By Ed Avis
Editor’s Note: The APDSP convention in New Orleans on Oct. 11-12 will feature Job Site University, a program that teaches reprographics shops how to offer advanced services to AEC businesses. APDSP member BluEdge already does that, as this Q&A with Peter Rowland, BluEdge’s director of technology sales and operations, reveals.
Q: Tell us about BluEdge’s progression into higher-level technology.
Rowland: There has been a natural progression to the intelligent jobsite dynamic at BluEdge.
A primary bridge between traditional repro work and advanced document management is offering services related to BlueBeam (advanced PDF creation and mark-up for AEC documents) and hyperlinking (which connects AEC documents so users can quickly access all documents involved in a project). I’m very passionate about BlueBeam and hyperlinking. The margins are low on reselling the software itself, but we profit from performing the actual service of hyperlinking and offering workflow solutions. It’s time consuming and requires a specific skill set. Our team has that skill set – they’ve lived document management and organization.
Q: What does BluEdge offer beyond those services?
Rowland: Prior to my arrival, we took a huge leap when we began offering 3D printing as a service both on site and off site. We have impressive 3D production labs in our New York and Philadelphia locations, with a good mix of equipment and technologies. We have the new Stratasys F Series (a rapid prototyping system) on the way and a large number of FDM (fused deposition modeling) production units, so our capacity is very high. We also have powder (CJP: Color Jet Printing), high resolution resin (Polyjet), stereolithography (SLA), laser cutting and many other 3D technologies which we use for prototyping for both AEC and non-AEC clients.
Q: What makes your 3D printing services successful?
Rowland: One key thing is that we are lucky enough to have some amazing technical experts on our staff. The employees who work in this area are just brilliant. I think leveraging their reputation is getting us into some areas that we may not have had exposure to and we realize that human interaction is essential in this field. In addition, we have a pretty compelling online tool for 3D estimating and order submission, but really, it’s our human interaction and expertise that sets us apart.
We also have very talented marketing and sales teams. They are targeting the AEC market, of course, but also targeting different industries as the opportunities arise. In addition, all BluEdge locations have some 3D capabilities, and production work that comes into any location can be seamlessly done in New York or Philadelphia. That way we can serve our clients from any location.
Q: Where do you find your talented 3D printing staff?
Rowland: From the industry. They were hired prior to my joining the company 10 months ago – some were from modeling departments of architecture firms, some of them were in fabrication and design. Some came up through the ranks – maybe they worked with one of the on-site 3D printing services we placed in client locations and grew into their current positions.
Q: What about 3D scanning, such as to create “as-builts”?
Rowland: Yes, we offer that too, and we’ve had a number of pretty large jobs. We can provide 3D scanning for different points of entry on a project. Whether you need this service for existing conditions, demolition, system tie-in, or during construction for validation. There are a number of compelling applications for this technology. (Click here for an article about 3D scanning.)
Q: What other advanced technologies does BluEdge offer?
Rowland: We are now offering virtual reality services, which we are very excited about it. There’s a parallel between virtual reality and 3D printing, in that AEC firms need to understand how to get their Revit or AutoCAD files into a format that can be 3D printed or optimized and converted into virtual reality. Again, it’s our human expertise that can help them do that with virtual reality, just like with 3D printing.
When someone needs virtual reality services, we really get into their environment by interviewing them, asking them what they need virtual reality for, what their level of exposure to it already is, etc. Every client has different needs – some need help just getting into an initial virtual reality model, while more advanced clients need help getting into Unity (a high-level gaming platform that can improve the virtual reality experience).
We’re not a transactional business – we don’t come in a say, “This is our product, buy it.” We want to see where we can help, what the client can offload to us. Say they have a BIM specialist who also is the VR person – that person has limited bandwidth and probably can’t provide all the VR services the firm needs. So we can pick up the excess work and say, “Let’s open VR up to your whole team and see what they can do with it.”
Q: In all of these services, it seems that the AEC market is still primary. Correct?
Rowland: Yes, BluEdge has a deep history in this industry. We have a very loyal client base, and there is still a lot of activity in traditional reprographics services. These new services will supplement the natural decline of printing, which has been happening in this industry over the past several years. That’s the goal.
Interested in offering these services to your shop's clients? BluEdge will offer a 10 percent discount on 3D printing, 3D scanning, hyperlinking, virtual reality, and workspace Hub boards to all APDSP members. Contact Rowland for more info: peter.rowland@bluedge.com
And plan now to attend the APDSP Convention in New Orleans, Oct. 11-12. Click here for details: /convention-registration-opens/