May 15 2008

RIBA CPD events

I am presenting at two events next week. On Wednesday morning, 21 May 2008, I will be in Knutsford, Cheshire talking about construction collaboration technologies to architects from the northwest group of the Royal Institute of British Architects – part of a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) event organised in conjunction with Constructing Excellence‘s IT Construction Forum (details). The following day, I will be in central Birmingham doing a similar event for the RIBA’s West Midlands group (details). At both events, my fellow speaker will be Rory Vance from CADSmart.

I am looking forward to both events, but have a little trepidation borne out of past seminar experience – architects (along with other designers) can be among the most vocal critics of web-based technologies. This is sometimes not surprising. For a start, many architects find themselves having to use several different collaboration platforms (and so rarely become trully proficient in using any one of them); smaller architectural practices often have less than adequate internet connections for online applications so users can get frustrated about the time taken to upload/download drawings, etc; and architects often complain about the adequacy of online drawing viewing and mark-up tools (see November 2005 post).

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/05/riba-cpd-events/

May 15 2008

BuildingSMART 2008 conference programme revealed

The programme for the 2008 London international BuildingSMART conference has been published. The one-day event – enticingly (ha, ha!) entitled “The STAND-INN Route to Sustainability and Value for Money in Construction and FM using BIM/IFCs” – is to be held again at the RIBA in London, on Wednesday 25 June. The day includes:

  • sessions on sustainability (with perspectives from Germany, Finland and UK)
  • a BIMstorm event (BuildLondonLive [plus blog], following on from the LA event)
  • break-out sessions including ones on standards, creating a market for sustainable buildings, life cycle costing, and contracts and insurance
  • UK case studies (from BDP, ZBP and Davis Langdon, among others)
  • Overseas case studies (some appear to be updates of the same projects presented in April last year)

The event sponsors appear to include Bentley, ZBP and Uniting Construction Information. I think this is the first time I’ve seen the UCI logo, so a launch must be imminent (as mentioned at the IT in Construction event), but it is long overdue: the various construction IT groups first started talking about it around two years ago (see September 2006 post). ICT is supposed to be a fast-moving industry – here, I think, the UCI has adopted the pace of change of the construction sector!

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/05/buildingsmart-2/

May 15 2008

ICT is key to cutting carbon emissions, says EU

Thanks to a post by ZDNet’s Andrew Donoghue, I see that the European Union is to promote the use of ICT to improve energy efficiency throughout the economy, starting with buildings, lighting and the power grid. An EU press release dated 13 May 2008 says:

“… the most advanced computer servers consume the same amount of energy as a standard light bulb; if widely used they could offer potential energy savings of up to 70%.

… Research and rapid take-up of innovative energy efficient ICT solutions will be crucial to lowering emissions across the whole economy,” said Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media. “There is a win-win situation in which ICT will promote the competitiveness of EU industry while leading the fight against climate change.”

… ICTs, if directed to sustainable uses, could increase energy efficiency in all areas of the economy while continuing to account for 40% of Europe’s productivity growth….

The Commission will encourage the ICT sector, which at present accounts for 2% of global CO2 emissions, to lead by example the drive towards carbon neutrality. This will be done by reinforcing research, development and deployment of components and systems, complemented by voluntary agreements, for example on green procurement. The real gains from green ICT will come from developing energy efficient ICT solutions that impact the other 98% of global emissions.”

Last November, I submitted a paper arguing exactly this approach in response to the UK government’s draft strategy for sustainable construction – having criticised the consultation paper for its almost complete ignorance of the role of ICT (see post). The analysis of responses was published by BERR at the end of February, and my contribution appears to have been noted (BIW, my employer, is listed among the respondents on p.44). Paragraph 18 on page 7 says:

Other key suggestions included widening the Strategy to include transport impacts, adopting carbon neutrality as an underlying principle, the role of SMEs, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), ethical sourcing of materials, targets for new non-domestic buildings and action to adapt to climate change.

The final strategy is due to be launched on 11 June, and it will be interesting to see if this includes ICT as an enabler, particularly in the light of the EU’s encouraging stance on the issue.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/05/ict-is-key-to-c/

May 14 2008

Future of the NCCTP – update

Representatives of 4Projects, Aconex, BIW (me!), Business Collaborator, Causeway and Sarcophagus met today in the upstairs room of a pub (fittingly, perhaps, The Phoenix) in London’s Victoria to discuss the future of the NCCTP, the UK construction collaboration technology providers association. It was a lively session, due in no small part to the talents of facilitator Canute Simpson, from Constructing Excellence, and covered a lot of ground in four hours (Asite sent apologies and CE’s Karl Williams contributed on its behalf; Cadweb, once again, failed to respond in any way).

Initial opinions about the role and activities of the NCCTP varied from a somewhat extreme “website presence only” perspective right through to reinvigoration of the NCCTP technical standard and more proactive input from Constructing Excellence. So it was no surprise, perhaps, that the action plan fell somewhere in the middle.

While some members were dismissive of the value of the NCCTP’s (still somewhat rudimentary) data exchange standard, others argued vigorously that such system interoperability was the core deliverable most desired by vendors’ customers. As a result, renewed effort is to be applied to get all members’ core applications to comply with the latest version of the import/export standard. A drive to market the NCCTP more internationally was agreed, along with some more specific marketing campaigns and a parallel campaign to capitalise upon the NCCTP’s position within Constructing Excellence – after all, the UK AEC industry’s main membership organisation concerned with promoting collaborative working.

The technical standard group is due to meet in the next month or so, with the main steering group scheduled to meet again in early July.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/05/future-of-the-1/

May 13 2008

Software incompatability sours 2012 effort

The office copy of Contract Journal finally arrived today and ‘The Foreman’ writes about British professionals at Mace and Laing O’Rourke involved with the 2012 Olympics developments getting disgruntled with the money being spent on their American colleagues. He then adds:

Tempers have also flared about computer systems. My man said: “They are trying to impose US design software, which isn’t compatible with any UK contractors.” Have a nice day…

I think it was playwright George Bernard Shaw who claimed that “England and America are two countries divided by a common language.” Sounds like this extends to computers too. Get the BuildingSMART interoperability boys on the case!

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/05/software-incomp/

May 13 2008

Egan report 10 years on – survey

 

This year, 2008, is the tenth anniversary of the publication of Rethinking Construction (the “Egan Report”), and Constructing Excellence is conducting a survey to discover what benefits (if any) have been experienced as a result. Complete the survey here.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/05/egan-report-10/

May 12 2008

Future of the NCCTP

The future of the NCCTP, the UK construction collaboration technology providers association (now part of Constructing Excellence), is to be debated at a facilitated meeting of its steering group in London this week.

The group was founded in late 2003 and set out to create some data exchange standards between the different vendors’ systems and to establish a representative group that could address generic market and technology issues. Since then, it has developed a basic data exchange standard, and has delivered a national conference, an independent market research study and – most recently – a Building magazine supplement. Over four years later, however, I think the drivers behind the original objectives have changed and on Wednesday (14 May) representatives of each provider – I will be there for BIW – will be debating what the role of the NCCTP should be (if, indeed, it has any role). It promises to be an interesting discussion.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/05/future-of-the-n/

May 12 2008

Projectcentre.net

Earlier this year, I started looking in a little more detail at the Australian construction collaboration technology market. Aconex, being active in the UK, obviously feature regularly in my thoughts (I believe their shareholder dispute may finally yield a judgement in the next month or so); I have written about Incite (here and here); and I linked to a review of Australian tools in February, which included today’s subject: Sydney-based Projectcentre.net.

(Projectcentre.net should not to be confused with UK transport consultancy Project Centre or the UK government project delivery initiative within BERR. There is also another projectcentre.com.au, offering timber and hardware in Australia).

According to its website, ProjectCentre is owned, managed and developed by CADX Pty Ltd (CADX’s other products include a simple document management system (Chronicle), some file management utilities and a weather service). Two months ago, CADX acquired BANGitUP.com, an Australian construction materials goods and services exchange, intending to integrate it as a service alongside ProjectCentre.net (CADX also has, or had, another web-based application, TenderCentre, so this may form part of that offering too).

CADX itself is a subsidiary of the 120-strong DES group, an Australian provider of integrated digital imaging solutions for the professional printing industry (group is said to have annual sales exceeding Au$35 million [£17m]  and capital exceeding Au$15 million).

  • The ProjectCentre website says it was first released as a web-based project management system in 1997. This makes it among the earliest systems of its kind – a couple of years after Jonathan Antevy launched e-Builder in the US.
  • Australian client case studies include Westfield, McConnell Dowell and Baulderstone Hornibrook.
  • In addition to offices in Sydney and Melbourne, ProjectCentre.net has representatives in New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and the US (Phoenix and San Diego). In the early 2000s, ProjectCentre.net was resold by consultants such as Queensland-based Buildon Technologies and Carr Consulting in South Australia.
  • There is no clue as to just how many staff are employed by CADX.
  • It is not clear from the website if the software is delivered on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis or if it is locally-hosted by ProjectCentre customers (or both). However, Jodie Miners, a recently recruited product manager (and fellow Twitter user), says in her blog that it is “offered as a SaaS / ASP model”, CADX’s standard terms and conditions certainly suggest this is so, and I have an old academic paper that mentions hosting by “PPS Technology in Sydney”.
  • CADX charges a one-off initial site start-up fee of AU$500 [£240], then a AU$100/week [£48] “to maintain the availability of the Internet Service for this project”; the service includes hosting, back-up, software upgrades, up to 1Gb online data storage and a maximum of 100 Mb/week data transfer traffic. I think these figures apply regardless of the number of users, but it is not clear whether the initial agreement with a customer would include users from supply chain companies working for with that customer (or do they, for example, have to enter into a separate agreement with CADX to use projectcentre.net?).

If anyone can shed any light on the grey areas in my understanding, it would be much appreciated.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/05/projectcentrene/

May 09 2008

Twitter on

The inside back page of this week’s Building magazine has ZeroChampion Phil Clark writing about Twitter. He’s spurred me into action, so – joining some of the other regular Building bloggers – I’ve now started ‘tweeting’ too (and have downloaded TwitToday to allow me to ‘tweet’ from my Windows Mobile smartphone while I’m out and about).

(Twitter was also the front-page story in yesterday’s Guardian Technology section.)

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/05/twitter-on/

May 08 2008

Cadweb tries to catch-up

The latest news release from UK construction collaboration technology vendor Cadweb – who describe themselves as “the longest and oldest, established project extranet provider in the UK” [just how long is Cadweb?] – shows that Cadweb has finally woken up to functional advances made by most of its UK competitors several years ago.

Cadweb says it plans to add several “key functional modules that enhance and compliment [sic] the core functionality of the system”. The first two to be launched apparently cover Tendering and CDM compliance. Well, tender management has been available from 4Projects, BIW Technologies [my employer], the former BuildOnline (now CTSpace) and Sarcophagus (to name but four) since at least 2003, while BIW was already helping its customer Sainsbury’s comply with the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations as long ago as 2001.

Cadweb says “Health and Safety; NEC contractual documentation compliance and a financial module are all planned to be added in the near future” (I am not clear how Cadweb’s health and safety module will complement its CDM compliance functionality – surely there’s some confusing overlap here?). Once again, contract process support has been available from BIW since it launched its workflow toolset in 2003, with specific NEC tools delivered in 2005 (outside the construction collaboration field, NEC support has, of course, also been available as a standalone application from MPS for four or five years – see posts here and here); and BIW first showcased its project financial control functionality at its 2006 user conference.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/05/cadweb-tries-1/

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