Dix.Hite + Partners, Inc. is an award-winning landscape architecture firm providing high-quality, professional design services throughout the southeastern United States. Founded in 1996, the firm is an established leader in landscape architecture, with special expertise in public-realm design, mixed-use development, multi-family sites, transportation projects, master-planned communities, pedestrian and bicycle design, parks, and trails.
Dix.Hite’s full team includes professional landscape architects and designers located in Orlando, FL, Birmingham, AL, and Atlanta, GA. Their team advances sustainable design, utilises ecologically friendly landscape palettes, and aims to celebrate local character and history through thoughtful design recommendations and selection of materials.
In regards to email management, Marina Hoppes, Business Manager, told us they have a collaborative team, and email management is important to the company as their projects and work in general is always done in teams, so ensuring information is accessible across all involved team members is key for a successful project.
Before Mail Manager, they had 40 licences with Newforma. Although everyone was supposed to be using it, many weren’t. At the same time, the company acquired a new project management system to integrate with Newforma, until this integration stopped working and the folders weren’t automatically done anymore. The IT team started to question the lack of filed information, and changed from 40 to 5 licences so as not to completely let it go, but as filing emails is essential so Dix.Hite + Partners, they had to find a suitable solution.
With the problem being further complicated and aggravated by the pandemic and mostly everyone working from home, accessibility to information was even more difficult. Mail Manager was the chosen solution to solve the email headache. Marines said: “We thought it would be complicated to implement a new system, now we are easily getting everyone aboard.”
The implementation of Mail Manager started with a small team of 3 people. They then had another step with other employees, getting feedback and questions to refine the process and training others more easily. They sent FAQ’s to the team, helping ease the transition. Marines shared some of the feedback: "Integration with outlook is great, it perfectly integrates with it and the fact that we don’t have to open another programme is a must!"
It’s only been a couple of months since Dix.Hite + Partners decided to use Mail Manager, and in summary the implementation process during quarantine has been simple and positive.
Founded in 1987, Lucking+Clark Engineers have grown to become one of London’s leading structural engineering consultancies, with a vast experience in refurbishment projects, which include commercial as well as residential buildings. In addition, their experience extends in the design of new build structures, as well as design of specialist structural elements including structural glass.
The company started with only one email account, which didn’t last very long. As they grew, the need to have more email accounts grew with it. When that happened, they struggled with Office 365, with the need to file and make information more accessible. After years without an email management tool, Lucking & Clark Engineers decided to use Mail Manager, and they have been using the solution for 3 years now.
David Allen, Partner at Lucking + Clark Engineers, said: “We decided to use Mail Manager and it was an easy process to move to. We did that in a weekend as we initially thought we had to take the system offline, which is not necessary. All partners and staff are pleased with it.”
Within very little time, they moved all emails to Mail Manager, and at the moment they have over a million emails stored across 17,000 projects. Everything is now accessible since 2001, and it takes just a few seconds to access that information.
According to David, “Implementing Mail Manager during a pandemic would probably be as simple as it was 3 years ago. In the past, if I wanted to talk to my colleague I just had to turn and ask him. But now it's not that simple anymore, even with Teams, as we aren’t in the same place and can’t ask a colleague that sits next to you. Mail Manager has become even more relevant in giving more mobility functionality.”
During their implementation process they found it very easy to explain and didn’t had any issues. David also shared an internal survey they carried out across the company to get a better understanding of the software acceptance within the company: “Our internal survey showed 100% of employees found it easy to use and 5% of people said they had issues, that were related to set up and user training and we sorted very quickly. Which I’m sure you can explain over zoom or teams without any trouble.”
