Dec 13 2011

Keystone disappears in Incite rebrand

Almost underlining that it is just focused on its internal group customers, Australia-based SaaS construction collaboration technology provider Incite (aka Nexus Point Solutions – part of the Leighton Holdings group) has reduced its website to a single page.

Incite and Nexus Point Solutions now share equal billing at the page top, and there is a selection of Leighton group business logos (I have previously described how the business was being absorbed into the parent group, losing its once-valued independence).

However, any potential external customers will learn little about the collaboration system (no mention of the Keystone product name, by the way) from the website unless they email the company. Apart from a system login facility and a rotating sequence of five photos, two email addresses are the only ways to interact with this website – a level of functionality reminiscent of early ‘brochure-ware’ websites in the mid 1990s. I would show a screengrab of the website (“Copyright © 2011 Nexus Point Solutions Pty Ltd. All rights reserved”), but I wouldn’t want to attract the unwanted attentions of Leighton’s legal eagles again (see Leighton gets legal). Of course, it could be a holding page preparing the way for a more complete website, but, on recent form, possibly not….

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/12/keystone-disappears-in-incite-rebrand/

Dec 06 2011

Aconex certified to ISO27001

An Aconex news release popped up in my Google Alerts, announcing that the Australia-based construction collaboration technology provider has achieved ISO27001 certification – the highest international standard for information security management – for its operations in Australia.

This achievement puts Aconex on a par with other vendors who have achieved ISO27001 accreditation, including early movers UK-based BIW Technologies and Cadweb (post – indeed, I recall both were arguing about ISO27001’s predecessor BS7799 in 2002), as well as firms like 4Projects, Asite and Unit4 Collaboration all of whose data is, I believe, hosted at ISO27001-compliant data-centres.

According to the release, Aconex is aiming to extend the scope of its certification to cover its other data and disaster recovery centres, including those in the USA, in 2012.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/12/aconex-certified-to-iso27001/

Dec 02 2011

ActionHero business process management

Over the past few years, online document collaboration has become an increasingly normal part of the functionality supporting delivery of most significant construction projects. And almost as soon as people could share drawings and documents, they began creating simple processes to manage communications about these items: transmittals, change orders, requests for information, etc. Over time, these workflow processes became more complex and related to more than just documents – nowadays, in the UK, we have online platforms solely dedicated to managing whole suites of complex contractual processes (eg: NEC3 construction contracts can be managed via Sypro, MPS and CEMAR), while the document collaboration vendors (eg: 4Projects, Asite, BIW) also offer bid/tender and contract management capabilities as well as other business process workflow tools – and Unit4 Collaboration recently launched its own quality and compliance toolset, BC Assure (post).

Against this background, it was interesting to hear of another business process management platform offered on a Software-as-a-Service basis. Founded by CEO Gary Karasek, an energy industry professional safety engineer with 15 years’ worldwide project experience, and launched in the US in February 2011, ActionHero helps teams create, manage, complete and report upon project actions, and avoid poor or non-completion of actions. The application’s features enables the collation of project actions via project forms (risk assessments, audits, technical queries, minutes of meetings, interface agreements, document reviews, etc) and full collaboration and reporting of those actions until they are closed.

ActionHero users can create custom forms, custom workflows and develop their own reports. Individual dashboards (with calendars, task lists, graphs and charts) help each user keep track of their own work and those of others they are collaborating with. They can also view summaries associated with particular projects or types of action. Reports can be output to PDFs or exported via XLS or CSV. For more advanced scheduling, there is also an interface with Oracle’s Primavera. Email notifications can be created, but ActionHero’s developers have recognised that not everybody likes email, so it also has its own internal messaging service and discussion walls about each action.

ActionHero offers a no obligation free trial, after which customers can opt for one of four different packages, starting with the Small Business plan which allows up to 20 users and up to 2GB of storage for $500 per calendar month. As a SaaS offering, it is accessible from any computer or smart phone with web access via most standard browsers, and is securely hosted in the cloud with 256-bit SSL encryption as standard.

The platform is not construction-specific – the website says ActionHero has also been adopted by professionals in oil and gas, energy, aerospace, manufacturing, healthcare and finance – but it will appeal to many professionals who want something more efficient and collaborative than shared Excel workbooks to manage their project and business processes. As we know from creating a single repository of documentation, teams can quickly reduce wasted time (and time equals money, remember) by having a single reference point for all their activities accessible via the web from internet-enabled devices at any time. Just as the NEC specialists have established a niche where customers don’t want full-blown document collaboration, ActionHero could establish a market for more generic workflow management where professionals’ emphasis is on enabling the processes not exchanging, updating and storing the deliverables.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/12/actionhero-business-process-management/

Dec 01 2011

CadFaster speeds up BIM conversations

At COMIT’s (excellent) conference on BIM and mobile technologies (#mobiBIM) at University College London on 11 November (post) I met Tuomas Holma, VP Sales and Marketing of Finland-based CadFaster. We subsequently arranged to meet up, along with CadFaster’s chairman Raimo Kuismin, so that he could tell me more about CadFaster’s flagship product’s collaborative capabilities.

A drawback with most construction collaboration platform is that they mainly offer asynchronous collaboration – ie: dispersed “conversations” proceed like email exchanges, as a series of send-reply steps. Ideally, collaboration should be about real-time or synchronous exchanges with little or no time lag between individuals’ comments and recipients’ responses. Now on its fourth release, CadFaster | Collaborate enables exactly this kind of real-time (synchronous) collaboration regarding 3D designs developed in BIM, CAD and related applications. Tuomas demonstrated the application to me using a laptop and an iPad via a mobile 3G connection in the cafe at London’s Building Centre.

The application is available as a plug-in for Revit, MicroStation or SolidWorks (ArchiCAD capability may be added in the near future) and as an iPad application. Users can open a BIM or CAD file, and then invite other user(s) to simultaneously view the same view of the same model remotely through the application on their PC or iPad – even if the invited users do not have their own BIM/CAD tools (similar to the viewer capabilities offered with most Software-as-a-Service collaboration platforms, where users open viewer tools and do not need CAD software – or high bandwidth – to view CAD drawings). To initiate the online exchange, the originator sends an executable file, which contains a stand-alone viewer and a highly compressed version of the model; recipients then open this file, which can be viewed on almost any Windows-based computer without requiring any special software or tools beyond an internet connection. The application is also quite simple and intuitive to use – non-CAD users (client representatives, perhaps) will not take long to familiarise themselves with its functionality.

The application works like a 3D viewer enabling users to pan, zoom and walk/fly-through to details, with the viewing experience optimised to allow rapid simultaneous access by co-collaborators. When a user annotates the view with a comment or mark-up and saves the annotation, it is immediately shared with others involved in the discussion (Tuomas said this ‘co-view’ capability had comfortably enabled sessions with upwards of 10 users – most online collaborations will involve fewer than this). Text/graphic exchanges happen on-screen; verbal exchanges would need to be separately managed via a tele-conference, VOIP or similar.

So efficient is the file compression and graphics management that, even on a shared mobile 3G connection, there was only a short time-lag between a comment being made and the recipient being able to review it within the same view of the model as seen by the commenter. As well as during design development, the application clearly has potential where designers might need to liaise with contractors on site – CadFaster would enable real-time conversations in the field (assuming some level of internet connectivity exists on-site, of course). Stakeholders unable to participate in the live meeting can access the file later, review comments from the meeting, and adding their own feedback.

Comments are also associated with metadata such as the model name, its ID, and the component. Comments and conversations can be captured by taking and saving screenshots; Tuomas said CadFaster was developing cloud storage tools that would save conversations online (including as PDFs) so that they could form part of the audit trail, with up to 100MB per user of storage space offered. Version control is also something being developed (the application has been tested across firms in the UK and US, said Tuomas, with Arup Associates particularly active in its development – see this Architecture Week review). The application is also inexpensive; CadFaster’s site suggests “Share your SolidWorks models to every stakeholder for real-time review. Only €14.99/month”, while Tuomas suggested a Revit-plugin would cost £249/user/year (the iPad application is available free via Apple’s iTunes). The license enables the originator to create the model views; co-collaborators pay nothing to access the service and provide their feedback to the license holder.

Update (12 July 2012) – CadFaster|Collaborate is now available via the Autodesk Exchange Apps Store. There Revit users can download a simple plug-in tool that enables them to distribute 3D CAD and Building Information Models effortlessly and invite others to view and mark them up remotely in real time, including from a laptop or iPad.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/12/cadfaster-speeds-up-bim-conversations/

Nov 25 2011

November PR and marketing updates from the construction collaboration vendors

Asite joins Autodesk Develop Network

London-based SaaS construction collaboration technology vendor Asite has joined the Autodesk Developer Network (24 November news release), looking to develop tighter integration between its Asite collaborative BIM (cBIM) and Autodesk’s BIM tools. Apparently:

“through a fully integrated workflow, building and design professionals will be able to share and coordinate models across distributed teams and disparate systems and connect their commercial project data directly to the design.”

Sypro wins healthy Balfour Beatty deal

East Yorkshire NEC contract management software specialist Sypro [disclosure: a client of pwcom.co.uk] has secured a major deal for its SaaS application to be used on all healthcare projects delivered by Balfour Beatty Procure21+ (news release on TheConstructionIndex). Sypro’s platform has been used on 65 Procure21 schemes to date; Balfour Beatty has a significant share of the UK healthcare market, so far securing eleven Procure21+ schemes with a total value of over £140m. Sypro’s Simon Hunt says:

“Working with Balfour Beatty on their new schemes is a fantastic move forward for our system. Sypro has already been identified for use on £400m worth of projects within P21+ and we are engaging with other Principal Supply Chain Partners on the framework.”

MPS and Docia push their combined offering

While on the subject of NEC Contract Management software, pioneer MPS Process is highlighting its partnership with Scandinavian document collaboration vendor Docia (post) ever more prominently. The latest sign is a co-branded six-page newsletter that highlights, the Docia relationship, recent contract wins (with four repetitions of MPS’s assertion it is “the established industry leader”) and MPS’s contribution to last week’s Construction Computing Awards IT Project of the Year (post). Incidentally, I was pleased that the Awards event allowed me chance to finally meet Docia CEO Mads Bording face to face.

Unit4 Collaboration gears up for 2012 customer event

Unit4 Collaboration is joining up with its parent UNIT4’s main UK customer conference on 8 February 2012, positioning its Business Collaborator offerings as part of a range of group business software solutions. Mark Bew of URS Scott Wilson and Thames Water’s Paul Meredith are among the speakers lined up for the event at Birmingham’s ICC, talking on BIM and quality assurance respectively.

Aconex winning European work

Australian construction collaboration technology vendor Aconex has made three November announcements regarding new European projects: its selection by Italian contractor Mangiavacchi Pedercini; Portugal’s Foz Tua hydroelectric project; and its selection for use on Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, in Romania.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/11/november-pr-and-marketing-updates-from-the-construction-collaboration-vendors/

Nov 22 2011

CTSpace name to disappear

The latest change of ownership of CTSpace – whose software portfolio includes Software-as-a-Service and on-premise construction collaboration technologies – saw the company disposed of by Lyon, France-based Sword Group and acquired by IDOX last week (see IDOX acquires CTSpace for £11.6m cash).

Some reports suggest this will mean the disappearance of the CTSpace brand as it is integrated into IDOX subsidiary McLaren Software Group, and this was confirmed to me this morning by McLaren’s chief business development and marketing officer Tim Taylor. There will be a transitional stage during which “CTSpace: an IDOX company” is used before migration to the McLaren branding.

[Update (26 November 2011) – Rebranding of the existing CTSpace website has already started. It now sports new information about IDOX and a new logo.]

The financial logic

Glasgow, UK and Houston, Texas-based McLaren was itself acquired by IDOX just over a year ago (14 December 2010). As a 50-strong supplier of engineering document management and control applications to customers in the often highly-regulated oil and gas, mining, utilities, pharmaceuticals and transportation sectors, McLaren had revenues of £6.4m for the year ended 31 December 2009, and had achieved an operating profit of £0.377m. Occasionally negative newspaper reports suggest the business was struggling to break-even during the late 2000s, and revenues dropped in 2010 as the continuing global financial crisis took its toll (Tim stressed that the business also successfully attracted new investment despite the challenges). McLaren’s latest annual report reveals a 2010 turnover of £4.173m, generating a negative EBITDA of £1.1m and an operating loss of £2.2m (though a waiver of £4.8m loan notes as part of the acquisition by IDOX turned this into a profit after tax of £2.9m). Tim told me that McLaren had, however, been growing revenues at around 30% this year.

CTSpace generated revenues of £12.7m, which generated EBITDA of £1.7m and pre-tax profit of £1.3m for the year ended 31 December 2010; in 2009, it claimed around 90 staff. On paper, its integration with McLaren therefore creates an engineering management software business with combined revenues of around £17m, and well over 100 staff.

The ‘fit’

Both businesses operate predominantly in Europe and north America (though McLaren is also planning to start up in Australia and the Asia Pacific rim – update (6 December 2011): Michael Cawsey, ex-Metastorm, Kofax, Staffware, has been appointed as VP, Asia Pacific – news release). CTSpace will give the merged operation offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Dubai, and additional locations in the US (combining the two businesses’ Houston offices would seem a quick win).

McLaren is strong in process and other asset-intensive industries, while CTSpace has historically had a bigger profile in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sectors.

McLaren’s Enterprise Engineer platforms appear to be delivered mainly as on-premise solutions, and the acquisition of CTSpace does potentially open up alternative deployment options. Originally a predominantly SaaS-driven business, CTSpace absorbed various non-SaaS businesses (including some specialising in tools such as SharePoint) while it was part of Sword, developing the capability to offer both SaaS (FusionLive) and on-premise (Fusion Enterprise) document management solutions – although, by some accounts (former MD Gert-Jan de Kieviet, for example), the on-premise offering was proving more attractive than the remotely hosted option. Over time, one might expect there to be some rationalisation of the on-premise product portfolio, with FusionLive promoted to those clients wanting a rapidly implemented, cross-company SaaS solution. This would continue the dual offering which CTSpace felt gave it a marketing edge (see my May 201o post CTSpace talks about FusionLive).

Sword Group sign off

What’s the story from Sword Group’s point of view? Well, they acquired a business in December 2007 for around US$13 million (c. £6.5m), and have disposed of it for £11.6m in cash. This might look like a clear £5m profit, but the CTSpace sold last week was a very different company to the pure SaaS business purchased nearly four years ago. As mentioned above, CTSpace has absorbed other businesses including ViaNovus (April 2008) and Cimage (March 2009), and Sword’s C2Share Sharepoint product. According to Sword’s statement about the deal:

“This disposal improves the net cash position of the group by €11M. The revenue trend of Sword CTSpace is c.€13M, this will impact the new pro forma revenue of the Group which will be in excess of c.€122M.”

According to Sword Group’s 2010 annual report, the main operating remnants of the former BuildOnline and Citadon businesses (BuildOnline Germany, Citadon Inc (US) and CTSpace France) generated revenues of €6.829m (c. £5.9m) in 2010. It’s not clear – to me, any way – what revenues came from the UK; in January 2011 “the business of CTSpace UK (assets and liabilities) was transferred by Sword UK to a new company set up for that purpose, namely CTSpace Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Sword Soft Ltd” (a company holding the group’s ‘product’ activities); CTSpace Ltd has yet to publish any financial accounts.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/11/ctspace-name-to-disappear/

Nov 21 2011

Leighton gets legal

Just over a month after I researched, wrote and published a blog post about my view of changes at Leighton Holdings Ltd’s construction collaboration technology subsidiary Incite, the Sydney, Australia-based giant has flexed its not inconsiderable muscles and sent me a letter.

A response to my version of the events at Incite since February? Perhaps some news of changes? No.

Instead, I have been required by Leighton’s Deputy General Counsel Karen Pedersen to remove two logos (Incite and Leighton Holdings) and to remove the photographs of two employees (Jamila Gordon and Peter Gregg) from the blog post.

Apparently the logos are trademarks and both the subject of copyright and my use was without authority (Offending Conduct). Leighton tell me reproduction of the logos constitutes an infringement of the Copyright Act. They also suggest that my ‘Offending Conduct’ is:

“… likely to mislead or deceive the relevant group of consumers into the belief that you have a licence or authority to use the Trade Marks or are associated with Leighton Holdings Limited and/or the Leighton Group, Incite or have their approval to use the Trade Marks. The Offending Conduct constitutes a breach of … the Australian Consumer Law and the tort of passing off entitling us to injunctive relief or damages.”

I am required to

(a) immediately cease any and all Offending Conduct;

(b) not in the future use or reproduce the Trade Marks or pass [myself] as being associated with Leighton Holdings Limited or any member of the Leighton Group; and

(c) immediately remove from the Blog any photographs of employees (or former employees) of the Leighton Group other than those employees or former employees who have expressly authorised the use of such photographs for reproduction on the Blog.

Like many thousands of other writers, journalists and bloggers writing about companies, I have used company logos frequently (indeed, a quick Google image search for Leighton’s logo will reveal numerous – 44,000+ – other instances; all authorised?). That this practice is widespread is, of course, no excuse. Not wishing to incur further wrath by “continuation of the Offending Conduct”, I have of course removed the images from the the blog post.

The people photographs were also sourced via Google image search – again, there are multiple locations where you can see their likenesses (presumably all expressly authorised by the individuals concerned?).

This is the first time that anyone has objected to my use of a logo or photograph – even companies or individuals that I have roundly criticised in the past have not requested removal. Instead, Aconex, for example, has recognised the importance of blogger relations and has engaged in a robust debate, providing me with their own corporate and personal viewpoints on core issues relating to shareholder disputes, directors’ actions, company financial performance, etc.

Update (28 November 2011) – Just noticed that Warwick Kirby, briefly listed as Incite’s Group Software Development Manager, is no longer in that role. He has been replaced by Rowan Williams, previously – according to LinkedIn – a product development manager.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/11/leighton-gets-legal/

Nov 18 2011

Unit4, 4Projects, Asite all win Hammers

I attended the Construction Computing Awards dinner in central London last night, and saw a mixture of awards distributed across a cross-section of the shortlisted companies (post) represented in the room. Just one or two winners weren’t present – Bentley Systems, for instance – but there were usually volunteers willing to step into the spotlight and grab and grin for the photographer.

  • The ‘Hammer’ for Document and Content Management Product of the Year was taken by Unit4 Collaboration ahead of Asite.
  • 4Projects took the newly-instituted Hammer for Collaboration Product of the Year, beating Bentley Navigator, and was runner-up in product of the year.
  • Asite Key Professional scooped the Hammer for project planning product
  • MPS was recognised in the IT project of the year.
  • Woobius won the Mobile Technology category with its Showcase platform [post].
  • Causeway picked up the Company of the Year Award, among others.

[Many thanks to Unit4 Collaboration for inviting me to attend the Awards dinner as one of their guests.]

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/11/unit4-4projects-asite-all-win-hammers/

Nov 15 2011

IDOX acquires CTSpace for £11.6m cash

A tweet from a former colleague alerted me to it, and it was confirmed when I looked at my TweetDeck search column: “IDOX … announces the acquisition of CTSpace for £11.6m cash.” Sword-CTSpace was a subsidiary of the France-based Sword group (acquisition in December 2007) offering a combination of both on-premise and Software-as-a-Service construction collaboration technologies, but the parent group is apparently keen to focus on CRM/ECM and wholesale finance markets, and has managed to find a buyer for the business.

IDOX group says it is “a leading developer and supplier of software solutions and information services to UK local government”. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and its LSE announcement said the deal would complement its December 2010 acquisition of engineering document management and control supplier McLaren Software (today’s McLaren news release). It continued:

CTSpace, which is headquartered in London, had revenues of £12.7m (approximately half of these were generated in Europe and half in North America), which generated EBITDA of £1.7m and pre-tax profit of £1.3m for the year ended 31 December 2010 when CTSpace had net assets of £4.1m. The business had cash at completion of £0.5m. IDOX will fund the acquisition entirely from a new term and revolving credit facility through its existing relationship with Lloyds Banking Group.

CTSpace provides both Software as a Service (‘SaaS’) and on-premise enterprise solutions, the latter of which leverage an organization’s existing investment in leading enterprise content management (‘ECM’) platforms such as IBM FileNet®, EMC Documentum® or Microsoft SharePoint®. When deployed with leading enterprise content management platforms, CTSpace’s products provide an integrated, best practice environment that supports a project’s entire lifecycle.

With the existing resources of McLaren Software and the Group’s integrated software development resource, the addition of CTSpace brings further scale, efficiencies and enhanced product and development capabilities.

Mergers, acquisitions and changes of name have figured frequently in the history of CTSpace and its predecessors, which include BuildOnline and Citadon among (many) others – see Investing in a dot.com/SaaS business: a history. I will be doing a more in-depth look at this acquisition shortly.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/11/idox-acquires-ctspace-for-11-6m-cash/

Nov 02 2011

Darley PCM launches Health & Safety and e-tendering services

A Derbyshire, UK-based company, Darley PCM Ltd (founded by Emma Jeffery in 2010), offers two online services targeting the architecture, engineering and construction market. The more mature offering relates to one of Emma’s strengths: health and safety; the latest offering is an e-tendering service.

The interactive DarleyDoc Software-as-a-service aims to help professionals produce high quality, tailored health and safety documentation for projects and activities, matching project management requirements with the consultation and communication required by law.

“Our philosophy is not to produce generic health and safety documents that cannot be successfully implemented within your business, but to provide the tools and guidance to produce the documents you require quickly and efficiently, without compromising the safety of your workforce.”

Basic price packages for the DarleyDoc service start from £35/month for contractors (who are set up with a policy statement, method statements, risk assessments, COSHH assessments and COSHH inventory), up to £70 for main contractors (which includes management of CDM documents, subcontractors, and monitoring). All include employee accounts, and document and file management.

Darley eTenderDarley eTender is a web-based e-Tendering service designed to take the headaches out of managing a conventional paper-based process. Users across the supply chain from clients, architects and main contractors through to subcontractors and suppliers, are provided with their own branded eTender portal through which they can issue tender documents to their prospective suppliers and contractors. Costs start from £250 for a single tender, with annual packages allowing users to issue from 2-5 (£500, or £100 per tender) right through to 50-100 tenders (£6000, or £60 per tender).

A quick interview with Emma Jeffery

1. How long has Darley PCM been trading?

Darley PCM was launched in 2010 providing online services for the construction industry. PCM stands for Providing for Construction Management.

2. What is your background?

I have six years’ experience working in the construction industry within project management and health and safety. I have a first class honours degree in construction management, have gained NEBOSH and am a member of IOSH. I have also been involved with website work, developing websites and online services for construction clients. I set up Darley PCM after I identified a number of key online services that can be provided to benefit existing clients and the construction industry. I feel the industry needs to embrace online technology to streamline the industry and continue to improve efficiency particularly in the current economic climate and going forward.

3. What has been the take-up of the two services to date? What types of firms are showing interest?

Since launching the company I have worked with various contractors providing bespoke web services, documentation and achieving accreditation such as CHAS. The health and safety services have been running since 2010 with take-up from both main contractors and subcontractors. Feedback was that many were struggling with keeping documents up-to-date, filing and recording documents issued on site, and basic integration of the health and safety documents into their business. This is the key service that DarleyDoc will offer going forward, along with document creation. Not all the services are available currently as new services are still in development; however, we plan to launch the entire service by early 2012.

Darley eTender officially launched this week. I have built bespoke stand-alone e-tender services for main contractors, but the new service is designed to be a more cost-effective solution to tender distribution. Even those with lower tendering demands can benefit from e-tendering without the start-up expense of having a bespoke system developed from scratch. I know the high costs of issuing tender documents to multiple subcontractors and suppliers, along with the time involved with reproducing multiple copies and waiting for postal deliveries, and believe e-tendering can significantly improve this process. I have had interest from main contractors and I am currently building an online demonstration to allow potential clients to see for themselves the simplicity of the service – from talking to previous contractor customers, the main barrier for online services is the perceived difficulty in using them.

4. Especially for the H&S services, any mobile functionality? (in the pipeline?)

To allow DarleyDoc to be fully integrated into organisations at all levels and offer clients solutions to the integration of health and safety management procedures across locations, we will be providing mobile functionality for the majority of the site’s functions.

Regarding Darley eTender, we plan to have some mobile functions in terms of alerts to documents, deadlines, tendering calendar, messages etc.

My view

Online management of health and safety information has been around for some years. BIW Technologies pioneered web-based production and maintenance of Health & Safety Files, etc in the the early 2000s, and I also recently looked at BC Assure, Unit4 Collaboration‘s compliance system, which enables firms to manage health and safety among many other issues. This is an area also addressed by CloudsUK.com (see last week’s blog post) where Eurosafe UK use their platform to run projects where they are CDM co-ordinators, and I think DarleyDoc will be attractive to a similar market where small to medium-sized construction businesses want to manage and ensure compliance with health and safety regulations.

Construction e-tendering platforms have also been launched by several other firms over the past decade, all making similar claims about reducing the cost and inefficiency of managing largely paper-based processes. BIW and various other UK construction collaboration technology vendors – eg: 4Projects, Asite, Sarcophagus (eTenderer 2006 post), Unit4, etc – all include e-tendering functionality within and/or alongside their core platforms. I have also looked at some stand-alone systems – eg: the RICS (2006 post), Asktobi (post), and the Aconex venture BidContender in Australia (post). Darley is not competing with the collaboration vendors’ integrated e-tendering products; it is aimed at industry professionals mainly at the SME level wanting a stand-alone solution. Its challenge will be to offer a competitively and sustainably priced, reliable and secure alternative to existing providers; the quoted costs certainly undercut Sarcophagus’s e-Tenderer.com, while I can see contractors carefully weighing up their anticipated requirements before making a choice between the Darley offering and that of Asktobi.

As a recent start-up, Darley will also have to market its services efficiently and effectively. I was pleased to hear Emma talk about providing a demonstration environment – as I said recently in relation to another start-up (see BuildBoxCM faces the AEC start-up challenge), prospective customers need to know what the applications look like. They will also want to quickly see that the applications are relevant to their type of business and their role, and to be reassured by case studies or at least a few mentions of named customers.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/11/darley-pcm-launches-health-safety-and-e-tendering-services/

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