Alison Bastick
Senior Manager, Document Management at Aecon Group Inc. in Canada
Can you tell us a bit about you?
I am a happily married and a proud owner of a cocker spaniel called Manu. I love taking my fur baby on walks, doing yoga and Pilates, and cooking.
I am an American by birth, grew up in Asia, returned to the US for university, before moving to London, England, and then Australia. I came to Canada in 2017.
What is your current role?
My current role is Senior Manager, Document Management for Aecon Group Inc., a Canadian company is an industry leader in the development and construction of infrastructure.
My role is to implement document control on all infrastructure projects. This includes, creating a common data environment, standard processes, document numbering, and project setup across Canada. I have a team of twelve, with eight working on projects across Canada.
I have recently started reporting to the Director, Integrated Digital Delivery. We have been working together for over two years to bring together the IDD software and the EDMS software. It was a natural fit to merge the two teams.
Can you describe your professional experience?
I fell into document control in my mid 30’s but looking back on my career, most of my positions have had a document management element to it. My job title has varied from Business Administrator, Project Administrator and finally, in 2004, Document Controller!
I have worked in a large variety of industries such as Finance, FMCG, Mining & Metals, OG&C, Government. The biggest project I have worked on was in Gladstone, Australia, where the company was building three LPG projects on one island with a total cost of AUD$24B.
When I first starting working, we used hardcopies only. It was in Australia when I started working in different electronic document management systems, such as Documentum, SharePoint, InfoWorks where we used a mix of softcopies and hardcopies. Since moving to Canada, I use Aconex and SharePoint and (BIM360 for Modelling) on all our projects.
Which Consepsys course did you attend and when?
I have attended two - virtual—Consepsys Courses: Certified Document Controller (July 2020) and Certified Lead Document Control (August 2020).
Being able to do the courses virtually offered me flexibility.
The skills from the Certified Document Controller and Certified Lead Document Controller courses have complemented my knowledge to be a better document controller and this has inspired me to extend myself further by signing up for the Advanced Document course in November, which I am very excited about.
What did you think about the Consepsys course? How did it help you in your current role and career development?
The Consepsys courses are well put together and incredibly interesting.
I originally planned on only taking the Certified Document Controller course as my DC experience has been on the job with mentors. I wanted to see if what I had been taught was standard document control practice. Attending the training with Julie ( Director of Consepsys), it confirmed that I was doing my job right and everything I had been taught on the job was standard practice. In a strange way, it was nice to meet other document controllers who can relate to the challenges and issues that we face every day.
After taking the DCC course, I enrolled in the Certified Lead Document Controller course. Using the skills this course taught me, I have been able to hire three new document controllers using data backed by logic.
After reading the reviews in the Consepsys magazines, I am really looking forward to participating in the Advance Document Control course in November.
