BSD Customer Case Study: 
SpecLink Brings Specification Automation to Neumann/Smith and Associates

Neumann/Smith and Associates is an award winning architectural firm located in Southfield, Michigan. Their staff of 42 includes architects, interior designers, spec writers and administrative personnel.

Because money matters on every new building, addition and interior renovation project, Neumann/Smith & Associates looks beyond the ordinary to find cost-effective ways to create extraordinary facilities for their clients. Whether designing an office building, museum, fitness center, classroom, library, medical center, place of worship, city hall, parking garage or custom home, they draw upon their diverse experience for novel concepts and approaches that can save hundreds of thousands of dollars. Challenging their creative vision with practical expertise allows them to give their clients more for their money than they ever dreamed possible … and that’s smart design.

The diversity of their experience keeps them thinking “out of the box,” inspiring innovative solutions for new and complex challenges. Their staff’s understanding of issues and trends in office design is invaluable for creating a work environment that is both efficient and enjoyable for their clients. The personal involvement of their staff, along with an understanding of the developer marketplace in Southfield, is an important component of their total work product.

Their creativity and unwavering commitment to the highest standards of professional practice have earned the firm over 125 design awards, the Firm Award from AIA Michigan, two Marvin M. Black Excellence in Partnering Awards from the Associated General Contractors of America, and numerous features in the international architectural press.

The Need: Ron Lindow joined Neumann/Smith and Associates in 1988. One of his first assignments was to bring the firm’s specification system into the “electronic age.” They started using a word processing-based spec writing system. While it was better than what they had been using, it was still a protracted process to create specifications. They had a master document, but any changes had to be made by cut and paste. Then,the footers and headers had to be inserted into every section, and each section had to be printed individually. Even though it was a computerized system, it was not very automated. It still required a lot of “manual” oversight. Lindow knew there had to be an easier way to create specifications.

The Solution: The switch to SpecLink occurred in 2001. Lindow uses one word more than any other to describe his SpecLink experience: “Ease.” He says the things he likes best about SpecLink are, “The ease with which you can maneuver within a section, within multiple sections and multiple projects at the same time. The ease of importing information into SpecLink from other sources. The ease of restoring text that would have been previously deleted. And the ease of changing the spec when the project requirements change.” Other things are easier now, too. With SpecLink, he creates a single header and footer per project. If he needs to make changes – even after an edit - it just takes a few clicks of the mouse. And, since SpecLink has truly automated his specification writing system, Lindow says, “I can set up the whole project to print while I’m at lunch.”

The Outcome: In the four years since they began using SpecLink, Neumann/Smith and Associates have created an office master. Documents (drawings and specifications) in southeast Michigan contain much more information than in some parts of the country. It has been easy for Lindow to accommodate this special need in SpecLink by creating User Sections. SpecLink recently released an update and Lindow was pleased with the outcome, “I would like to compliment SpecLink on the painless conversion to MasterFormat 04. Even our USER sections were very simple to convert.”

On his overall experience with SpecLink, he reflects, “All the projects I’ve done in SpecLink are my BEST projects. I promote its use to professional associates at other firms whenever the opportunity arises.”