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 so devoted to the early years of Buzzsaw. In it (pp.44-46) he describes the extranet hysteria of the late 1990s/early 2000s:

“Over a period of several years more than $1 billion in venture funding was provided to nearly 170 companies including Blueline/Online, BricsNet, Bidcom, Cubus, Buildpoint.”

“By mid-2000, Buzzsaw had 240 employees, 10,500 projects on-line and 50,000 registered users … [and] … was chewing up cash at a $10 million per quarter rate.”

Similarly, Chapter 10 (Bentley Systems Incorporated, PDF) also looks at ProjectWise (pp.17-18) and Viecon (pp.19-21).

Given that the book as a whole is focused on CAD, the relatively peripheral coverage of ‘extranet’ products is perhaps to be expected. The subliminal impression I also got was that extranets also weren’t seen as core products by the CAD companies themselves. Of course this may change (I noted recently, for example, that ProjectWise was mentioned in AECcafe.com in relation to Bentley’s Project Athens), but at the moment, I sometimes feel that these products are what are sometimes categorised as ‘problem children’ in the CAD vendors’ product portfolios.

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

Jul 25 2008

Another good BIM viewpoint

The latest AECbytes viewpoint is from Stuart Carroll of US IT provider Beck Technology. In BIM: When Will It Enter “The Ours” Zone?, he responds to an earlier article on Building Information Modelling (BIM) by John Tobin (Proto-Building: To BIM is to Build), and echoes my own, often-repeated view (see post, for example) that it’s more about people and processes than technology.

Stuart says that BIM is a “catalyst for change in an industry that has historically been reluctant to change” but “so far that change has been limited.” He continues:

“What BIM has done so far is change the way that architects design and produce drawings, the way engineers design and the way contractors coordinate with subs, but has not changed the way that disciplines work with each other. Its impact thus far has primarily been within each discipline or practice. … More and more, BIM enables users to achieve a parametric 3D rendition of a building with the byproduct of creating requisite drawings and documents. This replaces the highly error-prone and labor-intensive traditional process of creating construction documentation in which, plans, elevations, sections and details typically don’t match due to the fact that they were created as 2D disconnected drawings. …”

I heard a good illustration of this yesterday from the project manager of a major office development in the City of London. Even though the team wasn’t deploying BIM, the routine use of 3D modelling tools to design the structure, concrete reinforcement and all the mechanical and electrical works had dramatically increased the efficiency of design coordination. Design clashes – between structure and ductwork, for example – were quickly identified by the nominated design leader for each zone and solutions agreed. Outputs from this process were then produced as 2D drawings to be shared across the supply chain using the BIW collaboration platform. It’s a modest sign that the UK industry is at least heading in the same direction as its counterparts in Scandinavia, the US and parts of the Asia-Pacific rim, but we still have a long way to go before we reach “full software integration and its goal of full-team collaboration” (as Stuart terms it).

For this day to arrive, as Stuart goes on to say, there have to changes to processes and technologies. He talks about realigning the traditional roles of architect and contractor, the emergence of new BIM tools that further blur the line “between who uses the tools and what they are used for”, contracts and legal issues, etc. It’s a somewhat daunting list of potential obstacles, but he also points out that there are people prepared to work in a much more collaborative manner – both technologically – he cites recent BIMStorm events (eg: BuildLondonLive – see post) – and socially – he mentions charrettes (see my recent post on this too).

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/another-good-bim-viewpoint/

Jul 25 2008

Construction Computing Awards 2008

Nominations for this year’s Construction Computing Awards are now open. Nominate your favourite company or product at www.constructioncomputingawards.co.uk. Nominations close on 10 September. No parallel exhibition this year (see The Great Construction Computing no-show).

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/construction-computing-awards-2008-2/

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 of ICT tools within the UK construction industry. I was disappointed.

The report summarises the importance of the industry to the UK economy and to the long-term objective of making the UK a low-carbon society; it then highlights some familiar but significant problems, for example:

“The industry is complex and fragmented; it operates on low profit margins. There are difficulties in ensuring that lessons from experience are shared…. There is also a high risk attached to innovative approaches which could save costs, time or carbon emissions.”

The Committee did receive evidence of the potential benefits of ICT tools to address such problems (see Vol II, PDF). Constructing Excellence said:

Common processes and tools bond the team together and release major efficiencies. For example, good inter-operability of ICT systems in the supply chain using Constructing Excellence’s Avanti protocol, project extranets and single building information models, and common logistics for moving materials to and from site. ICT is seriously under-exploited in the sector despite many initiatives and much evidence of the business case. However, something as simple as co-location
of a project team in the same office is a good place to start.

However, the final report has just one mention of ICT – and that relates to training new entrants to the industry. The Committee recommended the “creation of a post of Chief Construction Officer”. Maybe that individual might be persuaded to help lead the UK construction industry into the digital age?

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, Mr Simon Galpin said:

“As the world continues to globalise and companies increasingly work across borders, they need secure storage and easy access to their data worldwide …. Hong Kong has … an international pro-business environment, including a sound legal system, that protects data and intellectual property rights, and a stable political environment. Hong Kong also has world-class telecommunications, information technology and electric power infrastructure. And Hong Kong is the gateway to China, soon to be the world’s third largest economy.”

Location, location, location

From the earliest days of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) right through to current debates about Cloud Computing, attitudes to the location of data centres have varied widely. In the construction collaboration technology market, for example, some customers have been content to let their technology provider host their data, perhaps simply assuming that it must be hosted in the same country or at least nearby. This isn’t always the case, of course. For example, until it switched to a BT-hosted facility in mainland Britain, UK provider 4Projects used to host its customers’ data in a facility run by a sister company in north America. And [my employer] BIW Technologies supported its customers as they extended their operations across geographical borders (into mainland Europe, for example) from a main data centre based in southern England, before eventually establishing a second data centre operation in Dubai to support its customers’ projects in the Middle East region.

Other construction collaboration technology customers have been adamant that their data must be hosted within the same country – an attitude reflected, perhaps, in Mr Galpin’s comments about legal systems to protect data and intellectual property rights. As the BBC technology columnist Bill Thompson writes, the whole notion of Cloud Computing does raise questions about data protection and the location of data centres:

“… the Canadian government has a policy of not allowing public sector IT projects to use US-based hosting services because of concerns over data protection. Under the US Patriot Act the FBI and other agencies can demand to see content stored on any computer, even if it being hosted on behalf of another sovereign state. …

This is not just a US issue, of course…. It applies just as much to the UK, where the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act will allow the police or secret services to demand access to databases and servers. And other countries may lack even the thin veneer of democratic oversight that the USA and UK offer to the surveillance activities of their intelligence agencies.”

 

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

Jul 23 2008

More Asite director share buys

Just about the only significant dealings in construction collaboration vendor Asite shares these days appear to involve the company’s directors. Less than a fortnight after a couple of non-executive directors bought shares, yesterday it was announced that MD Tony Ryan and COO Nathan Doughty had increased their shareholdings.

  • Tony purchased 146,260 shares at an average price of 2.00 pence, and now holds 588,416 shares, or approximately 0.57% per cent of the company’s issued ordinary share capital.
  • Nathan bought 112,709 shares at an average price of 2.20 pence, and now holds 558,871 or approximately 0.54%.

Update (1300hrs BST): I had reason to speak to Nathan on an unrelated matter earlier today, and he hold me that there were other deals not involving Asite directors. I’m sure he’s correct, but they can’t be significant deals reported through the London Stock Exchange (my only public source of information). The only 200,000+ share trades (ie: still only c. £4k deals) so far this year have, I think, all involved him or fellow Asite directors.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/more-asite-director-share-buys/

Jul 21 2008

e-Business in Construction

e-Business in ConstructionEdited 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 construction perspective.

The volume includes a chapter (Ch. 6) written by me on “The Role of Extranets in Construction e-Business”, and includes some short case studies based on work undertaken at [my employer] BIW – my third such contribution to an edited work. Fellow contributors (including academics from the USA, UK and Hong Kong, and fellow-NCCTP activist Tim Cole of Causeway) have covered topics including e-Hubs, trust, legal issues, knowledge management, and industry case studies (Tim’s chapter).

Related links: Amazon.co.uk; Blackwell Publishing

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

Jul 18 2008

The wonders of Wordle

Ever wonder what words you use most, or how dominant themes might be arranged? Here’s a fun thing for a Friday afternoon: Wordle. Cut and paste some text, or link it to the latest posts on your blog and you get a very pleasing image. Here’s one I made earlier looking at the latest posts to our new BIW blog SaaStainability.com.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/the-wonders-of-wordle/

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 I picked out.

The session includes a debate about per-user pricing between 4Projects’ MD Richard Vertigan and Asite‘s CEO Tony Ryan (Tony justified its user pricing approach partly down to its range of different solutions, some of which lend themselves more readily to per-seat licensing approaches as opposed to per-project pricing, and partly where its end-users might be deploying Asite solutions across multiple projects, effectively reducing the associated unit costs).

Richard said he is committed to SaaS on a multitenancy approach, and said this proved very attractive when it was looking for investors in the run-up to 4Projects’ MBO last year. Having proved the concept, it looked for more cash to expand into new markets (energy and natural resources, he mentioned), to grow internationally, and to build more SaaS capability into customers’ legacy systems.

Tony also said Asite would shortly be launching a whole new website concept, building on web 2.0 (“Sales and Marketing 2.0,” he called it). Can’t wait to see what this looks like!

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

Jul 16 2008

Charrette’s offline

I’ve finally got round to reading last week’s Building magazine and, for me, the most interesting article (We did it our way) concerned an “intensive collaborative planning exercise that brings people together and asks them to come up with a development plan for an area” – also known as a charrette. Apparently, the charrette process, typically lasting at least four days, was pioneered in the US 20 years ago and is being increasingly used in the UK, to develop genuinely sustainable developments that combine social, economic and environmental requirements.

The zone studied for this particular charrette was a series of sites either side of Deptford Creek in south-east London – an area that I know well as a local resident. Having recently observed another planning project, BuildLondonLive, focused on a Thames-side site just over a mile away (see posts here and here), it struck me that the two types of event could very usefully be combined, particularly if people who were unable to physically attend the charrette sessions could participate online, using a variety of traditional online and web 2.0-type tools. This would overcome the offline nature of the charrette, and provide community/stakeholder inputs to the professional design process, instead of these activities being silo-ed.

Involvement could also be stimulated by utilising some of the existing online networking services such as planningalerts.com and other mysociety.org initiatives, ResidentsHQ (recently discussed in the Building forums), local bloggers, etc. Ongoing involvement might include use of blogs, Twitter, RSS, online collaboration platforms, consultation tools (eg: Consense, who I met at Think 08), discussion forums, wikis and the like.

Other related site: www.creeksidecharrette.org

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/07/charrettes-offline/

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