Category: Functionality

Dec 03 2008

Blocking internet access blocks innovation and collaboration

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Collaboration, Functionality, Future, Internet, Legal, People issues, Web 2.0
3 December 2008

Talking about Web 2.0 tools and techniques to fellow Constructing Excellence Collaborative Working Champions in Birmingham last month, one friend told the meeting that his employer limited employee access to the web quite tightly, this restricting his and his colleagues’ ability to try such tools. Another said his organisation blocked access to various networking sites, …

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/12/blocking-internet-access-blocks-innovation-and-collaboration/

Nov 24 2008

AEC conferences, content and ‘unconferences’

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Blogs, Collaboration, Functionality, Future, Marketing, People issues, Telecoms, Web 2.0
24 November 2008

My friend Jodie Miners is now back in Australia after a whirlwind trip to Europe (and Dubai) that included co-organisation and participation in the London Be2camp 2008 event at the Building Centre on 10 October. She has been blogging about part of her trip – to the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona – and makes …

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/11/aec-conferences-content-and-unconferences/

Nov 23 2008

Design and decision tools

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Functionality, Future
23 November 2008

The UK Modern Built Environment Knowledge Transfer Network is seeking the opinions of members on design and decision tools for new buildings. Its questionnaire will help shape the Technology Strategy Board’s forthcoming call as part of its Low Impact Buildings Innovation Platform; information will be used to provide an insight into industry priorities in this …

Knowledge Transfer Network, Low Impact Buildings Innovation Platform, Modern Built Environment, questionnaire, Technology Strategy Board

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/11/design-and-decision-tools/

Nov 21 2008

SaaS – software, service and trust

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Functionality, SaaS, Vendors
21 November 2008

Courtesy of a news item on InternetNews.com, I learned that enterprises’ desire to offload costs associated with maintaining their own software or storage infrastructures doesn’t automatically mean a boom for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendors. While the technology – the Software – is undoubtedly important, so is the Service. SaaS customers need to be able to trust …

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/11/saas-software-service-and-trust/

Nov 21 2008

BIM: What does it do for You?

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Functionality, Future, People issues
21 November 2008

Yesterday I attended a meeting in London of the Building & Estates Forum of Constructing Excellence. One of the topics discussed was the rise of the design manager and how building information modelling (BIM) could bring a dramatic change in this type of role. I am sure some of these issues will also be explored …

BIM, building information modelling, Constructing Excellence, design manager, Salford University, SCRI Forum

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/11/bim-what-does-it-do-for-you/

Nov 04 2008

Recession and the construction SaaS providers

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Blogs, Business/Financial, Collaboration, Functionality, Future, Marketing, SaaS
4 November 2008

The R-word has arrived. In his Brickonomics blog, my good friend Brian Green today talks, not for the first time, about “the recession in construction”, which he says “is looking increasingly desperate as the giant commercial sector appears to be heading for a nasty fall”. Earlier this year, like many industry people, I was hopeful …

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/11/recession-and-the-construction-saas-providers/

Oct 28 2008

BIM, the project information cloud and an AEC ‘Cluetrain’

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Blogs, Books, Collaboration, Functionality, Future, Internet, Legal, Marketing, People issues, SaaS, Sustainability, Web 2.0
28 October 2008

Sometimes one’s reading and writing can throw up some fortunate coincidences. Take this morning, for example. Via TenLinksDaily, I followed a link to an AECcafe.com article by Susan Smith: The Road to AEC Project Execution Success. Later, my feed-reader pointed me to a blog posting (and associated PowerPoint presentation) by Stress-Free’s David Harrison: Making digital …

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/10/bim-the-project-information-cloud-and-an-aec-cluetrain/

Oct 22 2008

A SaaS code of conduct?

By Paul Wilkinson in Blogs, Collaboration, Functionality, Internet, Legal, Marketing, People issues, SaaS
22 October 2008

Phil Wainewright, one of my favourite SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) bloggers, wonders whether it’s Time for a SaaS code of conduct. He mentions another recent Gmail outage, and makes the valid point that SaaS outages tend to get much more publicity than internal corporate Microsoft Exchange outages (and “Microsoft only warranties the CD the software comes on. …

Attenda, back-ups, BIW, contingency arrangements, disaster recovery, email, escrow agreement, Gmail, helpdesk, insurance, managed hosting, Microsoft, Phil Wainewright, real-time data, SaaS, SaaS code of conduct, security, Service Level Agreement, Software-as-a-Service, subscriptions, uptime commitments, utilisation, warranties, website, XML

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/10/a-saas-code-of-conduct/

Oct 17 2008

Business and Web 2.0

By Paul Wilkinson in Blogs, Collaboration, Functionality, People issues, Web 2.0
17 October 2008

An article in Information Age, Web 2.0 adoption faces workplace challenges (online here), says that while Web 2.0 technologies continue to penetrate the enterprise (see graph), many companies are encountering difficulties when trying to implement the disparate technology sets. A McKinsey survey of 1988 executives suggests that tools such as wikis, blogs and social networks …

blogs, collaboration, Enterprise, Information Age, knowledge management, McKinsey survey, social networks, Web 2.0, wikis

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/10/business-and-web-20/

Oct 15 2008

SMEs under-estimate connectivity issues of SaaS adoption

By Paul Wilkinson in Functionality, Internet, SaaS, Telecoms
15 October 2008

A survey of over 270 small/medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by EasyNet Connect (see PDF) shows that, while many are ready to embrace Software-as-a-Service, they are often ignoring connectivity and security issues: One in four respondents plan to move to cloud-based services or applications within two years, with around half (47%) expected to do so within five …