Apr 20 2010

More mobile, more Australian

Having just blogged about Australian company Constrex and their Tender.ly application (post), I now find myself writing about another Australian company, All Over Geo, which is developing location-aware mobile solutions for use on-site on construction projects.

The first solution is an iPhone app called Foreman’s Mate, aimed at improving safety and increasing productivity, and All Over Geo say field tests show it can save a foreman around 30-60 minutes per day in reduced administration and paperwork, and improve quality of service through better data collection and an increased presence on site. (From the website description, it sounds similar to the mobile solution that [my former employer] BIW Technologies developed for quality management, incorporating simple drop-down lists, use of photos as part of the reporting functionality, server synchronisation, etc.)

From an email exchange with All Over Geo CEO Benjamin Ranck, I understand the company is considering how to extend use of Foreman’s Mate, perhaps through integration with a construction collaboration technology platform (fellow Australian vendors Aconex or Incite would appear to be logical starting places).

The application is also being tested in the US, Canada and the UK, so maybe one of the UK-based vendors might also be interested in integrating this into their offering rather than developing their own solutions from scratch.

All Over Geo is also planning to make Foreman’s Mate multi-platform, with Android and Windows Mobile 7 versions to be developed as resources allow. Given the corporate use of Blackberry devices, I think All Over Geo should also include this in their plans (as Asite is doing with its cMob app – post).

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/04/more-mobile-more-australian/

Apr 20 2010

Tender.ly now available as download

Just over six months ago, I discovered a one-page website about Tender.ly, web-based software for architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) companies to conduct their tendering for suppliers and subcontractors. Originally pencilled in for late 2009 and then February 2010, the launch date slipped a bit (as with many software projects), but a server version of the application is now available for download.

Sydney, Australia company Constrex is making a two-user version of the software available free (in Windows Server and Linux versions), allowing users to host Tender.ly on their own servers with storage ‘in the cloud’ – Amazon S3 – and evaluate it in their own organisations at their own pace (‘users’ means the administrators or managers of the tender process within the issuing company, not the number of subcontractors, etc).

For bigger companies, a 10-user package would cost US$1800 (after the first 12 months’ free support, further support would cost $900 per annum, entitling users to upgrade to new versions of Tender.ly as they are released). There are also packages for even larger businesses: 25-users (US$3600), 50-users (US$6400) and unlimited single-country users (US$10,000), with corresponding support deals.

From contacts with Constrex’s Jason Langenauer, I understand that a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) version is being developed (see Jason’s comment), and is likely to be launched in 3-6 months time on the tender.ly domain.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/04/tenderly-now-available-as-download/

Apr 20 2010

Daden wins!

On 9 March, I wrote (Daden showcases collaborative use of Second Life) about Daden reaching the finals of a major US-based competition to identify cutting edge implementations of Second Life. This Birmingham-based company briefly tweeted about its success, but has now issued a full press release (UK Company wins U.S. Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge), detailing how it entered both its PIVOTE and Datascape systems into the contest, with its PIVOTE system winning the skills building category and Datascape runner-up in the collaboration category. Once again, well done, David, Soulla and everyone at Daden.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/04/daden-wins/

Apr 19 2010

CTSpace launches FusionLIVE – end of the road for BuildOnline and Citadon

sword-logo Catching up with recent announcements in the world of construction collaboration technologies, I see that Sword CTSpace has launched a new Software-as-a-Service application, FusionLive, that looks like it will eventually replace both the BuildOnline and Citadon applications inherited when Sword acquired CTSpace in December 2007 (post).

The 7 April news release quotes Gert-Jan de Kieviet, Sword CTSpace’s global operations director:

“As a new state-of-the-art Cloud-based engineering collaboration solution, FusionLive stands to revolutionize the content management industry with its combination of easy and quick implementation, advanced yet simple-to-use interface, absolute data security, and an array of outstanding document management, business process management and project collaboration features.”

The release says the product will provide “a truly revolutionary user interface unlike any other in the current market”, delivering greater flexibility and more extensive personalisation, by combining “enterprise level business logic with state-of-the-art web 2.0 technologies.” (Such flexibility is long overdue – only last month, at the Collaboration Cafe Symposium (post), I was critical of the relative dullness of most current collaboration applications when looked at from a web 2.0 perspective.)

My highlights

Looking at the FusionLive web-page (and watching the YouTube video), the stand-out items for me include:

  • A new user interface: with drag-and-drop, resize panels, multiple windows, tabs and user-based configuration of columns
  • Dashboard and reporting functionality: a customisable, widget-based dashboard summarising the various messages and activities within a user’s workspace
  • API and add-on applications: FusionLive as an open platform includes a set of web services APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that enable integration with other software products

I asked Sword-CTSpace about some of these developments and got the following responses back from business unit director John Pomeroy:

The release of FusionLive represents the first clear visible step of a significant re-alignment and development process that has been worked on behind the scenes initiated following the acquisition by Sword. We are very excited about where we are now following this release but even more excited about where we are heading.

Q: It sounds like FusionLive is superceding both BuildOnline and Citadon. If so, I would be interested to know how this migration/upgrade process is being managed (and over what timescale)?

Users of BuildOnline are currently being migrated to FusionLive and we expect this process to complete within the next month or two. Users of Citadon CW can continue with any existing projects through to their completion, but will utilize the new FusionLive for any new projects.

Q: Will CTSpace be allowing third party developers to develop gadgets to sit on the FusionLive platform?

Right now gadgets are only internal but, yes, it is the plan to let any external gadgets sit on the dashboard (like Google or Netvibes gadgets). More generally, one new aspect of FusionLive is to let any external customers, partners or developers, develop and or integrate application with FusionLive. A couple of projects are currently in process for Cad Software, iPhone and a couple of customer specific applications….

Initial reaction

For me, the development of an application merging the project-oriented document collaboration aspects of BuildOnline and the enterprise-oriented business processes of Citadon has been long overdue.

When these two firms merged in December 2006, they talked about “a standardized software platform that is zero-risk and can be rapidly deployed on a global scale” (see my post CTSpace dissected), but the nettle clearly wasn’t grabbed straightaway, and the business continued with two increasingly dated platforms. Credit, then, to Sword Group for taking the step and investing in the creation and development of a single SaaS platform that will eventually replace both systems (leading, of course, to savings through not having to maintain and deliver two different platforms, etc).

The more flexible, configurable user interface, and the gadgets, will provide some short- to medium-term product differentiation in relation to competing products, but I expect other vendors will already be working on their own improvements in this area. As noted several times over recent months, several of the leading providers active in the UK (see: Bentley and Autodesk post; Incite post; Aconex post; Asite‘s Appbuilder post; Business Collaborator; 4Projects post) already provide APIs, and it is about time some of these vendors also delivered more than just a cosmetic overhaul of their user interfaces.

A small plea

Can we be consistent about the difference between gadgets and widgets? As I understand it, widgets are generally pieces of HTML code that can be copied and pasted anywhere that HTML is used (eg: on websites, blogs, social networks, etc), while gadgets cannot be copied and pasted anywhere, being used only on the specific website or operating system they were designed for.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/04/ctspace-launches-fusionlive-end-of-the-road-for-buildonline-and-citadon/

Apr 19 2010

Asite mobile solution launching soon

Asite‘s Paul Markovits has been blogging about the UK-based construction collaboration technology vendor’s forthcoming mobile solution, Asite cMob. A launch of this looks likely in the next couple of weeks, it seems.

 

This has been on the cards for several months, following a consultation process managed through the Asite community forum late last summer (post), though the original January launch date for the iPhone mobile solution has clearly slipped a few months.

 

Paul says:

“… Asite cMOB is a completely new way of accessing your Asite Workspaces and sharing information with your teams. This information is then available within the main Asite web application and vice-versa meaning mobile and office workers can seamlessly work together in real-time across the globe.”

He continues:

“Where Asite mobile differs from other existing mobile applications, is that you can design your own apps to run on Asite mobile using our AppBuilder functionality. Once again, we’ll be providing some out of the box apps via our AppLibrary (such as Mobile RFIs, Mobile Defects and mobile Goods Receipting for procurement logistics) to get you started, but AppBuilder will allow you to quickly and easily design interfaces to send and receive information between mobile and office based users.”

When Paul’s Asite colleague CTO Nathan Doughty wrote about the mobile developments, he mentioned support for Windows Mobile and Blackberry handsets “soon afterwards”. Paul doesn’t say when these other mobile platforms will be launched, and there is no mention of an Android version of the app.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/04/asite-mobile-solution-launching-soon/

Apr 17 2010

StoreData revenues slide, but profit up in 2009

Preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2009 from Styles and Wood show that its retail-oriented construction collaboration solution provider StoreData suffered another fall in revenues, though increased margins meant it returned an increased profit (see 2008 results post).

The year 2009 was described as “exceptionally challenging” for the Group, with rising unemployment, lower developer-led activity and a slowdown in consumer spending prompting Styles & Woods customers to reduce their property investment plans. Group’s revenues dropped from 2008’s £243.1m to £139.3m and the company just shaded into pre-tax profit – £0.7m (2008: £0.2m) – before restructuring and refinancing costs turned this into a £1.8m loss.

Regarding its support services division StoreData, the results show the business generated revenues of £1.222m, down 9% from £1.350m in 2008. However, the £0.257m profit was up from the £0.229m achieved the previous year; “Operating profit increased on 2008 due to improved margin.”

The figures suggest the gradual revenue slide that has been evident in StoreData’s revenues since 2006 has continued (that year, revenues peaked at £1.594m, and profits reached £0.425m – see 2006: OK for StoreData), though these latest numbers are, of course, heavily impacted by the recession.

Regarding StoreData, the operational review says:

“As clients seek to improve their business performance during the current economic downturn, their need for fast access to accurate property information has increased. Our StoreData business continues to satisfy this need by developing and implementing property information solutions. … During 2009 we continued to support the Tesco Property team and signed up new customers including Nationwide, The Co-operative and B&Q.”

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/04/storedata-revenues-slide-but-profit-up-in-2009/

Apr 01 2010

The state of (construction) collaboration

I spoke at the Collaboration Cafe symposium held at London’s Building Centre on Tuesday, 30 March. I was third speaker on, following StickyWorld and Slider Studio founder Michael Kohn and Axis Design architect Rob Annable, and my brief from Michael was straightforward: to expand on the blog post, The end of the construction collaboration era?, I wrote last week.

In some ways this was a useful suggestion as the blog post (largely repeated on my pwcom blog) elicited some interesting and useful comments. As a result, I quoted both Incite‘s Sean Kaye and Gleeds‘ Jasper Singh in the presentation, as both touched on a similar area: that the mainstream collaboration platforms are pretty dull to use and are unlikely to excite Gen Y industry professionals enthused by Web 2.0.

This issue was also raised during discussion at the symposium with Woobius’s Bob Leung talking about the principles that had driven development of the Woobius collaboration application (post), emphasising simplicity and ease of use, particularly where such platforms are used for projects that are at an early or conceptual stage and don’t warrant sophisticated or deep levels of process functionality (a point repeated by Michael in respect of StickyWorld).

As well as Michael, Bob, the panel for the debate included other architects and designers: Robin Nicholson (Edward Cullinan Architects), Ben Derbyshire (HTA) and Darren Comber (Scott Brownrigg), and there were a fair few more architects in the audience. Their apparent frustrations at having to use different platforms that didn’t talk to each other was raised (I did mention the efforts of the NCCTP to agree a data exchange standard), and there was broad agreement, I think, with one of my points that, even if the systems were more intuitive to use and more interoperable, many industry professionals are still personally reluctant to collaborate. I still think that people and process issues remain a major barrier to effective collaboration in the UK construction sector.

(The debate was well chaired by Building Centre director Andrew Scoones. During his introductory remarks, he referred to several research projects undertaken by the Building Centre Trust towards the end of the 20th century, and one of the documents he waved in the air was a case study I wrote on use of the Cadweb extranet at Reading’s Green Park development, published in April 2000 – almost exactly ten years ago.)

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/04/the-state-of-construction-collaboration/

Mar 25 2010

Union Square adds project accounting option to Workspace

Union Square Software and its Workspace product haven’t featured very often in this blog, partly because my main focus is on Software-as-a-Service applications for the construction sector, and Workspace tends to be hosted in its customers’ premises, with extranet-type functionality available as an option alongside its core intranet and email management capabilities.

However, it’s worth recording that the company recently announced launch of a suite of project accounting tools for architects and other consultants. Workspace Project Accounting enables online financial management and ledger integration “to deliver a unified view of actual and forecast costs and revenues, profitability and work in progress information”. Since its introduction at the end of 2009 seven practices –have adopted the suite, which also allows integration with Sage software solutions; Union Square has become a member of the Sage Development Programme (readers may recall that BIW Technologies has a commercial relationship with Sage in north America – see post).

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/03/union-square-adds-project-accounting-option-to-workspace/

Mar 24 2010

The end of the construction collaboration era?

 

[This is a slightly expanded version of an article from my pwcom blog.]

I am due to speak next Tuesday, 30 March at the Collaboration Cafe symposium at the Building Centre in London. The event is one of the final contributions to an ongoing research project being undertaken by Slider Studio and funded by the Technology Strategy Board. This has involved the development of a prototype web-based design and creative review application, StickyWorld (which is now available in private beta, and I am testing in relation to a client’s website project – I will be blogging about StickyWorld on ExtranetEvolution soon).

The symposium promises to be an interesting event, not least because I think we are at something of a transition in what we have tended to call “construction collaboration” (as in the trade association, the Network for Construction Collaboration Technology providers, NCCTP).

Having worked for a construction collaboration technology vendor for ten years, I spent a lot of time preaching the virtues of online tools (‘extranets’) that allowed project team members to share documents and drawings. But it is apparent that many users still tend to use these web-based platforms mainly for file-sharing. In effect, they are little more than electronic filing cabinets. Little genuine collaboration is taking place through use of these systems, partly because the applications don’t really promote the requisite changes in people and processes within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector.

But over the past decade, we have seen the emergence of alternative types of technologies that do foster collaboration and information sharing, and which aren’t document-centric. Wikis, blogs, RSS and social networking platforms, for example, have helped personalise individual communications to an unprecedented extent – helping people collaborate online – and the overlap into business-to-business use is accelerating. This process is also being fostered by growing use of mobile devices which potentially allow individuals to access key information and manage interactions anywhere – with perhaps the data tailored to their precise location and to the people to whom they are communicating.

The abstraction away from document-focused communications could also increase, I think, because – in the built environment sector we will be starting to move towards model-based design practices. Instead of being reliant upon 2D drawings and documents, increasingly design will rely upon BIM, building information modelling (not just 3D, but also allowing time, cost and other dimensions to be assessed – so called nD). And as building owners and operators begin to look more closely at how their built asset data will be used to manage and maintain the facility in a society increasingly challenged by climate change, there will also be a growing focus on the interface between people and the built environment.

Maybe we should no longer be talking about “construction collaboration” or even “building information”? Maybe it’s time to start talking about ‘built environment collaboration’ or something similar?

These are some of the themes I will be touching upon when I speak next week, and I hope some readers of this blog might be stimulated to come along and participate in the discussions.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/03/the-end-of-the-construction-collaboration-era/

Mar 11 2010

Top 10 Construction IT trends

This is the original draft of an article I wrote that has just been published in the March 2010 issue of Construction Manager magazine (link to digital edition), alongside a bigger feature looking at the new generation of construction collaboration platforms (including Woobius, Collabor8online and SliderStudio‘s StickyWorld – all of which I’ve recently talked about in this blog – here, here and here, for example).

  • Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – Analysts Gartner say a fifth of enterprises will hold no IT assets by 2012 as cloud computing and mobile working practices become commonplace. SaaS has certainly changed inter-company design and construction collaboration, but vendors like 4Projects and BIW will need to be nimble and creative to stay ahead of a new generation of low-cost collaboration vendors such as Woobius.
  • Tablet computing – Apple’s recent launch of the iPad highlighted the potential of tablet computing, but we already have ruggedized tablet PCs with construction-specific applications (for example, Motion Computing’s devices support programs by Latista, Vela Systems and others – see post). However, assuming wifi and/or WiMax connectivity becomes more wide-reaching, browser-based SaaS could eventually replace PC-based tools.
  • Mobile apps – Construction is not immune from the iPhone phenomenon. There are concrete calculators and CAD utilities; some collaboration vendors (eg: Business Collaborator [sorry, BC, should have made that Unit4]) have downloadable applications for smartphone platforms; and Woobius Eye takes mobile collaboration to another level. But, again looking to the future, why have a local app for that, when you might access online services via your smartphone browser?
  • Augmented reality – By incorporating GPS, a compass and accelerometers, a smartphone can provide its user with location-specific information overlaid into the phone camera’s view of the surrounding environment. Layar provides various sources of data, from Wikipedia to the international architecture database, archINFORM (see pwcom post). Want to review property prices or local planning applications? The data is out there.
  • Web-conferencing – Skype has changed how many organisations use telephones, and corporate use of WebEx and LiveMeeting means expensive and time-consuming travel to meetings isn’t always necessary. Seminars and conferences can be opened up to non-attendees, with users watching streamed video (Ustream), viewing slides (SlideShare) and providing feedback via CoverItLive or Twitter.
  • Web 2.0 – Alongside new social networks for construction professionals (eg: the CIOB-backed Construction Network, tCn), expect grudging acceptance of the value of Twitter-type messaging and other forms of networked collaboration. Controlling the message is so 20th century; it’s now about participating in and shaping conversations about your company and its products and services.
  • Virtual worlds – Fancy teleporting to an island to explore and discuss a 3D simulation of your new school or office building? In Second Life you can. Birmingham-based Daden (see post) is among the UK leaders in helping clients and designers visualise new built environments. Gaming technologies can also help democratise design – Slider Studio’s YouCanPlan has already been used to help local people review and comment on an urban regeneration scheme.
  • The ‘Internet of things’ – Think bus-stops that relay real-time travel information, buildings that tell you how much energy they are using, appliances that can be controlled via the web. Environmentally-sensitive technologies such as Pachube can help building designers, owners and end-users make better informed decisions.
  • APIs – Instead of trying to add new features to existing software themselves, some construction IT vendors are creating application programming interfaces. For instance, SaaS collaboration vendors Aconex and Asite offer APIs, potentially enabling customers and developers to build their own applications and integrate data from other solutions (eg: accounting, ERP).
  • BIM – Most of architecture, engineering and construction still works predominantly in 2D, but building information modeling (BIM) has the potential to revolutionise how we work, sharing a single 3D model which can also be used to show the sequence of activities, costs of materials, energy use, etc. BuildingSMART is helping firms apply consistent standards but the issues are more than technological – BIM also involves rethinking contracts, procurement and other issues. Longer-term, I expect we will also see SaaS-based BIM: BIMaaS.

Of course, I had a tight word-count limit, and was asked to restrict myself to ten themes, but I also canvassed the wisdom of my Twitter crowd to seek ideas. Did we come up with a representative list? What would you have added (and what would you have take out)?

Update (12 March 2010): Space didn’t allow mention of all firms with APIs, so I am grateful to 4Projects’ CEO Richard Vertigan for pointing out:

“4Projects has had an API since about 2003. Sir Robert McAlpine used it to integrate with Lotus Notes and Bass Leisure Retail (became Six Continents Retail and now Mitchells and Butlers) used it to integrate with their back-end ERP system. The web services API for our third generation solution is very comprehensive.”

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/03/top-10-construction-it-trends/

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