When you look at a building, you won’t see the same thing that Jimmy Sims sees. He sees documents. Mountains of them.
Jimmy’s the VP of Systems & On-Site Services with us here at Alabama Graphics. Our AEC customers (architecture, engineering and construction) like him. So do we. So much so that we’ve kept him around for the last 20 years. Seems he likes us too. You can tell by the smile in his photo.
One of the main things we love about Jimmy is that he cares. In fact, he cared enough to have sacrificed a major part of his spring this year to studying about construction. Then in April, he took the 3-hour test (yes, we said THREE HOURS) and earn the Construction Specification Institute’s CDT designation.
CDT stands for Construction Documents Technologist. “It’s the broadest certification from CSI. It covers it all,” he says, and adds that you’ll often see that CDT designation behind architects’ credentials.
It’s a 100-question test only given twice a year. “I had to put in a lot of time and effort to get that designation,” he says, and you can hear him sweating as he recalls it all, we swear. He probably had those dreams of entering the testing room with only his underwear on. He won’t confirm that though.
Jimmy says the CDT gives him the knowledge base to understand the life cycle of the building process, all the players involved, and the documentation it takes for them all to communicate. “I had this idea of what was involved. I was wrong. There’s way more to it than I thought,” he says. And continues rambling on about submittals and RFIs and ASIs and…our ears glazed over at that point.
What tuned them back in was hearing that between architects, engineers, contractors and subcontractors (oh and sometimes suppliers), 600 or more documents for approvals, rejections, submissions and changes can flash up and down the communication line on any given building project. That could mean dozens a day sometimes.
So we get it. We get why having that CDT designation means so much to Jimmy, to our AEC customers, and to us. “I took it because it gave me a much deeper understanding of the issues that our customers are dealing with on a daily basis,” he says.
Now our AEC customers have someone at their printing/documentation headquarters who knows…and appreciates…the specifications book, the addendums, the submittals, and oh so much more, and how vital each one is to keeping their project on time and in play.
Jimmy also let spill that Alabama Graphics has a new product rolling out early next year that’s all about this zooming and sometimes congested highway of communication on a build. He didn’t spill anymore than that. There was a muttering about transparency, online tool, and seeing the status of every piece all at once. We’re sure to get more out of him, so stay tuned.