Category: Functionality

SnagR: mobile but not SaaS

Ignore the marketing hype about SnagR being “the first its kind innovative Web and PDA-based site inspection and defect management system” (both BIW and BuildOnline – now part of Sword CTSpace – had PDA-based defects management systems in 2006), but SnagR is a user-friendly digitised system designed to speed up the process of capturing, reporting …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/snagr-mobile-but-not-saas/

Aconex to launch iPhone app in April

Australia-based SaaS construction collaboration technology vendor Aconex will be launching its first iPhone application next month (April 2011). A short note on its support page about release 10.2, says: Coming Soon – Aconex Mobile Now Aconex goes everywhere you go. We’re pleased to announce the launch of Aconex Mobile (for iPhone®) in April. Very soon …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/aconex-to-launch-iphone-app-in-april/

Online collaboration for marketing and sales

Enhancing customer service is one area where many AEC firms could do better, and web-based tools can help support marketing and sales activities. Show Document and VeriShow I wrote about the SaaS generic design review application Show Document about 18 months ago. I didn’t devote much time to it from a construction perspective as it …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/online-collaboration-for-marketing-and-sales/

Vaulting your documents

Writing last week about the London launch of the RICS report on cloud computing and commercial property, I mentioned secure offsite file storage provider Vaultium, and – surely no coincidence – I have since been emailed about another UK-based “vault” vendor: BackUpVault. Neither cloud-based business specifically targets the construction collaboration sector, though Vaultium does offer …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/vaulting-your-documents/

Virtual worlds and the built environment

Virtual worlds and the built environment (PDF) is a white paper just published by Birmingham, UK-based Daden Ltd, about whom I’ve written before (post). Having explored Second Life very superficially a couple of years ago when Be2camp was in its infancy, I have watched with interest as Dave Burden and Soulla Stylianou have developed strong …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/virtual-worlds-and-the-built-environment/

Not just NEC3, JCT needs to be managed too

The web-based RICS Contract Administrator automates and speeds up the production of JCT contract forms, but why do some of its users still print them out and send them? Amid the recent burst of marketing activity by UK construction SaaS vendors promoting their NEC management capabilities (see links to previous posts below), it is easy …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/not-just-nec3-jct-needs-to-be-managed-too/

A role for resellers?

Some construction businesses already function effectively as value-added resellers of SaaS-based collaboration tools, filling a gap left open by traditional software VARs. I have discussed routes to market for SaaS construction collaboration vendors a few times – for example, last September, I contrasted Woobius’s aspirations to sell direct via the web with vendors who have …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/a-role-for-resellers/

The Role of Cloud Computing in Commercial Property

Last Thursday I went to the London HQ of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors for the breakfast-time launch of a new RICS report on cloud computing (download; see also RICS news release) written by Andrew Waller and Bob Thompson of Remit Consulting. Having been working in and writing about Software-as-a-Service for more than a …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/the-role-of-cloud-computing-in-commercial-property/

Another NEC3 SaaS application: CMToolkit

Online management of NEC contract processes features prominently on the agenda of next month’s document and knowledge management conference in London (which I am chairing – post), with SaaS vendors 4Projects and Sypro both listed as talking about contract administration. The event is timely too, insofar as it comes just weeks after NEC publisher Thomas …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/02/another-nec3-saas-application-cmtoolkit/

Immersive design collaboration, with IdentityMine

I have returned from time to time to the perceived shortcomings of online design collaboration insofar as some architects and other designers prefer the intuitive, paper-based processes of marking-up, commenting and sketching on design drawings by hand. Such ‘collaboration’ they say is less easy when they are faced by conventional computer interfaces as opposed to, …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/02/immersive-design-collaboration-with-identitymine/

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