ANAS S.p.A. works on large construction projects that involve huge amounts of information. To ensure rapid access to important files, the company wanted a smarter alternative to paper-based processes.

ANAS embraced an electronic content management system, based on IBM Filenet Content Manager and IBM Content Navigator solutions, including specialized systems for engineering, acquisitions and IT.

ANAS is responsible for building, maintaining and upgrading the extensive network of roads and motorways that keep Italy moving. Ensuring thousands of towns and cities stay connected over Italy’s challenging terrain demands constant maintenance work. In parallel, ANAS also drives projects to create new transport links between Italy’s more remote locations.

Maurizio Biccellari, Head of Management and Document Systems, ANAS, explains: “A lot of the things that make Italy such a beautiful country also make it extremely challenging from an engineering perspective. With so many rivers, valleys and mountainous regions, projects to build or repair roads require teams of engineers, architects and surveyors, as well as many different types of specialist suppliers.

ANAS’s construction and maintenance projects depend on a huge amount of data — from engineer’s plans and procurement contracts to management recording processes. To manage its engineering processes and a huge network of suppliers, the organization previously relied on manual, paper-based processes. However, this approach meant it was difficult to keep track of forms and files, especially on projects with multiple stakeholders and workstreams.

Biccellari continues: “To carry out their work, our staff and suppliers need to access engineering drawings and plans, acquisition documents, quality procedures, operating instructions, staff correspondence, and more. We currently have nearly 12 million documents archived on our systems, which our users might need to see at any time. If our personnel can’t access the information they need in a timely manner, it increases the risk of project delays, which have the potential to substantially increase our costs.”

With a content management system powered by IBM solutions, ANAS has achieved its goal of streamlining its processes—saving time and helping to contain operational costs.

“Thanks to IBM Content Manager, we can exchange our engineering plans with the appropriate approval bodies at the touch of a button—eliminating the cost and complexity of shuffling paper back and forth,” Biccellari explains.

He adds, “The IBM solution is also helping us to accelerate our internal procurement process. In IT, we’ve significantly shortened the approval process, which helps us deploy innovative services for the business in a timely manner. Our employees love how easy the new solution is to use, and we’ve not received anything but positive feedback.”

Thanks to fine-grained access management capabilities, ANAS can ensure documents are accessible to people working in multiple departments when needed. For example, engineering documents are stored in the engineering document management system, but can be accessed via the procurement document management system during a tender process.

“The tight integration between our content management repositories enables us to support rapid and effective decision-making without compromising on our rigorous information security policies,”
Biccellari says.

Based on the success of the solution, ANAS plans to use the case management capability within IBM Business Automation Workflow to streamline its accounts receivable and payable processes.

Biccellari concludes: “Driving our construction projects effectively is crucial to keep Italy moving. Thanks to our IBM content management solutions, we’re in a strong position to introduce even higher levels of efficiency into our operations.”

ANAS (link resides outside of ibm.com) designs, builds and operates Italy’s national road network, managing over 30,000 km of roads and motorways. The company employs 6,000 people, including engineers, architects and surveyors. Headquartered in Rome, it has 38 offices around Italy.