Category: Extranet/CDE

Aug 13 2008

New lick of paint

It’s nearly three years since I started this blog, so a new design was long overdue. I’ve stuck to the same pallette of colours, but tried to make the design a bit cleaner and easier to read (two columns instead of three, and then fewer items in the side column). I’ve also tidied up some …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/new-lick-of-paint/

Jul 30 2008

Paper cuts

I spent a couple of hours this morning with a postgraduate student researching ‘project extranets’ as part of his dissertation. Among the topics we discussed was the extent to which construction collaboration technologies reduce the volume of paper used on a project. Working for BIW, I have seen great variations in the use of paper …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/paper-cuts/

Jul 25 2008

History of CAD touches on extranets

David Weisberg has published online a comprehensive history of CAD, which is available free at http://www.cadhistory.net. I had a quick skim through a couple of chapters to see what, if anything, he’d written about construction collaboration technologies – and he hasn’t ignored them. Chapter 6 (Autodesk and AutoCAD, PDF), for example, has a page or …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/history-of-cad-touches-on-extranets/

Jul 25 2008

Construction Matters (but ICT doesn’t)

Courtesy of the latest Constructing Excellence members newsletter, I got a link to the latest report, Construction Matters (Vol I, PDF), from the House of Commons Business and Enterprise Committee. I wanted to see if this report was any better than the recent Strategy for Sustainable Construction (see post) in regards to recommending better use …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/construction-matters-but-ict-doesnt/

Jul 24 2008

Autodesk opens Buzzsaw hosting centre in Hong Kong

Autodesk has just announced the launch of a new Autodesk Buzzsaw data centre in Hong Kong, to support customers of its construction collaboration solution across the Asia Pacific region, having spent three years on the selection process (see news release). The process was facilitated by inward investment agency InvestHK whose Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion, …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/autodesk-opens-buzzsaw-hosting-centre-in-hong-kong/

Jul 21 2008

e-Business in Construction

e-Business in Construction

Edited by my friends Professor Chimay Anumba and Dr Kirti Ruikar, e-Business in Construction is a brand new hardback book, just published by Blackwells (available in the US next month and in Australia from September), that seeks to provide definitive guidance for students, researchers and practitioners on the key issues in electronic commerce from a …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/e-business-in-construction/

Jul 16 2008

A SaaS CEO’s perspective

I noted last month (see Valuing SaaS businesses) that a couple of UK construction collaboration technology providers were speaking at the SIIA OnDemand Europe conference in Amsterdam, alongside representatives from Adaptive Planning and Huddle.net. If you’ve got the stamina, you can view a 38-minute video of one of the sessions here; here’s a few points …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/a-saas-ceos-perspective/

Jul 14 2008

4Projects turnover up a third

According to a Contract Journal article, 4Projects enjoys surge in demand for IT software, the UK-based construction collaboration technology provider 4Projects lifted its turnover by more than a third to £4.4m (up from £3.218m) in the 12 months to 31 March 2008, generating a pre-tax profit of £1.145m (up from £0.553m), representing a margin of …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/4projects-turnover-up-a-third/

Jul 04 2008

Newsletter gives CTSpace update

I have just been forwarded a copy of the latest e-newsletter from construction collaboration vendor CTSpace (a business with an interesting past – see related posts below). The email features an editorial from Gert-Jan de Kieviet, the company’s managing director of its EMEA operation. In it he writes glowingly about the aftermath of last year’s …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/newsletter-gives-ctspace-update/

Jul 01 2008

Taywood path to Google email smoothed by SaaS-based collaboration tools

In UK builder switches email to Google Apps, Phil Wainewright describes how UK contractor Taylor Woodrow has migrated from a conventional in-house hosted email system to Google Apps, a step, he says, that confounds critics who suggest that the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based Google suite is not appropriate for enterprise adoption. I would also go one …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/taywood-path-to-google-email-smoothed-by-saas-based-collaboration-tools/

Load more