Contractors in the U.S. are quickly learning what those in Europe have known for years – Asta Powerproject makes scheduling easier with its drag-and-drop features, importation of various file types and customizable job templates.

"Asta has been around for years, and in the U.K. is the industry standard," says Bill Jack Daniel, scheduling manager for Saunders Construction in Centennial, Colorado, an AGC of Colorado Building Chapter member. In addition to scheduling, Saunders uses Asta for proposals and to manage resources and personnel.

Asta launched in 1988 and has about 80,000 users globally. It began selling in the U.S. about two years ago through a reseller network and has more than 100 users.

"Its ease of use is one of its strengths, and it’s easy to learn," explains Michael Romero, Asta’s North American channel manager in Indianapolis.

Asta uses a critical path methodology and has drag-and-drop features. The user creates work tasks including all of the steps associated with that task; for instance, for placing concrete, the steps might include forming, installing rebar, pouring and stripping the forms. The user assigns the duration for each activity and the logic to tie the tasks together (e.g., the first activity must finish before the next one starts). He can then assign resources to each task, such as a forming crew and a rebar crew, by dragging and dropping the responsible party to the task.

"The chain of activities allows us to forecast our work and when we need new deliveries," Daniel says. "The more effort we put into it, the more we understand the risks on the job, and we know where the critical points are at."

Asta allows users to assign calendars, with the number of hours worked on each task, to each activity, also using drag and drop, something Daniel considers a time saver. He uses the schedule to determine when the job will require steel or other materials. By working backwards in time, for example, he can figure out when to start fabrication of the steel.

"It gives us the tools to plan ahead," Daniel says.

Romero adds that Asta enables users to plug in different scenarios, such as working additional crews, to evaluate the best ways to complete the work at hand.

"It could tell you if having an extra resource will put the job back on track," Romero says.

Asta saves all of the information in a single file, which can be emailed and easily opened. The tasks also can be saved as an outline or summary bar to group all concrete work or steel work together.

"Asta makes it fast to take a lot of information and drop it into bite sizes," Daniel says.

One of Asta’s new features is the ability to import three-dimensional building information management models and show a view of the model within the scheduling document.

Users can purchase either stand-alone or concurrent licenses. Concurrent licenses stay on a server and can be activated as needed by different people, rather than buying a license for each person in the company. That offers a cost-efficient option for companies with more than one user.

"In the world of construction, it’s all about money, and licensing costs money," Daniel says. "With Asta, I can buy a pool of just a few licenses to serve many users. The user connects to a license and goes to work. It saves me a tremendous amount of money." 

Thame Training Centre

Kingston House

5 Goodsons Mews

Wellington Street

Thame

Oxfordshire, OX9 3BX

44 (0)1844 261700

www.astapowerproject.com

$1,495 for stand-alone license

$1,995 for concurrent license