PCM acquired by Confluence, KOL gone

Late last month, I wrote about Pettifer Construction (a website holding page now says the “Company has now ceased to trade” and gives contact details for the administrators), its construction management business, PCM [a PR client of mine in the late 1990s] and its specialist IT firm, KnowledgeOnline.

There had been a report of interest in PCM from Dutch consultant Grontmij and from UK firm Baqus (refuted in Contract Journal), and then Thomas Vale and McBains Cooper, but today, I read (again in Building) that PCM has been acquired by Australian project management business Confluence, securing the jobs of 65 UK staff (see also Confluence news release). Confluence, by the way, is a customer of Australia-based construction collaboration technology vendor, Aconex.

Knowledge Offline

However, KnowledgeOnline has also ceased trading. It marketed E-Safe 100, a product of sister company E-Safe Ltd for whom administrators were appointed on 1 December (Causeway Technologies announced the acquisition of E-Safe 100 just over a week later); and a meeting of KOL creditors was held last week. This sudden collapse comes less than a month after KOL won a Construction Computing Award for E-Safe 100.

I also read – in last week’s Contract Journal – sad stories of Pettifer Construction people carrying off computers and printers in lieu of unpaid wages and outstanding expenses.