Category: People issues

Mar 23 2011

SnagR: mobile but not SaaS

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Business/Financial, Collaboration, Functionality, Internet, Marketing, Mobile, People issues, Vendors
23 March 2011

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 …

Android 2.2, Asite, audit trail, augmented reality, BIW, BuildOnline, CMToolkit, connectivity, construction collaboration system, defect management, Graham Henderson, integration, iPad, iPhone, licensing, Liz Henderson, Mark Henderson, marketing, Middle East, mobile, MPS, PDA, PDF, Pragmatech, property management, Qatar, reporting, SaaS, Screenshare, site inspection, SnagR, Software-as-a-Service, south-east Asia, Stafford, surveying, Sword CTSpace, Sypro, tablets, Tailormade Software, UK, ultra-mobile, Vimeo, Windows 7
8 comments

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

Mar 22 2011

Training in collaborative IT

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, BIM, Collaboration, Marketing, People issues, SaaS
22 March 2011

Judging from the recent activities of some of the leading construction collaboration technology vendors, there seems to be a fair bit of (mainly London-based) training going on at the moment: 4Projects recently announced (14 March) a “new programme of training sessions designed specifically to help our users get the most from our 4Projects collaborative functionality” …

4Projects, Aconex, Asite, BIM, building information modelling, cloud computing, Collaborative IT for construction, construction collaboration technology, document control, Frank Carron, lifecycle management, London, mobile, on-premise, SaaS, training

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/training-in-collaborative-it/

Mar 15 2011

Online collaboration for marketing and sales

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Blogs, Business/Financial, Collaboration, Functionality, Future, Internet, Marketing, Mobile, People issues, SaaS, Vendors, Web 2.0
15 March 2011

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 …

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

Mar 10 2011

Some “difficulties”

By Paul Wilkinson in Business/Financial, Legal, People issues, Vendors
10 March 2011

A tweet saying Aconex was “in difficulties” caught my attention, but it was short-lived. It turned out the Aconex in question is a fruit export business, Exportadora Aconcagua, based in Chile (news), not the Australia-based construction collaboration technology vendor of the same name. However, the local difficulties over conflict of interest allegations at Aconex’s lawyers …

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/some-difficulties/

Mar 08 2011

Virtual worlds and the built environment

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, BIM, Collaboration, Functionality, Future, Marketing, People issues, Sustainability, Vendors, Web 2.0
8 March 2011

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 …

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

Mar 07 2011

Who sits at the Sword CTSpace table?

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Business/Financial, Collaboration, Marketing, People issues, SaaS, Vendors
7 March 2011

The latest Sword-CTSpace news release concerns an integration between the company’s on-premise FusionEnterprise platform and ECM systems EMC Documentum and Microsoft SharePoint 10 (somewhat confusingly, Sword-CTSpace talks about Engineering Content Management, as opposed to Enterprise Content Management, a term much used by other firms and industry analysts). I only mention this as the news release …

4Projects, Aconex, AML, Asite, BIW Technologies, BuildOnline, Cadweb, CEO, ECM, EMC Documentum, EMEA, Engineering Content Management, Enterprise Content Management, ePin, FusionEnterprise, Gert-Jan de Kieviet, integration, Lydie Francart, Mark Cappell, Microsoft SharePoint 10, PR, Product Management, search, Sword CTSpace, Tim Fleet, Unit4 Collaboration

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/who-sits-at-the-sword-ctspace-table/

Mar 04 2011

Not just NEC3, JCT needs to be managed too

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, Business/Financial, Collaboration, Functionality, Legal, Marketing, People issues, SaaS, Vendors
4 March 2011

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 …

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

Mar 03 2011

A role for resellers?

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, BIM, Business/Financial, Collaboration, Functionality, Future, Marketing, Mobile, People issues, SaaS, Vendors
3 March 2011

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 …

APIs, Appbuilder, Asite, BI, BIM, BIW, business intelligence, collaboration, compliance, configuration, construction collaboration technology, contractors, cost control, customisation, e-procurement, expenses management, facilities management, Gleeds, Hunter Richards, IGT, integration, Mace, maintenance, mobile tools, operation, PaaS, Paul Morrell, Platform-as-a-Service, project managers, reprographics, ReproMAX, SaaS, Sage CRE, snagging, SoftwareAdvice.com, training, USA, value-added resellers, VARs, whole-life cost, Woobius
1 comment

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

Mar 02 2011

The Role of Cloud Computing in Commercial Property

By Paul Wilkinson in Business/Financial, Functionality, Future, Internet, Legal, Mobile, People issues, SaaS, Telecoms
2 March 2011

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 …

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

Feb 27 2011

Immersive design collaboration, with IdentityMine

By Paul Wilkinson in AEC, BIM, Collaboration, Extranet/CDE, Functionality, Future, Internet, Mobile, People issues, Web 2.0
27 February 2011

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, …