Cedar Rapids, Ia. (August 28, 2008) – OPN Architects, with offices in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, received the gold from Constructech magazine’s annual Vision Awards program for their use of the Submittal Exchange™ system to reduce construction paperwork.

Sponsored by Constructech magazine and presented at a dinner and gala in the Chicago area on August 21, the 9th annual Vision Awards recognized companies that apply innovative technologies to improve the services provided to their clients.

OPN Architects began use of Submittal Exchange on construction projects in 2006 to exchange and review submittals and other post-bid construction correspondence electronically, in lieu of the traditional paper-based industry process.

“Use of Submittal Exchange has allowed us to reduce costs for our clients along with making our projects more sustainable and environmentally friendly, both important goals for our work,” said Brian Gunning, Director of Marketing for OPN.

“The 2008 Vision Awards winners exemplify the drive and innovation necessary to be successful in the construction industry,” said Mike Carrozzo, editor of Constructech magazine. “As the impressive group of previous Vision Award winners have done, these companies have chosen to improve their businesses by implementing leading-edge technology solutions, serving their customers more efficiently.”

OPN Architects ( www.opnarchitects.com), located in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, is a design-oriented service firm practicing nation-wide, with experience including corporate, commercial, civic, community higher education, K-12 schools, public libraries, health care, public, and the occasional residential project.

Submittal Exchange ( www.submittalexchange.com), headquartered in Des Moines, is a comprehensive, secure web-based system that allows architects, engineers, contractors, construction managers, and facility owners to save time, reduce costs, and decrease paperwork by managing submittals and other construction correspondence electronically. Examples include:

Time savings – On a typical $3-5 million construction project, both the architect and general contractor can each save 100+ hours of staff time by working with electronic copies of correspondence on Submittal Exchange instead of the eight or more paper copies used in the traditional industry process.

Cost reduction – Use of Submittal Exchange on a project eliminates thousands of dollars in shipping and postage costs to send paper documents back-and-forth, along with reducing time delays.

Environmental impact – Submittal Exchange is a “green” product that helps projects be more sustainable through reduced paperwork and emissions. For example, one OPN Architects project at the University of Iowa is estimated to be saving 86.6 trees worth of paper and eliminating 98,136.5 lbs of CO2 emissions (the equivalent of 125,173 soda cans being recycled) as a result of using the Submittal Exchange system to manage construction correspondence electronically.

Contact:
Brian Gunning
Marketing Director
OPN Architects, Inc.
319-363-6018
Email Contact

Matt Ostanik
President
Submittal Exchange
800-714-0024 ext. 15
Email Contact