Pro’s Guide to ACC Implementation – Your First 90 Remarkable Days with Autodesk Construction Cloud

In collaboration with Emily Modderman, Graitec Technical Consultant III

Successfully adopting Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) should begin with a thoughtful, phased approach that prioritizes consistency, simplicity and strategic rollout. Rather than trying to implement every feature at once, the most useful plan involves focusing on building a strong foundation through incremental ACC implementation. A three month plan allows companies to start small, master essential tools and gradually expand usage to ensure long-term success and company wide adoption.

In the first 90 days with ACC, the focus should be on starting small, gaining consistency with key features and building a foundation for broader adoption. A phased rollout strategy ensures your team can successfully implement the platform without getting overwhelmed.

Month 1: Set Up and Master Basics

The company’s first month with ACC should be dedicated to tasks that set a foundation and establish a strong, standardized environment for projects.

• Choose a champion for the system – someone who embodies the change you are trying to make and will take ownership of the project.
• Establish a common data environment (CDE): Start with Autodesk Docs, the central document management hub for ACC. Create a standardized, logical folder structure for projects. This will be the single source of truth for all project files.
• Define project roles and permissions: In the account administration settings, set up user roles and permissions based on roles and responsibilities. This gives users access to the information and functions relevant to their job.
• Create a company project template: Build a basic project template that includes your folder structure and standardized permission levels. Using a template ensures consistency and automates project creation moving forward.

Conduct basic user training: Onboard key personnel and get them comfortable with core functions like navigating the interface, uploading files and using the mobile app. Test basic workflows: Use a test project to run through a core workflow, such as reviewing and marking up a set of drawings. This will help identify initial obstacles before moving forward with a live project. Once the CDE and the fundamental workflows have been established, enable Autodesk Build and apply these basic strategies to the core standards and features, such as Sheets and Issues. Start with defining standards and workflows before rolling them out to the team.

Month 2: Expand and Standardize Workflows

In the second month, the rollout should be expanded to a pilot project, focusing on standardizing repeatable processes.

• Select a pilot project: Choose a small, low-risk project to be the first to go live in ACC. Start with the core team and expand access to additional stakeholders as they are ready.
• Implement mobile workflows: Train field teams on how to use the ACC mobile app. Focus on daily, consistent habits like viewing sheets, tracking issues and completing daily jobsite logs.
• Create issue tracking templates: Set up and standardize issue types – design, safety, quality control. This improves consistency when tracking project problems, and it makes data reporting more reliable.
• Testing on a small live project allows for active refinement of initial workflows and helps to envision what is required for the additional features.
• Start basic reporting: Using the project home dashboard, train your team to review project activity. For account administrators, begin exploring the Insight tool to get high level visibility into project metrics.

Month 3: Advance and Integrate Processes

The final month should advance your use of ACC and prepare for wider company adoption.

• Automate approvals: For key documents, set up review and approval workflows. This standardized review process will provide a transparent record of all approvals.
• Expand digital tracking: Roll out other construction management tools in Autodesk Build, such as RFIs and Submittals, to a limited audience on your pilot project. Focus on fine tuning the process before expanding further.

Integrate design collaboration: If you use products like Autodesk BIM Collaborate, work with design teams to establish workflows for sharing and working on models. This helps catch potential clashes early and reduces rework. Measure your success: Review the adoption and success metrics from your pilot project. Use this data to refine your templates, identify areas for additional training and prepare a plan for deployment across the company. Plan for broader adoption: With the pilot project complete, create a roadmap for ACC implementation on additional projects and with more advanced workflows. This should include a plan for additional training, as well as reporting the value that was gained from the initial rollout.

Using a structured phased rollout strategy over three months, teams can integrate ACC into workflows without overwhelming users. From establishing a standardized environment and training core users to a pilot project and strategy for broader deployment, phased ACC onboarding improves adoption and sets the stage for scalable, efficient construction management.

Autodesk Construction Cloud is the perfect portal for collaborating on BIM projects, and Docs is its foundation. Check out Graitec training to give your users the knowledge they need to function effectively in the ACC environment.