Pickering Incorporated was established in 1946 by Mr. O. L. Pickering. Over the years, the firm has increased in size, experience and professional qualifications.
They continue to follow the philosophy established by their founder - Service and GoodWork.
Pickering provides planning, architectural, engineering, surveying, environmental and construction management services on thousands of projects throughout the United States. The staff includes 160 individuals in offices located in Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; and DeSoto County, Jackson, Brookhaven, and Pearl, Mississippi. Pickering's diverse group of professionals contributes to the quality of their services. The firm is large enough to provide in-depth, in-house services to clients, yet small enough to accommodate clients with very personalized attention.
Pickering understands the importance of rapid response and innovation in project support. Their team consists of managers, architects, engineers and construction specialists with extensive knowledge, enabling them to deliver services that assist their clients in their business ventures. Some of their services include: land surveys, complete site design, facilities planning/design, facility condition evaluation, construction management and environmental services.
The Need: In the 60 years since its founding, Pickering has seen many changes and much progress in the architectural and construction industries. They have learned that with this advancement comes the need to do things both faster and smarter. In 2000, they evaluated their specification writing process: a blend of a "home-grown" word processing system and a commercially available one. Upon review, they decided they were spending a disproportionate amount of time checking reference standards and formatting the documents.
The Solution: "I was editing a master specification for concrete - using one of our word processing spec writing systems. In the master section, some of the reference standards that were cited were not the most current ones available," recalls Mangin. "That's when I really became impressed with SpecLink's quarterly updates. It helped to ensure that we were aware of the latest reference standards."
Mangin also likes the ability to create an office master specifically for various project types. He says, "We wrote a set of prototype specifications for a particular client. With SpecLink, it is has been easy for us to keep it updated for them. We use the project field notes to provide ‘decision memorials' - a way to keep track of reminders and reasons why various products should be chosen for certain project types." And, he likes the way SpecLink can keep track of the ‘lessons learned' right in the specification - and not in meeting minutes that may or may not come to mind when someone is editing a section.
