Megan and her team at High Plains Enginering & Consulting recently adopted ClearCalcs as part of the company-wide initiative to do things better, so we sat with Megan to understand how ClearCalcs came to be the solution for her team, why did they chose us and if ClearCalcs is solving High Plains’ problem.

About High Plains Engineering

Located in Weld County out of Denver, Colorado, High Plains provides both structural and geotechnical engineering expertise for residential, commercial, and agricultural clients.

“A lot of our clients are residential people coming in. They'll want to build a house. So they'll come in and they'll have like a sketch up of the layout that they want. So we put together the architectural plans and the structural plans, and then we'll go out and do the geo-tech as well.“

“We do a lot of pre-engineered metal building foundation. We also have a lot of agricultural clients up in Weld County, people who are building outhouses, pull barns and whatnots. So a lot of wood structures.”

The Challenge

Megan, who recently joined the High Plains team, came in with the wealth of her experience in commercial buildings. One of the highest priorities right now is increasing the efficiency for her team.

Being able to do designs quickly, Megan says will make a lot of difference to their workflow at High Plains.

Ease of use and doing things faster

For example, when training younger engineers, being able to to get them to go into ClearCalcs and learn to design quickly will be a big plus.

“We have engineer drafters who want to get more design experience. So being able to say that ‘hey, I want you to design this beam” instead of telling them what the beam design is and have them draft it is top priority for us.”

“That way we’re not wasting a ton of time going through designs, for example, what should take 30 seconds is taking 30 minutes.”

Cloud-based for access anywhere, anytime

So far, being able to access ClearCalcs anywhere because the software is cloud-based is a major plus for Megan, especially as she looks to the future with her evolving role at High Plains.

“So what I did when I first tried the software, I created a test project. And then I sent out an email to my whole team and say, ‘hey, I created this test project. Go in and play with it’. It was nice that no matter where we were, like today, we’re getting a ton of snow, so pretty much everybody’s working remotely. So it’s nice being able to have the ability for everybody to go in online and see each other calcs.”

One-stop engineering software for everyone

Looking ahead, Megan aims streamline the use of ClearCalcs for the company’s entire operation. This means having not only engineers use ClearCalcs but also drafters and designers as well as reviewers so the entire QA & QC processes are streamlined and more efficient.

“Hopefully I can get the entire team on the same page. What we want is one software that we can go to, to do 90% of our calculations.”

And most importantly, Megan believes having an inclusive software that is easy to learn and use for everyone is going to be the key for the team as High Plains continue to grow.

“You know, the majority of the people at our company, we’re all about the same age. But what happens when, if, we hire somebody that’s 15 years older than us who’re set in his ways, or what happens when we hire somebody right out of school, who doesn’t necessarily familiar with the ins and outs of all software programs. So just the ease of learning the program is going to be top priority for when we grow as a company.”