Mar 31 2011
During my presentation at Friday’s ICT4Contruction event (post), I briefly mentioned 4Projects as an example of a construction collaboration technology vendor that had started to use social media, with a blog, TheSaaSHandbook.com, and an associated Twitter account. However, the blog has disappeared (visitors are now simply channelled to 4Projects’ home page), while the Twitter account …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/p45s-at-4projects/
Mar 23 2011
Ignore the marketing hype about SnagR being “the first its kind innovative Web and PDA-based site inspection and defect management system” (both BIW and BuildOnline – now part of Sword CTSpace – had PDA-based defects management systems in 2006), but SnagR is a user-friendly digitised system designed to speed up the process of capturing, reporting …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/snagr-mobile-but-not-saas/
Mar 15 2011
Enhancing customer service is one area where many AEC firms could do better, and web-based tools can help support marketing and sales activities. Show Document and VeriShow I wrote about the SaaS generic design review application Show Document about 18 months ago. I didn’t devote much time to it from a construction perspective as it …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/online-collaboration-for-marketing-and-sales/
Mar 09 2011
Writing last week about the London launch of the RICS report on cloud computing and commercial property, I mentioned secure offsite file storage provider Vaultium, and – surely no coincidence – I have since been emailed about another UK-based “vault” vendor: BackUpVault. Neither cloud-based business specifically targets the construction collaboration sector, though Vaultium does offer …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/vaulting-your-documents/
Mar 04 2011
The web-based RICS Contract Administrator automates and speeds up the production of JCT contract forms, but why do some of its users still print them out and send them? Amid the recent burst of marketing activity by UK construction SaaS vendors promoting their NEC management capabilities (see links to previous posts below), it is easy …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/03/not-just-nec3-jct-needs-to-be-managed-too/
Feb 26 2011
Just over a year ago, I spent a couple of hours talking to Steve Nelson, the then Chief Financial Officer of Sunderland, UK-based SaaS construction collaboration technology vendor 4Projects (see 4Projects and Profitability). In recent months, there has been some change in the 4Projects boardroom, with Steve moving into a non-executive role and Chris Baty …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/02/4projects-revenues-down-but-profits-up/
Feb 17 2011
It appears that defeat of a minority shareholder’s resolution to remove the Aconex chairman Martin Hosking at an EGM last month (post 1, post 2) hasn’t ended the discontent within the highest echelons of the Melbourne-based construction collaboration technology business. Questions have now been asked about the role of another member of the board, with …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/02/aconex-director-under-scrutiny/
Feb 17 2011
The recent boardroom bickering at Melbourne, Australia-based construction collaboration technology vendor Aconex prompted me to take a look at its recent financial performance, just in case there were financially-inspired reasons behind the apparent shareholder unrest. While the pre-credit crunch double-digit growth figures are no longer being achieved, it appears the international spread of Aconex’s operations …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/02/accounting-for-aconex/
Jan 27 2011
I wrote a couple of weeks ago (Want to win “Best AEC collaboration application” at the Be2Awards?) about the built environment social media awards, the 2011 Be2Awards, that I am helping organise. Online nominations for the awards closed at the end of last week, and online voting across the 16 categories started on Monday 24 …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/01/be2awards-update-best-aec-collaboration-application-shortlist/
Jan 27 2011
Online, businesses need to respond promptly and professionally if they are being misrepresented More than once when I was heading PR at BIW Technologies, I had to assert the company’s position in the face of misleading claims by competitors, but the process was sometimes very slow. We were reacting to printed claims in trade magazines, …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2011/01/pr-protecting-reputation/
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