Uniting Construction IT

Last September (see A co-ordinated approach to construction IT in the UK), I mentioned an initiative to create a more coordinated approach to managing IT interests in the UK AEC industry. You can now read about United Construction IT on the website of ConstructIT for Business (one of the organisations competing for our attention).

It talks about creating “one consortium which may take the form of a virtual organisation”, and says the UK Department of Trade & Industry has embraced the concept and is sponsoring two activities to help move the initiative forward:

1. a survey of top organisations covering a number of disciplines
2. a DTI conference under the title of United Construction IT:

“The conference will involve as many Construction IT entities as possible, excluding none. There will be academic presentations, industry showcases, technology showcases, and the showcasing of all construction IT entities. There will also be bridging activities such as “industry challenge” debate, where following a process, the industry and academic community challenge each other on the exploitation of research works.”

There are no details about when these activities may take place, but the page lists 12 organisations involved.

• Avanti
• BSRIA
• CICA
• CITE
• COMIT
• Constructing Excellence
• Construct IT For Business
• IAI/buildingSMART
• ICE ICT Panel
• ITCF
• NCC
• NCCTP

It’s perhaps indicative of the potential for confusion that some of these bodies are already combined. For example, the ITCF and Avanti are both part of Constructing Excellence, while the CICA is part of the NCC. (I believe BRE is also involved).

I understand from one of the NCCTP participants that the ITCF could take on the role of disseminating IT-related outputs/research, hosting the UCI website within ITCF/CE website (thanks, Duncan).