Fluor Daniel, Inc.

For Fluor Daniel, Visio was an example of the right product at the right time.

The company, which is the principal subsidiary of $8.5 billion Fluor Corporation, is a global engineering, construction, and diversified services company with more than 50 offices worldwide. It manages large international construction projects such as oil refineries.

When Fluor Daniel developed a corporate goal of attaining ISO 9000 certification, the company's Director of Information Services, Ken Cain, realized the company would need a way to thoroughly track its work processes.

"Our goal was to have every department document their work both visually and verbally," explains Cain.

At that point, while Cain was unsure as to exactly how to achieve that goal, experience told him the best solution would be a software tool.

The Search for a Standard
Fluor Daniel's software search was complicated by the fact that the company wanted more than a program that could help it document its work processes. "In addition to our ISO 9000 certification needs, we hoped to find a software program that we could use in our day-to-day work," says Cain.

According to Cain, the company wanted to standardize on a program it could use to exchange data and information among its global offices. This information might include drawings of flowcharts, project plans and organizational charts. The company's drawings often include engineering shapes for process flow, and a diagram might contain many different kinds of shapes and symbols.

As an engineering company, Fluor Daniel already made extensive use of AutoCAD. Yet it was quickly ruled out because it was too complex to be used by the large number of Fluor Daniel people who lacked the requisite special training. The company tried ABC Flowcharter and OrgPlus, but was concerned that these programs wouldn't be flexible enough for their needs. Then Fluor Daniel discovered Visio.

Visio Wins In-House Competition
After receiving an evaluation copy of Visio, the company conducted an informal competition between Visio and other products under consideration. Products were compared based on their ability to produce work, process improvement diagrams, and their ease of use. The results: "Visio won hands down," says Cain.

The company was particularly impressed with Visio's ease of use. "If a program is hard to use, people won't use it. They'll just put their drawing on paper," says Cain. "Visio is actually easier than paper. It's pretty easy for anyone to use it right away."

Bob Gilkey, a member of the company's Software Quality Assurance Team, agrees. "Visio works more the way you're thinking when you're drawing," he says.

The Visio Implementation
Fluor Daniel has standardized its workflow diagrams company-wide using Visio and made it available to 7,000 desktops. The company has also licensed all Visio shapes, including specialized engineering shapes. "Visio was the easiest way to deliver even the most complicated drawings," explains Cain.

Visio also fits well into Fluor Daniel's "common office environment" that prescribes standard desktop applications for all PCs. "Our common office environment is designed to reduce the overall cost of software support and licensing and increase information exchange," says Cain. The system is built around Lotus Notes and Lotus SmartSuiter applications, with which Visio integrates extremely well.

Benefits Seen Immediately
Soon after implementing Visio, Fluor Daniel began realizing a number of benefits, including:

• Reduced support and licensing costs because Visio replaces several other more specialized programs.
• Lower training costs because the company is now training users on one drawing package, not several.
• Added productivity from having all users familiar with a single program and being able to exchange data easily.
• Increased utilization of existing work, since Visio is assisting Fluor Daniel in converting existing drawings produced with AutoCAD and other programs to Visio.

Looking Ahead
Fluor Daniel is using Visio daily to document work processes as it works toward ISO 9000 certification. Meanwhile, it continues to find new uses for Visio. For example, the company's geological engineering department is considering using it to replace AutoCAD for much of its work.

Ken Cain considers it exceedingly good timing that Fluor Daniel and Visio connected when they did. "It was just what we were looking for, right when we needed it," he says.