TeamView Consult

Cumbersome excel spreadsheets can make information sharing and analysis on community consultation projects time consuming and administration-intensive. In addition, the project team runs the very real risk of losing valuable information in the clutter of individual correspondence and updates.

In 2008 Beca Applied Technologies launched TeamView™ Consult, a web based application that can be accessed from anywhere, enabling information to be updated in real time by all stakeholders involved in a project. Developed with the extensive experience of the Beca Planning team, TeamView™ Consult has an intuitive, user friendly interface combined with powerful analytical ability that has, according to Beca Planning Business Director Greg Pollock, "revolutionised the way we manage consultation".

The Beca Planning team used TeamView™ Consult extensively on eight major projects during the past year, including Auckland's Waterview Connection, the Tauranga Central Corridor and most recently the Turitea Windfarm - summarising more than 600 submissions in 4 days.

"TeamView Consult has helped us to manage all the wide-ranging aspects of consultation processes, from informal early discussions with key stakeholders to formal consultation and statutory submission processes" says Greg. "It provides us with a comprehensive 'home' for consultation records that can be built upon as a project progresses. We can deal effectively with consenting projects, structure plans, policy statements, strategy documents or any consultative process which requires the capture and analysis of comments received."

He is enthusiastic about the savings to the client." Multiple user input speeds data capture, while search and reporting functionality aids the analysis of issues. These features reduce the time and cost associated with managing the consultation process."

TeamView Consult is available as a subscription-based service for use on clients' own consultation projects. The Ministry for the Environment is a client who has successfully used the application independent of Beca, recently purchasing its third license.

According to Sam Fielden, Lead Business Analyst from Beca Applied Technologies, "Offering TeamView Consult as a software service saves our clients time, allowing them to get on with their project work while we look after the IT support activities like data backups and server patching." more...