Aug 20 2013

BIMaaS and lean construction

Advance2000’s Chris France highlights the benefits of BIM-VDC “in the cloud” – though it’s an opportunity already well understood by several AEC-focused SaaS vendors.

I started this blog started after publication of my book in 2005 when, looking into the future, I anticipated the emergence of building information modelling (BIM), more mobile and real-time collaboration and increased adoption of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing. Since then, I have monitored these converging trends, occasionally highlighting landmarks on the journey towards what I have sometimes called BIMaaS – where model-based built asset data is shared across a project team using cloud-based tools.

Virtual design and construction

Others share this vision of the future, and some of my blog posts have quoted forward-thinking contributions – for example, John Tobin’s piece on atomicBIM (October 2008) and Jos Voskuil’s prediction of Universal Unique IDs for all information (January 2009). The latest article to grab my attention is by Advance2000‘s Chris France.

In a guest contribution to Lachmi Khemlani’s AECBytes entitled VDC in the Cloud – Journey to LEAN Construction, Chris talks about virtual design and construction (VDC), where contractors “virtually construct” a building on a computer before they actually construct it on-site.  He distinguishes this from what he calls “Architect’s Building Information Modeling (BIM)”, which he says is primarily focused on design and creating drawings as their product – though I think he would find many UK BIM practitioners disagreeing with this distinction. Nonetheless, if we accept his argument that BIM-VDC addresses the entire lifecycle of a structure with the processes, technology, and people to support it (means, methods, schedules, costs, safety, logistics, inventory, manufacturing, etc), then there are even more compelling benefits if we centralise BIM-VDC in the cloud. He summarises the business benefits of BIM-VDC in the cloud:

  • Lean construction – eliminating waste from the construction process
  • Agility and mobility – Adapt to market forces quickly from any location
  • Collaboration – assemble the best team no matter where they are located
  • Cost reduction – for the building and the infrastructure for construction
  • Levelling the playing field – Small/medium firms can compete with the big ones

The full article is well worth reading, and ultimately highlights different options to embrace the BIM-VDC in the cloud, from implementing it within a firm to renting the technology from a cloud provider for as along as the project needs it.

Advance2000 challenging existing SaaS players

Advance2000-websiteAdvance2000 is not solely focused on the architecture, engineering and construction market; it is an IT business looking to provide private cloud-based infrastructures for construction project teams, among others. According to a YouTube video, its AEC proposition is built on a partnership with Dassault Systemes, and its website talks about migrating existing IT applications and systems and hosting email, IP telephony, Newforma (post), Sharepoint and other applications in the same private cloud as design projects.

However, there are, of course, many now very experienced companies who have been providing specialist Software-as-a-Service construction collaboration platforms for over a decade, and who are increasingly also tackling the data sharing, coordination, workflow, security and auditability challenges and opportunities presented by BIM. Some are well advanced in their BIM journeys – 4Projects, Asite and Unit4 Collaboration spring to mind – while others (Aconex, Conject, McLaren, etc) are still building their industry propositions. The UK Government’s BIM initiative has presented an opportunity for such vendors to provide the common data environment supporting ‘level 2’ BIM, and this expertise will – the government hopes – by highly exportable; 4Projects was acquired by Oregon-based Viewpoint partly to give it an edge over its immediate US competitors when it came to BIM and SaaS-based collaboration.

Last week I received an email from a US contractor seeking an ‘owned’ on-premise collaboration solution (and my reply mentioned Newforma, Sharepoint and McLaren’s enterprise solution), so there is – at least anecdotally – demand for internally hosted cloud solutions. Perhaps that contractor might read this post and consider Advance2000’s proposition.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2013/08/bimaas-and-lean-construction/

Aug 20 2013

McLaren updates FusionLive

McLaren-logoMcLaren Software has announced the latest release of its FusionLive solution, providing cloud-based / Software-as-a-Service construction project collaboration. Some ten months after the previous major release (post), FusionLive now has:

  • an improved user interface to accelerate user adoption and reduce the number of clicks to complete key tasks, and
  • a new fast-track review process for individual documents not requiring formal approvals. On completion of the approvals, FusionLive automatically generates a PDF record for each document allowing users to easily identify which approvals, and by whom, have been made.

McLaren Software CEO Paul Muir hints at future BIM and FM developments:

These latest enhancements to FusionLive have been introduced as a result of a recent European McLaren Customer Advisory Board meeting where product developments are contributed to by leading AEC companies and owner operators. FusionLive is on an accelerated development path with a number of significant new features scheduled for release later this year including BIM support and integration with McLaren CAFM Explorer providing a handover between construction and facilities management phases.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2013/08/mclaren-updates-fusionlive/

Aug 05 2013

Help a UK construction collaboration researcher?

Hoa Binh Nguyen, pursuing an Msc in Construction & Project Management in the School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering at Queen’s University of Belfast, is researching the application of online collaboration technologies in the UK construction industry, including document management, project management, BIM, and social media-type tools. The focus is on effectiveness, barriers and the impact of them on collaborative working in construction projects.

An online questionnaire has been devised to support this project, and, if you are a UK practitioner and can spare the time, the researcher would really welcome your inputs. Click here for the questionnaire.

 

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2013/08/help-a-uk-construction-collaboration-researcher/

Aug 02 2013

Viewpoint establishes US data centre for 4Projects

4projects logo4Projects‘ parent Viewpoint Construction Software has extended its commitment to the UK-developed SaaS-based project collaboration solution, already being heavily marketed in north America (post), by opening a new data centre in the US. The facility will improve performance for 4Projects users among Viewpoint’s North American project collaboration customers and provide more flexibility on their data hosting options.

According to the news release, Viewpoint will deploy 4Projects on Amazon Web Services (AWS) elastic cloud, a leader in global and flexible hosting and IaaS solutions. AWS has proven experience in designing, constructing and operating large-scale data centres and offers Viewpoint an increasingly efficient cloud environment, providing both scalability and redundancy to avoid data loss and ensures consistent and reliable uptime and data access. With AWS, Viewpoint can host 4Projects in a fully compliant environment (including ISO, SOC 1 and SOC 2, and FIPS 140-2), and will be able to quickly deploy new data centres around the world, as the business grows and new market opportunities are discovered.

Andy Cameron, VP of Software Development at Viewpoint states:

“The addition of a US-based data center, along with our current data center in the UK, provides Viewpoint both a nimble and flexible cloud environment. It allows us to serve customers with high performance, low latency and virtually infinite scale to best meet customer demands across all the regions we serve.”

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2013/08/viewpoint-establishes-us-data-centre-for-4projects/

Aug 02 2013

Why I #LoveConstruction

Love Construction - ExtranetEvolution style!Love Construction is a campaign that has been slowly developing since the 2 July launch of the UK Government’s latest construction strategy. Its origins lie in an editorial written by Construction News editor Rebecca Evans who argued that it was time for industry people to have their say in how the industry is perceived.

The vision for 2025 painted in the government’s document is ambitious, but it won’t be delivered if current perceptions of the industry aren’t changed, and this isn’t about a slick marketing or PR campaign, it’s about the people already in the industry explaining why it’s a great place to work and develop a career.

This challenge to the industry was picked up by a group of industry people who responded to Rebecca’s call and met in a cramped Construction News meeting room three days after the strategy launch. In little over an hour, we did a load of brainstorming, various commitments were made and the campaign began to roll. Four weeks later, we are beginning to see people (Mace’s head of BIM, David Philp, for example) and organisations (CITB, Wates, etc) endorsing the campaign.

My journey

I sometimes tell people I joined the construction industry almost by accident, and IT was part of that ‘accident’. I was doing a PhD in criminology but needed work to fund my fieldwork and pay for essentials such as housing and food. I could use word-processing software, so I went to a temp agency; my first assignment was at consulting engineer Mott MacDonald and my second was at another consulting engineer, Halcrow. I ended up spending seven years at Halcrow, and, when I finished my PhD, I didn’t want to leave construction.

QE2 Bridge WST PRTI’d learned about marketing and found that I had writing and photographic skills that I could apply. Before long, I was doing site visits, climbing up half-constructed bridges (the QE2 Bridge at Dartford and Second Severn Crossing stand out), photographing motorways, sewage treatment works and tunnelling projects (among many others) and writing about the people behind these projects. And while I was at Halcrow I also began to write about IT as the firm made its transition from manual drafting to computer-aided design (CAD).

This interest in IT continued during four years with Tarmac Professional Services, where I first encountered 3D design tools and electronic document management systems (used by Schal on the redevelopment of the Royal Opera House; that tool was later taken on board by Cimage – today part of the history of McLaren Software). And when I went freelance in the late 1990s, I wrote numerous case studies about use of IT to support construction projects (including one for Cadweb). This led me to BIW Technologies and then my current business, where I remain actively involved in many aspects of construction IT (from SaaS collaboration to mobile, to BIM, to social media, to Wikipedia).

For me, construction is far more than muddy boots and hard-hats. It’s about people working together to create new buildings and other assets, and – increasingly – this means using IT as an enabler. When I started:

  • we barely used email – now it’s almost universal
  • designers drew things by hand in 2D – now they are modelling in nD
  • we shared paper – now we collaborate electronically via ‘extranets’ and other tools
  • computers were vanilla-coloured boxes in our offices – now we have more computing power in a pocket-sized smartphone.

Adoption of IT will accelerate as the BIM revolution takes hold, transforming construction from its site-based craftsmen origins into a sophisticated and profitable form of advanced design and manufacture of built assets, with the UK among the world leaders in construction information technology. It will also provide great opportunities for young people who are often intuitive collaborators and users of software and devices – my son can collaborate remotely with friends to plan, design and construct tunnels and buildings in real time (he’s 12 and loves Minecraft!). This enthusiasm should be exploited; we should be cultivating Generation Y and Z’s innate collaborative and IT capabilities, not locking them into silos and knocking the creativity out of them.

I love construction. It’s given me a great career, which I continue to enjoy. This is why I’ve written this blog post and this is why I’ve added a Love Construction logo to my websites. You should too.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2013/08/why-i-loveconstruction/

Aug 01 2013

Corecon V7 updated

Enhancements to US-based Corecon V7 include a workflow engine for approving financial transactions and cost tracking for changes

Corecon logoCalifornia-based Corecon Technologies has announced updates to its web-based estimating and project management software suite Corecon V7. This version was launched in May 2010 (post) and has been updated several times with new features and functionality, including a mobile/tablet edition (September 2010, updated in October 2012), and a push into the ‘project extranet’ space in December 2011 when it launched its TeamLink Portal (post).

The platform is mainly focused on providing visibility to contractors of all project-related operations from business development, estimating and bid management, through to contract administration, procurement, time tracking, document control, correspondence and scheduling, and the Portal allows team member access to pertinent project information in Corecon V7 on an as-needed basis.

The new features in Corecon V7 include:

  • Approval workflow on financial transactions
  • Time approval workflow
  • Tracking actual costs for change orders
  • Billing change orders on unit price contracts and new unit price dashboard
  • Equipment timecards
  • New email features

 

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2013/08/corecon-v7-updated/

Jul 25 2013

Asite updates Adoddle

Asite logo 2012Almost exactly a year after it rebranded its core product, London-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider Asite this week announced availability of its summer release, Adoddle 16, which – according to the news release – includes some “hot new features”:

  • Smartphone and tablet users can now directly check whether a printed (paper) drawing is the latest revision or is a superseded version and instantly see the drawing metadata by scanning the quick response code (QR Code) applied to the drawing. [Some readers may recall similar functionality described earlier this year in my review of UNIT4’s Business Collaborator 6.1 release.]
  • There is a new Microsoft Office Excel plug-in which enables users to automatically assign metadata attributes to files being uploaded to Adoddle, based on their own file-naming conventions. [Second time this week I’ve written about Excel and metadata – see previous post on TeamBinder.]
  • For CAD external references, Adoddle users can now choose to validate and revise the X-Refs of either the specific Document Reference or across the entire project.
  • Copy Filename to Document Title where auto-numbering is set
  • Support for moving documents for non-administrative users
  • Extending the ability to save Views to include Custom fields

The Adoddle cBIM application also has some new features such as:

  • Setting the default tile picture of Project Model
  • Download native files
  • Support is added within the web application for the View Manager functionality

Meanwhile Asite will also be hosting free monthly breakfast focus group meetings in London. The first will be on 15 August looking at E-Procurement and Supply Chain Management. US readers can join Asite at the AGC Construction Event in Chicago on 14-15 August. See Asite’s events page for more details.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2013/07/asite-updates-adoddle/

Jul 24 2013

TeamBinder builds well-integrated SaaS solution

QA Software’s SaaS platform TeamBinder is attractive to Australian and SE Asian construction customers for its intuitive interface and easy integration with common Microsoft tools.

TeamBinder logoMelbourne, Australia-based QA Software has been promoting collaboration software since the mid-1990s, building on a track record of providing local area network, LAN-based, drawing and correspondence management and materials management software to Australian construction businesses. Having developed QDMS, QTRAK and QMS, among other applications, QA was well-placed to develop a web-based solution that works well with commonly used applications in construction: the result (in 2000) was TeamBinder.

During the past 13 years, QA’s TeamBinder has attracted some major customers in the increasingly competitive Australasian and southeast Asian markets, and the company now talks about transportation and construction clients such as Transport for NSW (post), MRT (Malaysia), UGL, Abigroup, MTM (Metro Trains Melbourne), Baulderstone, Bilfinger Projects, Amec and Arup. TeamBinder also has some customers in the Middle East and Africa, while its European users tend to be working on projects in TeamBinder’s main markets. The application is currently available in six different language versions.

Intuitive and integrated

General manager sales and marketing Rob Bryant, account manager Ryan Campbell and CTO Yoganathan
Sivaram gave me a guided tour of the latest edition ofTeamBinder, on which they have worked hard to make it intuitive to use.

TeamBinder dashboardThis is evident from the moment a user accesses the system; once logged-in, the user is presented with a dashboard view comprised of ‘widgets’ which can be selected and moved around to suit the user’s preferences, and which summarise the latest information relevant to the user. For example, simple colour-coded bar-charts can be used to summarise how many items of different types (RFIs, letters, technical queries, etc) are outstanding and/or overdue in a user’s inbox.

Outlook integration is something that most of the leading SaaS vendors support to some extent, but TeamBinder’s latest offering is particularly strong – as you would expect of a Microsoft Gold Partner. Emails, with attachments, can be dragged and dropped onto a user’s TeamBinder project, using a familiar Windows-look interface. And if the user is not in TeamBinder, emails can be created for publication to TeamBinder by clicking on a TeamBinder button in the Outlook toolbar. Ryan was particularly keen to demonstrate the advanced search tools. This not only searches emails and attachments’ metadata, but also incorporates full text searching within documents and drawings.

Common user tasks within major projects, particularly during the early stages, include bulk uploads of all existing information. These can be uploaded from Word, but TeamBinder now includes an Excel upload feature. This can extract metadata attributes from the files to be uploaded, and then validate them for accuracy and completeness before upload. As you might expect, Microsoft integration also extends to strong support for Sharepoint 2010-2013 – a common requirement for corporates who use Sharepoint for internal document management. Such tools can dramatically increase productivity; I was told that one operator was able to successfully upload 20,000 drawings in just four days using the Excel upload function in TeamBinder.

TeamBinder document registerOnce populated the document register provides standard file metadata (name, status, revision, etc) for all versions of a particular item, which are displayed in a single row summarising all the formats that are available to user for a particular document (PDF, DOC, DWG, etc – user access to different file-types can also be set by the sender), as well as whether users have rights to comment, etc (BIM use is not extensive for most TeamBinder customers yet, but the system has simple tools that allow designers to publish model files from Revit, as well as conventional 2D drawings, as required). When files are distributed, the sender can also set the system so that recipients are automatically notified if and when a future revision is published.

Drawing review, mark-up and commenting is accomplished via a third party tool which also allows comparison and overlay of different revisions, the use of attachments to summarise changes that may have been made separately, and online ‘chat’ for collaborative review (the chat conversations are also searchable). TeamBinder reporting tools allow the easy export of well-formatted reports in Excel, PDF and Word.

On the mobile front, a TeamBinder mobile web application is available for most mobile platforms, and I understand new iPhone/iPad capability will be added later this year (2013) with Android apps to follow in early 2014.

The Australasian market

Rob Bryant (TeamBinder)We talked a bit about TeamBinder’s view of the current market. Rob agreed with other vendors that the mining and oil and gas sectors were slowing a bit; many such projects are moving from intensive construction phases into production mode, he said, and they are increasingly now supporting operation and maintenance phases for those schemes. However, he said there was still work to be won, particularly in the infrastructure sectors – where he picked out New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland as attractive markets for TeamBinder.

Over the past decade or so, most of TeamBinder’s customers have opted for the software-as-a-Service option (the company also offers locally hosted options); Rob said:

Over 90% of our customers use the SaaS version of TeamBinder. Our self-hosted solution provides an ideal solution for some large corporates and those in more remote parts of the world. The SaaS model continues to grow in popularity with the vast majority, fuelled by the trend towards outsourcing either the entire IT infrastructure management or at least data hosting, enabling companies to reduce non-core operations and meet corporate governance standards by reducing risk.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2013/07/teambinder/

Jul 24 2013

McLaren HTML5 mobile developments

McLaren-logoIn the past week or so, engineering document control and computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) software provider, McLaren Software, has made two announcements regarding web-based access to its platforms.

First, it added web access to McLaren Enterprise, its enterprise-scale document control suite, via an HTML5 user interface so that authenticated users can securely access, search and view documentation from any supported mobile, tablet, desktop or laptop devices without the need to install or update software. It said this approach laid the foundation for a simpler unified user experience across all McLaren products.

A week later, it has announced the release of McLaren CAFM Web for the facilities management application it acquired in October 2012 (post), a mobile development hinted at last December

Developed using HTML 5 technology, McLaren CAFM Web provides access for help desk and property management users, again via any web enabled desktop, laptop or tablet. According to the news release, CAFM Web frees a user to log a work order, review property details and run reports at or away from their desk, on their own or any available supported device. Specific access rights can be assigned to contractors, engineers, help desk users and administrators according to their roles and responsibilities maintaining facility information security and integrity. The solution provides a consistent interface whether the user logs into a touch screen iPad, Android or Surface tablet, desktop or laptop browser with a mouse. McLaren Software CEO Paul Muir says:

“The introduction of CAFM Web complements our recent release of the cloud-hosted McLaren CAFM Explorer OnAir providing more deployment options, ease of use and user accessibility. In common with all McLaren Software solutions we place emphasis on usability while ensuring integrity of information for the organization. Customer input and reaction to this first release of CAFM Web has been very positive and just the start of many new features to come.”

There has been no similar announcement regarding HTML5 mobile support for FusionLive, McLaren’s SaaS-based construction collaboration platform, but this sequence of news releases suggests it’s perhaps just a matter of time.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2013/07/mclaren-html5-mobile-developments/

Jul 22 2013

Docia UK pushing BIM

In the past year, Docia has established a UK foothold independent of its MPS partner, and is now pushing its own BIM capabilities.

Docia - logo2013Just over two years ago (27 May 2011), Copenhagen, Denmark-based SaaS collaboration technology vendor Docia first featured in Extranet Evolution following its tie-up with UK contract change management provider MPS Process to provide supporting document collaboration technology.

Since then, Docia has been expanding internationally (opening operations in India and South Africa, for example), and improving its product portfolio (adding an Android app in January 2012, followed by an iPhone app six month later – news release – both then incorporating a real-time mark-up tool, Scribble*). During 2012, Docia also established its own UK office, in South Shields in north-east England.

Docia Ltd MD Arron Adam joined the company from north-eastern rival 4Projects, while commercial director Michael Smith was another early recruit (his previous experience includes time at 4Projects plus BIW Technologies [now Conject], and Sword CTSpace [now McLaren]).

BIM

The company is now pushing into the building information modelling arena with a product named Docia BIM2Share. According to Arron:

Our BIM2Share solution offers a range of ground breaking functionality. BIM2Share offers a whole new interface that breaks down the barriers between the design team model and the project extranet. A new automated workflow eliminates the time-consuming process of issuing views and drawings from the model-server to the project’s extranet. Furthermore you can drag and drop information directly to rooms or objects such as O&M manuals, progress reports and installation pictures. Overall, this makes working with BIM models and BIM collaboration much more effective and adds value for everyone involved.

We have already been involved with our first projects using BIM2Share and currently one of Europe’s largest hospital projects are using this solution.

MPS

MPS and Robin Wilkin, for a long time the face of MPS at numerous NEC3 seminars and conferences, parted company a year ago. He is now a commercial manager at Jacobs.

(* The ‘Scribble’ branding evokes memories of Woobius, whose now discontinued blog was entitled Woobius Scribbles, while the Docia app is reminiscent of Woobius Eye – post.)

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2013/07/docia-uk-pushing-bim/

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