Mar 07 2006

Aconex selected for train station development

I noticed another couple of new press releases from Aconex yesterday. The ‘train station’ release is worth a short note, not least because it says “Costain has selected Aconex” – a notable achievement in the UK construction project extranet market as Costain has for some years been a strong advocate of rival provider Business Collaborator. Perhaps the real reason Costain opted for Aconex here has more to do with the input of Aconex’s Australian compatriot Multiplex – already an influential Aconex customer.

Correction (09 May 2006): Today I received an email from Costain requesting that the comments about Costain in the above post be removed: “The information and comments are untrue as the product has been selected and managed by the client“. I am happy to publish this correction (and to apologise to anyone misled by the original post). The error arose from an honest reading of Aconex’s news release and an awareness of Multiplex’s association with the White City project and with Aconex (as at 10am BST this morning, the Aconex website still carried the news release claim that “Costain has selected Aconex”; the same news is also carried at BuildingTalk.com).

Update (12 May 2006): See new post dated 12 May 2006 on this matter.

(Original post from a free wireless network at the Irving guest-house, Harvard, Cambridge MA – I’m here for the Harvard conference on project extranets, 8-9 March, as are a few other delegates, apparently.)

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2006/03/aconex_selected-2/

Mar 04 2006

Email used to issue 65% of CAD information

According to a survey of UK CAD managers undertaken by Evolve Consultancy‘s Nigel Davies (reported at EatYourCAD.com; PDF available here):

"Email continues to be the most popular form of issuing digital information at 65.5%. The decrease is due to the resurgence in popularity of project extranets which are now the primary issue format of 13.8% of companies. In 2004 project extranets accounted for 2.9% of the issues."

The decrease mentioned is an 11% drop from 76% in Davies’s 2004 survey (or, to put it another way, an 11% increase in use of extranets). Over the past two years, therefore, the proportion of digital information published to extranet systems has grown more than four-fold, to approximately one in seven issues. Clearly, there is still some way to go before extranets become the predominant form of communication, but the signs are encouraging.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2006/03/email_used_to_i/

Mar 03 2006

BIW up for Building award

While talking about Building magazine (see previous post), I was delighted to discover that the company I work for, BIW Technologies, has been shortlisted once again in the Entrepreneur of the Year category of the 2006 Building Awards (read the BIW news release). The results will be announced on 4 April at a black-tie dinner and ceremony in London’s Park Lane.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2006/03/biw_up_for_buil/

Mar 03 2006

Building blogs

Building magazine, the glossy weekly bible for the UK construction industry, has a feature this week on blogging (I would link to the feature but it doesn’t currently appear on Building‘s website and you’d probably have to register to see it any way). In addition to Building’s own bloggers, it includes links to what it describes as the “Top 5 construction blogs”:

  • The Gutter – a popular, anonymous US ‘underground’ construction blog – “it often focuses on sex and drugs” (probably why it’s popular!)
  • Building Trade – UK blog with news on products and “diatribes on issues like health and safety and profit margins”
  • Surveyor in the Docks – diary of a surveyor, Cliff L’Aimable working in the east end of London, with “unusual, amusing or just plain surreal events of his working life”
  • Life Without Buildings – “to do with all things architectural” set up by an architect graduate, Californian Jimmy Stamp
  • The Rat and Mouse – London property blog covering housing and sales news.

With this mainstream publicity for blogs, will we now see an explosion in construction blogging in the UK?

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2006/03/building_blogs/

Mar 03 2006

SaaS “not Sassy”

"The Internet-hosted software model has arrived, but hasn’t matured" is the message from a US conference on Software as a Service (SaaS), according to SaaS is OK, but Not Yet Sassy, an article on Red Herring.

Adoption issues included integration with older packaged software systems and many SaaS vendors’ lack of a track record. However, there were signs of increasing adoption, and also willingness by venture capitalists to invest in SaaS startups.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2006/03/saas_not_sassy/

Mar 03 2006

Search: it’s all about beating Google

Despite Google’s wobble in the stock markets earlier this week, it remains the company other software developers want to beat when it comes to search. Today’s Silicon.com newsletter has two stories: Microsoft talks up ‘Google-beating’ search engine (promised in six months) and Oracle unveils ‘Google trouncing’ business search (targeting a loop-hole in Google’s array of search tools). Will we see the thesaurus dusted down as PR people look to find other terms – Google-whipping, Google-thrashing, Google-pounding, Google-pasting, etc, etc?

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2006/03/search_its_all_/

Mar 01 2006

State of the (digital) nation revealed by Ofcom

When I was writing the connectivity section of my book and needing official statistics on the pace of UK broadband adoption, I used Ofcom’s site regularly. Drawing on Ofcom’s Communications Market interim report, today’s Silicon.com article paints a picture of an increasingly internet-savvy UK population embracing broadband (10 million connections!), mobile telephony (though not VOIP – see UK punters avoid VoIP in droves) and digital broadcasting (coincidentally, there are also 10 million Freeview set-top boxes and TVs in the UK).

While browsing the web on this topic, I also came across a BBC story, Viruses plague British businesses, explaining that computer viruses are the single biggest cause of security problems for UK businesses, according to a survey by the Department of Trade and Industry. Almost 50% of the biggest security breaches suffered by companies in the last two years were due to infection by malicious programs. In some cases viruses crippled key systems such as e-mail for more than a day while companies cleaned up (the worst outbreaks took up to 50 days to fix!). I think the virus problem would be another element I would add to my email argument advocating reduced reliance on email.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2006/03/state_of_the_di/

Feb 28 2006

WiMax: “too slow, expensive and unregulated”

Silicon.com reports that traditional broadband and mobile operators will be avoiding WiMax – according to research by Capgemini.

The consultancy predicts that the millions of pounds spent on 3G licences, alongside the increased number of base stations needed to run a network, will deter mobile operators from investing in the long range wireless broadband technology. Cost will also put off would-be broadband providers, as the falling cost of DSL access will make it hard for pure play WiMax companies to enter the broadband market.

However, Capgemini does predict a future for WiMax, serving communities outside the reaches of wired infrastructure.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2006/02/wimax_too_slow_/

Feb 27 2006

ISO27001 certification (2)

Last week, following BIW’s hosting infrastructure achieving BSI certification, I discussed ISO/IEC27001 and Cadweb’s claims regarding compliance. Someone at Cadweb either read the BIW news release or this blog, for this evening I notice that Cadweb’s page on legal admissability has been updated to refer throughout to "BS 7799 / ISO 27001" (a format used by the BSI, to which Cadweb links). However, Cadweb still persists with the fiction that "Cadweb is the only Project Extranet that is certified to BS 7799 / ISO 27001".

Helpfully, however, Cadweb also links to the International Register of ISMS Certificates at http://www.xisec.com/. Here:

  • Cadweb is listed as having been certified (IS 40831) to "BS 7799-2:2002".
  • Attenda, meanwhile, is listed as being certified (IS 60764) to the latest "ISO/IEC 27001:2005".

Fact: through Attenda, BIW’s construction collaboration technology is the only project extranet running on a system certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2005.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2006/02/iso27001_certif_1/

Feb 24 2006

Long overdue CICA changes

For a couple of years, I have been growing concerned about the apparent decline of the UK’s Construction Industry Computing Association (CICA). BIW Technologies is a member of CICA, and as head of corporate communications, I have been responsible for managing our relationship with the association. It now appears that the CICA is undergoing yet another major change.

First, some background. BIW joined the CICA a few years ago, and I attended the CICA annual convention in Cambridge in 2003. This was a well-attended affair, at which I made a few good contacts and learned a good deal, but other CICA events since then – despite the valiant efforts of the secretariat team of Ian Hamilton (now retired), Erik Winterkorn and Suzanne Restall – have been less well-attended (see my post on last year’s CICA convention), and the organisation seems to have stood still in recent years.

The red and white corporate identity of the organisation was dated; the CICA newsletter looked old-fashioned; I have no idea if IT buyers find the CICA software directory useful (it’s not even available online); and the CICA website is, frankly, depressing: poorly designed, disorganised, and rarely updated. I hoped that the incorporation of the CICA into the National Computing Centre (2004) might see a more professional approach to marketing and PR by the CICA, but there was almost no progress – although I did get a copy of the NCC’s magazine every now and again.

(On a slightly more positive note, the CICA did at least also help arrange a meeting between the NCCTP and the CICA Major Architects IT Group last November – see Moaning architects (4); and the seminar programme occasionally throws up an interesting event – I am looking forward to the 15 March seminar on Marketing and e-commerce (see PDF)).

This morning, though, I received an email from CICA chairman Roy Harper (encouragingly, this had a new-look CICA logo – same typeface, but now white on a orangy red background, with a strapline: "Dedicated to promoting the effective use of information technology in the construction industry" in a grey bar underneath). Roy explained:

"Over the last few months The National Computing Centre has conducted an in-depth review of the CICA business. After careful consideration of all the factors involved and consultation with CICA staff, NCC has decided, in the interests of the membership and the business, to centralise administration and finance services at the Manchester office. As a direct result of this decision, the CICA office in Melbourn, will close by March 2006.

After consultations, Erik and Suzanne have both decided to leave the CICA, and NCC has appointed Davendra Patel to take up a new position of Sector Manager (Construction), based in Manchester, to coordinate and carry forward CICA interests. Roy adds:

"Whilst the programme of CICA events and benefits will continue, Davendra will be looking at the wider National Computing Centre assets and subsidiaries to see how CICA members can gain access and benefit from the programmes that are relevant to the construction industry. Davendra will be charged with expanding the membership and tailoring programmes to the construction industry’s needs so the industry can exploit IT effectively."

I wish Erik and Suzanne well in their future endeavours, and I also wish Davendra well. Speaking from the perspective of an increasingly disenchanted CICA member, I think he will have to work quickly to arrest the CICA’s decline, and give it a new sense of identity, purpose and relevance. It will not be an easy task, particularly as the CICA is competing for attention with organisations such as the IT Construction Forum and Construct IT for Business which are also going through periods of change (I have to ask: do we as an industry really need several different UK construction IT organisations? Surely, it would make sense for some to amalgamate?)

Hopefully, this morning’s email is just the first positive sign of a new professional approach to the CICA’s affairs. If it isn’t carried through, I am sure BIW will not be only one allowing its membership to lapse.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2006/02/long_overdue_ci-2/

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