Global AEC Firm HDR Employs Diverse Communication Strategy to Transition 1,200 ArcMap Users to ArcGIS Pro

The multidisciplinary team of HDR—a global architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firm—includes an array of specialists such as engineers, scientists, builders, analysts, artists, and economists. With more than 11,000 employees across 200 worldwide offices, HDR strives to inspire positive change and add beauty and structure to communities through high-performance buildings and smart infrastructure.

The geospatial team at HDR works across business groups to deliver services such as data management and geospatial data and analysis. Technology is a key component of the work at HDR, and to modernize their geographic information system (GIS) and workflows, HDR geospatial team members decided that it was time to transition from using ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro. Whereas ArcMap is a component of Esri's ArcGIS suite of geospatial processing programs, ArcGIS Pro is the full-featured professional desktop component of Esri's ArcGIS system.

The HDR team opted to migrate to ArcGIS Pro because of the software's capabilities, along with the integration of 3D and the graphics processing unit (GPU) for some tools, which offers enhanced performance. Mike Davis, technical application manager for Esri at HDR, says Esri was moving in the same direction as HDR, especially as the company shifted into more support of building information modeling (BIM).

"Some of the future technology directions that Esri is taking really cemented for me the decision to go to ArcGIS Pro sooner rather than later," Davis says. "Just understanding where . . . the rest of the industry was headed with BIM and 3D, it was a very easy decision to make."

The ArcMap user base at HDR consisted of about 1,200 staff. The HDR team developed a detailed plan to transition these users to ArcGIS Pro, which included a new site and communication channels tailored to users of all different experience levels and needs. 

Team members began the migration by leveraging the robust communications plan that's already in place for their geospatial program. Vanessa Bauman, communications lead for HDR's geospatial program, says existing communication channels—such as discussion forums, newsletters, webinars, and working groups—would help users engage and learn with the channels they're most comfortable with.

"People have their favorite ways of receiving information, whether that's an email or a presentation or participating in a discussion. We wanted to meet people where they already were," says Bauman.

As part of the communications strategy, Bauman and Bridget Brown, geospatial and information management director at HDR, worked closely with leadership to discuss details of the migration and alert project managers of the forthcoming change in workflows. This enabled leadership to proactively provide training to staff.

Bauman says they named their migration initiative Going Pro and designed an accompanying logo to help spotlight the effort and emphasize its importance. Planning for the initiative began in late 2019 with HDR's cartography practice group laying the groundwork for the migration and providing early technical leadership and outreach.

The Going Pro working group was established, composed of staff from Canada as well as west, east, and central regional US offices. These technical experts, called Pro Pros, were selected by a committee and paired with Pro-tégés (personnel new to ArcGIS Pro). By including staff at varying levels of experience, they strived to build a working group that reflected the diversity of their users.

"The group represents GIS professionals with a wide range of technical skills and experience at HDR, including people new to the company, new to [ArcGIS] Pro, and seasoned veterans from all regions," says Bauman.

Pro Pros became instrumental in facilitating the different parts of the migration, including preparing materials for the new SharePoint site, answering questions via a discussion forum, and hosting office hours and webinars. 

The new SharePoint site was an internal website available to all employees that featured the multifaceted Going Pro resources in one searchable place. One important resource developed by the team is Tech Talk Tuesdays, an ongoing series of technology-focused webinars. The SharePoint site includes the calendar for this series and details on each session. Bauman describes the webinars as an opportunity for people to present projects or technical best practices.

"Once we started our ArcGIS Pro transition . . . attendance for any Tech Talk Tuesday with 'Pro' in the title jumped by at least 30 percent, and attendance regularly exceeds 100 people," says Bauman. "The webinars remain open for everyone to participate as a listener or as a presenter."

Tech Talk Tuesday sessions are recorded and placed on Discourse, an interactive discussion forum that is also linked on the SharePoint site. Staff can post a question to Discourse and receive answers and support from colleagues. The forum is geared toward HDR's geospatial professionals but is open to all staff. This popular choice for receiving information is helpful because it's easy to find questions and answers.

"Some of us, me included, like the Discourse post option because you can dump something in there, people can comment two weeks later, and it'll be threaded by conversation topic and not get lost in the fire hose of information," says Davis. 

Another resource for staff has been office hours hosted by experts from the Going Pro working group, and staff can find details for this on the SharePoint site. The biweekly office hours are one hour and open to all staff. On average, between 15 and 20 people join each session. According to Bauman, the office hours provide targeted help around an issue, or it can be a general discussion of what projects are being worked on. It has also become a great way for people to network.

"The goal is to foster collaboration and learning," says Bauman. "Office hours are another way to help build a community around a specific technology, which I think helps give people a sense that they're not going through this transition alone."

Additional educational resources offered by HDR are instructor-led training and self-paced online courses. Brown explains that they worked directly with Esri training advisers to create learning pathways, which are collections of instructor-led and web courses that teach practical knowledge and skills.

Esri and HDR developed learning pathways courses for individuals who are new to GIS and those transitioning from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro. Each pathway includes a variety of courses that are available through Esri Academy, ranging from high-level tutorials to learning specific workflows.

"We have some people that are very dedicated to working through every training offered in the learning pathways, and we have some that just pick and choose what speaks to them," says Brown. "It is an offering out there to help people structure their own learning."

In addition to these virtual classes, three different sets of HDR staff were sent to instructor-led training for the ArcGIS Pro migration. Since all attendees were HDR staff from different regional locations, it became a community-building exercise because they were all together to learn and grow. "These were very helpful, and the questions that they asked were going to be relevant to their neighbor's workflow," says Brown. 

The detailed transition plan for ArcGIS Pro has proven successful, and the software has been in use for almost a year. The goal is to have new projects completed in ArcGIS Pro in 2023. Bauman says because the HDR team leveraged channels that staff were already familiar with, including SharePoint, Webex, and Teams, people were much more comfortable when finding support and resources.

"Staff didn't have to learn a new way to communicate. They just had to focus on the subject matter," Bauman says. "I think it's been helpful to have those programs already in place."

The success of the multifaceted plan has been recognized at a national level and led to its adoption in the organization. For example, Davis says the director of the applied technology office at HDR would like to utilize the Going Pro initiative as a model for other major technology transitions.

For other organizations migrating to ArcGIS Pro, Brown says meeting people where they are is key. She recommends providing a myriad of resources for staff to find support and give them an outlet to express their challenges.

"Sometimes the struggle is with the technology itself," says Brown. "And so having honest answers, being up-front and providing an outlet for feedback, and then showing them that their concerns are being heard and addressed is important."

Brown also says it is critical to involve management early and get its support by communicating the benefits of the new technology, why it's needed, and why an investment in the transition is necessary. Additionally, understanding the human element in any transition is important. Bauman says that change is difficult and can be very emotional for people, so keeping that in mind when crafting communications is important.

"Don't do all the talking," says Bauman. "Do make sure that everything you put out there is a two-way conversation, that you're listening to people's challenges and hearing about the exciting things they're working on."

She adds, "Technology adoption is a discovery process, and to provide the best support to your teams, I'd suggest using at least one platform that allows everyone to share and talk about it openly. It's all about creating community. We're learning ArcGIS Pro together."