O3 Solutions

O3 Solutions is a construction technology company that was founded in 2016 to provide Agile Project Management and Advanced Work Packaging software solutions. While O3 initially focused on oil and gas, the company has expanded to include other industries, such as infrastructure, mining, chemical, and power and utilities. Based in Birmingham, Alabama, O3 was the first software company to provide a complete end-to-end solution that supports an entire project lifecycle from concept through handover and operations for projects of all sizes across the globe. 

Challenge

Project management has always been a challenge in the construction industry. With multiple teams executing sometimes millions of tasks using disconnected management methods, errors in project oversight, scoping, and job assignment often lead to cost and time overruns. In response, the Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) methodology has emerged as an effective way to keep projects on track and on budget. With AWP, projects have seen a reported 25% increase in productivity and roughly 10% in total project cost savings. The success of this methodology has led to it quickly becoming the de facto standard, with many owner/operators requiring that stakeholders employ AWP if they want to be considered for their projects. 

In these early days of this new methodology, companies have been stitching together a grab bag of solutions to implement AWP—paper-based and manual, as well as disparate software systems. This inefficient, siloed approach inspired the founding of O3 Solutions, with the idea that a single, end-to-end software solution could provide the support to effectively compete in an industry fueled by AWP.

How O3 solved it with Forge

O3 saw that key to greater implementation of AWP is consolidation of all project data in a single, centralized, cloud-based database. O3’s linchpins consist of four solutions that line up exactly with the four project phases: ONPlan for early planning, ONDesign for detailed design, ONBuild for the execution phase, and ONStart for the startup and commissioning phase. The software is built on a single platform, with a consistent user experience across the four solutions. The project database is cloud-based and accessible by all stakeholders, keeping team members up-to-date on specific tasks to be executed and the overall status of the project. 

As O3 built its solution—from the management of project constraints to non-graphical scoping and more—it realized that to provide a true end-to-end solution, it would need to incorporate a graphic element for the shared viewing of 3D models. While the company could have built the viewer, it would have taken time, resources, and, most importantly, focus away from product development for an estimated 2 years or more. After extensive research, O3 found that Autodesk Platform Services (APS) provided everything necessary to complete its AWP software solution and was able to deploy the solution in less than 12 months.

O3 clients upload model folders in the BIM 360 API, which then scans folders to locate model files and presents them in the O3 software, simplifying the process for clients. The files are translated to the appropriate format, and team members use the Model Derivative API to extract meta data for the model. The Viewer API then translates that data into web-based, 3D model viewable on any browser. 

The APS APIs are an integral part to the holistic support software that O3 has created to give customers a simple solution that consolidates project data and streamlines AWP methodology, taking great strides in reducing cost and schedule overruns. Click here for additional reference materials on their BIM 360 integration or to request a follow-up from O3.

APS highlights include the following: 

• Speeds product time to market.
• Frees up resources for product development and saves money. 
• Translates 70+ files formats, enabling great flexibility.

APIs and Services

BIM 360 API

Model Derivative API

Viewer