UK weekly Contract Journal has published a feature on online collaboration, written by Rebecca Froley. This mentions the findings of the NCCTP market research and links to the NCCTP website.
Unfortunately, only half the NCCTP members are mentioned by name (no links or reference to two of the UK market’s major players BIW Technologies or Business Collaborator, or to Aconex, Cadweb or Sarcophagus). There is, however, a link to three non-NCCTP members BuildOnline, Microsoft SharePoint and Dochosting Data Management – a drawing management-type system developed by a reprographics business – and two links to 4Projects, one courtesy of 4Ps’ tie-up with Contract Journal (CJcollaboration).
Rebecca concludes by asking for more information about the state of collaboration in the UK construction industry:
So, is the tide turning for on-line collaboration within the construction sector? Have you used on-line collaboration tools? Have they helped, or hindered your business? If you’ve never experimented with the technology, what put you off? The cost, concerns about managing changes to working practices, or just the difficulty of knowing how to start choosing the right solution to meet your company’s needs? Perhaps you are just starting to implement a collaboration system for the first time. Contract Journal would like to know about your experiences.
E-mail rebecca.froley@rbi.co.uk with your comments. We hope to publish some of the findings on-line at www.contractjournal.com in about a month’s time.
I have highlighted this article in case readers of this blog don’t see the CJ article – if you’ve got views, why not email Rebecca so that the proposed online feedback represents a good cross-section of opinions.
