How NBS helps Bauder collaborate directly with specifiers

Bauder is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of flat roof waterproofing systems. The family-run business has over 160 years of experience, and is run by the fourth generation of the Bauder family. The manufacturer provides: waterproofing membranes and insulation to make buildings watertight and thermally efficient; photovoltaic installations for renewable energy generation; and green and blue roofs to create sustainable, environmentally friendly living and working spaces.

Bauder’s comprehensive service offering supports its clients across all project stages, ensuring successful project delivery, from the initial design concept and specification package to on-site monitoring and guarantee issues, following final inspection. With third-party certification across much of the Bauder range from the British Board of Agrément (BBA), specifiers can be assured that the systems which they use are of the highest standard.

As part of our recent webinar Building Fabric Manufacturers: How to get specified, Lee Jones, Head of Manufacturer Solutions at NBS, caught up with Bauder Area Technical Manager Andy Leggett to discuss the manufacturer’s relationship with NBS.

A long-standing relationship

Bauder originally started using NBS back in 2005, after observing that more and more specifiers were using NBS to write specifications. Almost two decades later, Bauder was one of the first manufacturers to join NBS Source, the manufacturer product platform, when it launched.

Andy noted that he had been impressed with the amount of structured and high-quality information available to specifiers through NBS Source. As a manufacturer, Bauder wants to get its products and systems out into the market – and knows that Source is the perfect way to do this. In addition, the amount of data available on the platform, and detailed literature and third-party certifications, prevent the need for specifiers to visit multiple websites in search of the product information that they want.

Singing from the same hymn sheet

Bauder has recently also subscribed to NBS Chorus, a cloud-based specification-writing platform used by thousands of specifiers daily. Evolving from NBS’ historic specification tools, Chorus works on any device, and allows users to write specifications in Uniclass and more traditional CAWS clauses. Around 40% of all UK specifications use Uniclass as the format. This number is expected to rise over the coming years, so it is important for manufacturers to facilitate both clause types.

As a Chorus user, Bauder can work directly on the project with specifiers. Collaborative specification writing saves architecture practices a lot of time, and helps to ensure accuracy and efficiency. As Chorus is an online platform, it is possible for specifiers to invite manufacturers to a project so that they can contribute to the specification-writing process. Through a robust permissions model, access can be granted at the granularity of a specification to allow read-only, contributor or administrator access. This ensures that the specifier can be safe in the knowledge that they will be getting the expertise they need, with controlled access to only the relevant sections of their spec. Once the collaborative element has been concluded, the specifier can simply remove the access permissions for the external user.

Before subscribing to NBS, Bauder supplied written specifications to its clients in the form of Microsoft Word documents. Explaining why Bauder subscribed to NBS Chorus, Andy said: “The cloud function is what attracted Bauder initially. However, we’ve also seen a large increase in specifiers asking for specifications in Uniclass and NBS Chorus is the only specification platform that facilitates the classification over recent months.”

“It is important for manufacturers like Bauder to support specifiers and supply specifications in the format they need. If we couldn’t provide specifications in the format our clients require, it would be detrimental to our business.”

More information

Find out how NBS can help you...

• Watch our webinar to find out more about how NBS can help building fabric manufacturers engage with specifiers and generate leads.
• For more information on how manufacturers can work collaboratively with specifiers using Chorus, watch this webinar where Lee from NBS speaks with Andy from Bauder and Richard Carr, Principal Designer at Concertus.
• Call us on: 0345 200 1056
• Email us at: manufacturers@theNBS.com
• Find out more about: NBS Source