that best fits their project.

Design is a fluid process and flexibility is a must, which UNIFI enables through a robust set of permissions and libraries.  Troy and his core team set standards and approve new content that goes into a KTGY company standards library.  Troy also sets up a “free for all” library where anyone in KTGY can place content – which fosters creativity and new ideas.  The content in this library moves into the company standards library once it has been reviewed and approved.  Troy envisions that one day, the company library will hold all content, a process that is still evolving.

The UNIFI platform delivers unique operational efficiencies beyond traditional content management.  UNIFI analytics provide Troy with a data rich understanding of what content is being used, what isn’t and helps shape how KTGY manages BIM content into the future. On-boarding new architects is a breeze, no more hunting for content – so they can immediately start designing.

KTGY doesn’t just architect buildings, their designers also help shape the UNIFI product.  Inside UNIFI there is an Ideas Portal where any user can submit a request for a new product feature.  Many of KTGY’s submissions have been incorporated into UNIFI.  Additionally, Troy is a member of UNIFI’s Advisory Board, where he provides valuable insights into the future direction of the solution that further the utility of UNIFI for KTGY and the industry as a whole.  UNIFI views KTGY as not only a customer, but a valued partner.  And, we are delighted that KTGY has achieved remarkable success with UNIFI’s cloud-based content management solution.  As Troy states, “The name of the product, UNIFI, describes what KTGY was able to do – we now have a single source of content.  Truth in advertising!”