Category: Functionality

SaaS raising enterprise expectations

Two core realities will shape Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) markets for years to come, says the latest research report (Enterprise Ready, or Not – SaaS Enters the Mainstream, costing US$1,295) from Saugatuck Technology. Saugatuck say SaaS is expanding well beyond its early low-cost, easy-to-deploy niche application roots (CRM, sales force automation and collaboration) to become a key …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/saas-raising-enterprise-expectations/

BIM and housing

On Monday, I had an interesting meeting with Nick Clements of New Zealand-based software vendor Bisco, who plan to “revolutionise building by changing the way information flows through the building industry”. Bisco’s technology can extract information from various generic 3D CAD design models (ArchiCAD, AutoCAD Architecture, Autodesk Revit and – soon – Vectorworks) and then …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/bim-and-housing/

Bentley and Autodesk target interoperability

A couple of months ago, a PR slip suggested a joint Bentley/Autodesk announcement was imminent. Well, it was announced late yesterday that the two AEC software giants have agreed to expand interoperability between their solutions portfolios: “Autodesk and Bentley will exchange software libraries, including Autodesk RealDWG, to improve the ability to read and write the …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/bentley-and-autodesk-target-interoperability/

Sustainability Then

Sustainability Now was last week, so Phil Clark has been looking at the lessons learned (see my post). Overall, the two-day virtual event attracted 1,500 visitors and nearly 2,000 downloads of content ranging from video and audio to two live seminars, so from that perspective a pretty successful event. Phil agreed with me that in …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/sustainability-then/

Newsletter gives CTSpace update

I have just been forwarded a copy of the latest e-newsletter from construction collaboration vendor CTSpace (a business with an interesting past – see related posts below). The email features an editorial from Gert-Jan de Kieviet, the company’s managing director of its EMEA operation. In it he writes glowingly about the aftermath of last year’s …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/newsletter-gives-ctspace-update/

Taywood path to Google email smoothed by SaaS-based collaboration tools

In UK builder switches email to Google Apps, Phil Wainewright describes how UK contractor Taylor Woodrow has migrated from a conventional in-house hosted email system to Google Apps, a step, he says, that confounds critics who suggest that the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based Google suite is not appropriate for enterprise adoption. I would also go one …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/taywood-path-to-google-email-smoothed-by-saas-based-collaboration-tools/

Sustainability Now, er, Today

I have just been having a first look around Sustainability Now (see post), the free two-day virtual event organised by Phil Clark and his colleagues at Building and Building Design magazines. There’s a lot of opportunities to interact – the event has video clips, seminars, loads of downloadable white papers, case studies, brochures, and a …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/sustainability-now-er-today/

BIM and sustainability

Having spent much of Wednesday (see earlier post) listening to people talk about building information modelling and sustainability, it was timely to get my latest AECbytes with a viewpoint from Scott Boutwell (blog; also previously cited in this blog here) talking about parallels in the increased adoption of pro-sustainability measures and the adoption of BIM …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/06/bim-and-sustainability/

Reviewing BuildingSMART 2008

I have now had a couple of days to reflect on Wednesday’s BuildingSMART conference in London (see my live-blog posts here and here). My thoughts…. UK lagging behind – Given that it’s an organisation’s annual event, you would expect a lot of the same people to turn up each year, and there were a lot …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/06/reviewing-buildingsmart-2008/

BuildingSMART conference, part 2

1450pm BST: The afternoon sessions of the BuildingSMART conference kick off with break-out sessions, and I opted for one on creating a market for sustainable buildings – not well-attended but some interesting discussion – with perspectives from Norway and Iceland. Defining sustainable buildings is difficult due to the many different types of buildings – standards …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/06/buildingsmart-conference-part-2/

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