It seems hardly a month goes by without Autodesk adding another press release to its Buzzsaw UK/Ireland news page. The latest talks about a PFI schools project in Exeter with Mowlem, and comes hot on the tail of an almost-monthly series of news stories about PRP, Broadway Malyan, Waterman Group, Kajima and an Irish motorway widening project – all repeating the same message about Buzzsaw being "simple to use", "straightforward", etc. However, while the Constructware acquisition (see previous posts here and here) gets a big splash on the US Buzzsaw webpage, there is no mention at all on either the UK Buzzsaw pages nor the parent Autodesk UK/Ireland site.
Of course, it could be an oversight. More likely, as the $46 million acquisition concerns a US competitor almost unknown outside north America, Autodesk UK doesn’t see it as significant or relevant (it could, of course, also raise questions – such as what is Buzzsaw lacking in the cost, bid and risk management department? Or why did Autodesk feel the need to buy someone with greater strengths among contractors and in the public sector?).
Meanwhile (as already mentioned briefly on Monday), Asite has also issued a news release, regarding version 2.0 of its Project Workflow product. Reading this as a full paid-up member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, I was struck by the lack of focus in the release on the new product (just three of the eight paragraphs tell you anything about what is new in v2.0 – the rest is background and stuff about support services). And, having wondered (2 December) when a UK vendor might start shouting about AJAX, it was no surprise to find Asite doing so (not least because Asite CTO Nathan Doughty picked up on my post in his Free collaboration blog soon after). Take away the paragraph about AJAX and it appears there isn’t really much to say about v2.0 (or at least not much that Asite wants the market at large to know).
While on the subject of PR activity, Aconex has been busy, issuing five press releases in just 14 days up to 13 February: a new office in Singapore, a new board member, a project announcement in Vietnam and adoption of Aconex by Cox architects in Australia are the substantive releases, all sandwiched around a rather self-indulgent release celebrating Aconex’s six years in existence.
Finally, thanks to 4Projects for helping to publicise the NCCTP’s forthcoming market research project – the news should shortly be added to the NCCTP site, but you can read it here too.
