2012-05-07

Jeffrey Plant becomes a Certified Value Specialist

SAVE International (formerly the Society of American Value Engineers) announced today that Jeffrey Plant, MBA, P.Eng., PMP has qualified as a Certified Value Specialist (CVS), the highest level of acreditation offered to value engineering practitioners. The value methodology is a systematic and structured approach to improve projects, products, and processes by studying functions and costs. The value methodology is considered one of the most effective tools for innovation and has been used extensively by leading companies and agencies around the world for competetive advantage and to deliver value-for-money.

As a Certified Value Specialist, Mr. Plant is fully qualified to lead value studies and is looking forward to working with our clients to drive value throughout their projects and organizations.

2012-04-23

Plant Group becomes MVP Motion Valued Partner

Markham, ON - Plant Group announced today that it has signed an agreement with Motion Computing to offer its clients the full range of rugged Tablet PCs for field applications in construction.

Motion offers the broadest line of Windows-based tablet PCs available, and when coupled with an array of tailored accessories and services, provides mobile professionals with high levels of power, security, portability and manageability. Customers report improved efficiency, accuracy and overall performance while saving time and reducing costs. Integrated features, peripherals, software, wireless and services come together to provide a complete mobile computing solution for vertical business environments.

"Motion's high performance F5v Tablet PC with digital pen, View Anywhere® technology and Gorilla® Glass durable display allows the complete PROLOG® Converge solution to be delivered on a mobile device with the added functionality of handwriting recognition for easy recording of data. Equipped with a built-in 3.0 Megapixel camera and front-facing web camera, field personnel can instantly record images and tie them to Daily Reports using PROLOG®. It is a very elegant and functional solution for construction professionals!" says Julian Plant, Account Manager with Plant Group Inc.

Meridian Systems (www.MeridianSystems.com), the developers of PROLOG® is the industry leader in providing project management solutions to the construction industry, with close to 6,000 clients and well over 100,000 users. Meridian Systems was founded in 1993 and is based in Folsom, CA, with R&D headquarters in Vancouver, BC. Meridian's 'Partner Network' spans the globe.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Motion Computing is a leading global provider of tablet PCs and supporting mobility solutions for vertical markets, including healthcare, construction, field service and retail. Rugged, lightweight and highly mobile, Motion Tablet PCs are designed for mobile professionals who require real-time computing at the point of service. Users can gather, access, analyze and transmit the critical information they need in order to be productive in today's de-centralized work environments.

Plant Group is the authorized Meridian Systems value-added reseller for eastern Canada and a MVP Motion Value Partner. Based in Markham, Ontario, Plant Group provides a broad range of professional services to help PROLOG®users maximize the value they achieve on construction projects. In addition to providing PROLOG® deployment planning, training, installation, customization, integration and technical support the firm can assist with value engineering, scheduling, purchasing, cost control, quality management, commissioning and construction administration functions.

2012-02-13

Driving Innovation Through Value Analysis

Driving Innovation Through Value Analysis - Jeffrey Plant has been invited to speak on June 12, 2012 at the SAVE International Annual Conference to be held in Orlando, Florida. He will review American innovations from electricity through aviation to communications, pharmaceuticals and computer technology. One of the greatest American innovations, recognized by many emerging economies, is value engineering.".

The author postulates that the future of America in the global economy will be directly related to its ability to drive innovation for competitive advantage. Value analysis will be presented as the most powerful tool available to American business to drive innovation and re-establish itself as the dominant economic power in the 21st Century.

Further information is available at www.value-eng.org/2012conference/details.php

2011-11-14

Jeffrey Plant addresses SCAV-CSVA Annual Conference

Jeffrey Plant, MBA, P.Eng., AVS, PMP addressed the annual conference of the Canadian Society of Value Analysis (SCAV-CSVA) on November 14 at the Delta Chelsea Hotel in Toronto. His topic was "European Perspective on Risk Management in Alternative Project Delivery".

The focus of this year's conference was Innovation through Value Analysis. Value analysis is being increasingly used by Owners across North America to find ways to increase the functionality of their projects while driving costs down. Alternative project delivery models including design-build, design-build-finance, design-build-finance-operate and construction management at-risk are proving to be effective methods of delivering innovative solutions on a wide range of capital projects.

2011-11-01

Plant Group Signs Agreement with Dimension 5 Solutions

Markham, ON - Plant Group announced today that it has signed an agreement with Dimension 5 Solutions to offer its clients in Eastern Canada the full range of ENCOMPASS™ solutions including enMail, enForecast, enRoute, enDocs, enMobile and enBid. ENCOMPASS™ applications are used to streamline the management of emails, faxes, mobile, and web data while nterfacing with Meridian Systems' Prolog® product line, as well as many other 3rd party systems.

Encompass also provides the core foundation for custom-built solutions that provide asset information management, change management, supply chain management, and data workflow management. Robust reporting and notification management sub-systems round out the Encompass suite by offering customers powerful tools for enterprise reporting and automated event-driven notifications.

2011-09-06

Plant Group Joins the Meridian Systems Value Added Reseller Partner Network

FOLSOM, Calif. - Meridian Systems, the Plan-Build-Operate technology solutions leader for project-based organizations, announced today that Plant Group has been appointed as its Value Added Reseller (VAR) for Eastern Canada. Concentrating on project management and independent engineering services related to buildings, transportation and environmental infrastructure, Plant Group will provide comprehensive software sales and professional services for Meridian's Prolog® solution.

2011-03-21

Plant Group Celebrates 15 Years

Plant Group will celebrate its 15th anniversary in July 2011. In anticipation of the anniversary, Plant Group has retained the award-winning marketing and communications firm, Generousitas™ to update our Logo, redesign our web presence and spice-up our presentation materials. We will be recognizing the contributions that our clients and colleagues have made to our success during this anniversary year.

2010-11-01

PLANT GROUP MOVES TO MARKHAM, ONTARIO

After 14 years in Woodbridge, Plant Group has moved its head office 20 kilometres east to Markham, Ontario. The new offices at 2800 14th Avenue will be shared with NCE Value Engineers. Although the firms will operate independently, both firms expect synergistic benefits from co-locating. Plant Group provides independent engineering and project management services to private and public sector clients in the fields of transportation, environment, buildings and industry. NCE provides value engineering, risk management, constructibility and safety analysis services on a wide variety of capital and business process projects for diverse clients from around the world. The new facility includes private offices, meeting rooms and a training centre.

2010-09-23

JEFFREY PLANT ADDRESSES MTO VALUE ANALYSIS AND DESIGN-BUILD WORKSHOP

Jeffrey Plant addressed a workshop organized by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to explore the use of value analysis in alternative project delivery processes. Over 100 attendees including Ministry staff, consultants and contractors participated in the half-day event that ended with a panel discussion featuring David Wilson (President of SAVE International), Stuart Sokoloff (CTS Group, New York), Chris Gauer (MMM Group), Bob Nairn (MMM Group), Steve Taylor (Genivar) and Jeffrey Plant. Mr. Plant spoke about the application of value engineering in design-build and concession projects from a European Contractor's perspective.

2010-06-08

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION AT SAVE INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL CONFERENCE

When the scheduled speaker called to cancel barely 12 hours before his keynote address due to a family medical emergency, Jeffrey Plant agreed to step in and speak about value engineering in the motion picture industry. Based upon work that he had done with Atlantic Caribbean Studios, Mr. Plant regaled the capacity crowd in the main ballroom of the Queen Mary Hotel with statistics, anecdotes and observations about the motion picture industry.