I have talked before about Microsoft‘s much-discussed Software-plus-Services strategy before (here, for example), and it strikes me that there is an interesting corporate parallel in Microsoft’s approach to the rise of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the attitude of Autodesk, albeit on a different scale. Like Microsoft, Autodesk has made its name by selling conventional, locally-hosted CAD …
Category: SaaS
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/aecs-software-plus-services-player-to-deliver-bimaas/
Aug 20 2008
Union Square Workspace reviewed
Union Square Software’s Workspace solution has been reviewed by Bloor Research‘s Simon Holloway in an article, Collaboration for Construction with Union Square Software, on IT-Director.com. Three points struck me as I read the analysis. First, a minor point, but Simon writes: “After years of being slow to change, the construction industry has finally started to …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/union-square-workspace-reviewed/
Aug 15 2008
Chewing the CAD
Cadalyst Manufacturing has a thought-provoking viewpoint article written by J. Paul Grayson, CEO of Alibre, that suggests “the CAD software market is stuck in time, somewhere in the late 1970s or early 1980s, when mainframes and minicomputers were the primary platform of professional computing”. Despite the advances in personal computing in other fields, including the …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/chewing-the-cad/
Aug 13 2008
New lick of paint
It’s nearly three years since I started this blog, so a new design was long overdue. I’ve stuck to the same pallette of colours, but tried to make the design a bit cleaner and easier to read (two columns instead of three, and then fewer items in the side column). I’ve also tidied up some …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/new-lick-of-paint/
Aug 12 2008
Next step: Collaborative procurement of collaboration?
Over on [my employer] BIW Technologies’ SaaStainability blog, we have been following UK government’s efforts to green its ICT operations. Following the publication of a new Office of Government Commerce delivery plan that talks about collaborative procurement of central goods and services, including ICT, we wonder if this latest sustainable procurement drive might extend to …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/next-step-collaborative-procurement-of-collaboration/
Aug 05 2008
CADaaS again
My discussions earlier this year about whether CAD solutions might be delivered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications (see CADaaS continued, for example), are being echoed by other bloggers. The latest to consider the Future of CAD and cloud computing is Lou Gallo on the Solidworks: Heard blog. Update (12 August 2008): Even one of Autodesk’s resident …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/cadaas-again/
Aug 04 2008
BIW grows 24% in 2007
BIW Technologies [my employer] grew its turnover by 24 per cent in the year to 30 September 2007, achieving over £0.5m in profits in the process (see full news release here). The company’s turnover in 2007 grew to £5.76m, up from £4.66m the previous year. A modest 2006 loss of £171,000 was turned around in …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/biw-grows-24-in-2007/
Jul 25 2008
History of CAD touches on extranets
David Weisberg has published online a comprehensive history of CAD, which is available free at http://www.cadhistory.net. I had a quick skim through a couple of chapters to see what, if anything, he’d written about construction collaboration technologies – and he hasn’t ignored them. Chapter 6 (Autodesk and AutoCAD, PDF), for example, has a page or …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/history-of-cad-touches-on-extranets/
Jul 25 2008
Another good BIM viewpoint
The latest AECbytes viewpoint is from Stuart Carroll of US IT provider Beck Technology. In BIM: When Will It Enter “The Ours” Zone?, he responds to an earlier article on Building Information Modelling (BIM) by John Tobin (Proto-Building: To BIM is to Build), and echoes my own, often-repeated view (see post, for example) that it’s …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/another-good-bim-viewpoint/
Jul 24 2008
Autodesk opens Buzzsaw hosting centre in Hong Kong
Autodesk has just announced the launch of a new Autodesk Buzzsaw data centre in Hong Kong, to support customers of its construction collaboration solution across the Asia Pacific region, having spent three years on the selection process (see news release). The process was facilitated by inward investment agency InvestHK whose Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion, …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/autodesk-opens-buzzsaw-hosting-centre-in-hong-kong/






