Apr 08 2008

SaaS-based BIM

I have talked about web-based collaborative BIM technologies a few times over the past year or so (see Asite BIM last year and SaaS and construction collaboration in 2008, for example), and just had to post a link to an interesting article by Kenneth Wong in the latest Cadalyst.

The summer of BIM describes a collaborative effort involving “a bunch of idealistic architects, designers, building owners, contractors, and consultants” who (hurray!) “do away with the professional hierarchies, business protocols, and legal constraints that have long prevented them from working together” (regular readers will know that I have long felt that existing industry structures and processes tend to prevent rather than promote effective collaboration, and that I think these will continue to hamper BIM-type approaches).

‘BIMStorm LA’ focused on an area in Los Angeles, and the total mileage traveled by the participants was zero, thanks to the use of Onuma Planning System (OPS), a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based BIM collaboration platform, developed by Kimon Onuma, a California-based architect.

The OPS IFC Model Server became the central repository to host all the projects, with participants able to use to a wide variety of tools – just as long as they were compatible with Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standards. And supporting documents and site data could be supplied in Excel, Google Earth, and even pen and paper (so long as they could be scanned and brought into the communal environment).

Further online events are planned, it seems, but wouldn’t it be good if the overall approach (including overcoming the people and process issues) could be applied to delivery of a real project.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/04/saas-based-bim/

Apr 08 2008

SaaS on the rise in Europe

Another survey reports growing interest in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), this time across Europe (see CRN news story).

After last week’s BIW UK survey, this week it’s the turn of analyst IDC, who interviewed 2077 managers from European organisations with 20 employees or more. Their survey found 37% of IT decision-makers will use SaaS to replace or supplement their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems over the next two years. A further 35% said they would use the SaaS model to assist with customer relationship management (CRM), while 32% said they would use it to support their supply chain.

“Bo Lykkegaard, IDC research director says: “We believe SaaS spending will be directed at new applications and at replacement of broken applications, rather than at ripping and replacing working solutions. European organisations seek to leverage the SaaS delivery model to reduce risk, complexity, and upfront costs of new IT initiatives.”

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/04/saas-on-the-ris/

Apr 07 2008

Information meltdown

There’s been lots of talk about the credit crunch – now, techies are talking about the ‘broadband crunch’, apparently. Yesterday’s Observer newspaper had a feature, Video boom threatens to gridlock the internet, which said that “the amount of data travelling across the internet is growing so fast that the network could become overloaded and grind to a virtual standstill”. The main culprit is online video, plus demand for YouTube, the BBC’s iPlayer and other data-hungry internet TV services. It claims that last year “YouTube consumed as much bandwidth in a year as the entire internet took up in 2000”. Wow!

It also has some interesting facts and statistics (some drawn from the US-based Internet Innovation Alliance and its Broadband Fact book):

  • Electricity reached one quarter of Americans 46 years after its introduction. Telephones took 35 years and televisions 26 years. In just six years, broadband reached 25 per cent penetration.
  • It took two centuries to fill the shelves of the Library of Congress with more than 57 million manuscripts, 29 million books and periodicals, 12 million photographs, and more. Now, the world generates an equivalent amount of digital information nearly 100 times each day.

In relation to SaaS and cloud computing, I’ve seen the electricity adoption curve analogy cited a few times in recent months, notably by Nick Carr (in print and in his excellent Rough Type blog), but also on John Paczkowski’s Digital Daily and Zoli’s blog (one accepting, the other criticising some assertions made by Butler group’s Guy Creese), among others.

In the meantime, if the ‘broadband crunch’ is coming, then at least – according to The Times – salvation is at hand: Coming soon: superfast internet.

 

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/04/information-mel/

Apr 04 2008

Site Waste Management Plans and collaboration platforms

 

In England, Site Waste Management Plans (SWMPs) will become a legal requirement this weekend – from 6 April 2008 – and will affect anyone procuring, designing, planning or managing a construction project costing more than £300,000, plus suppliers to the construction industry, and environmental regulators ie: local authorities and the Environment Agency. Awareness of the legislation is not universal, despite the efforts of organisations such as NetRegs and Envirowise, among others, to produce simple free guides.

I have been interested in SWMPs since picking up a copy of a consultation paper at at Constructing Excellence sustainability event last summer, particularly as I think this is an area that is almost tailor-made for the information-sharing power of construction collaboration technologies.

SWMP duties

If you look at some of NetRegs’ outline of the obligations involved, the potential for online sharing of a SWMP become clear:

“Each project should have one SWMP.  … A SWMP is a live document.  It must be updated through the course of the project….”

“Because it is produced at the very beginning of a project, the designer can consider ways that waste can be reduced and site-gained materials can be reused or recycled as part of the project.  Identifying at waste materials at an early stage that can not be reused on that project will make it easier to find other alternative uses for them.”

As well as the designer’s inputs, the responsibilities for producing and managing the SWMP change as a project progresses:

“If you are the client, you are responsible for:

  • producing the initial SWMP before construction work begins
  • appointing the principal contractor
  • passing the SWMP to the principal contractor
  • updating the SWMP at least every three months if you decide to manage the project yourself.

“If you are the principal contractor, you are responsible for:

  • obtaining relevant information from sub-contractors
  • updating the SWMP at least every three months as the project progresses
  • keeping the SWMP on site during the project
  • ensuring that other contractors know where the SWMP is kept
  • allowing other contractors and the client access to the SWMP during the project
  • handing the completed SWMP back to the client at the end of the project
  • keeping a copy of the SWMP for two years. …”

“At the end of the project, you must review the plan and record the reasons for any differences between the plan and what actually happened.”

Online SWMPs

  • For the avoidance of doubt, and to maintain a single version of the truth, the SWMP should be placed in an online repository where it can be easily accessed and updated by any authorised member of a project team at any time during the project.
  • As every user interaction is recorded in an underlying audit trail, any regulator will quickly be able to ascertain when a SWMP was initially produced and when updated versions were produced.
  • Most sites have temporary office accommodation that includes standard equipment such as a telephone and a computer; so long as an authorised individual has access to an internet-connected computer equipped with a standard web-browser, he or she will be able to access, view and, if necessary, download and print a copy of the latest SWMP, regardless of location.
  • An online platform will also provide a single contact point for all sub-contractors to submit relevant information.
  • At the end of a project, the SWMP – plus the plan review contrasting planned and actual performance – will typically be one of the documents preserved in a post-project archive (either maintained online or downloaded to a storage device) for retention for the minimum two years.
  • Being in electronic form, such documents are eminently reusable, and so can help clients and contractors incorporate learning from previous projects into future ones.
  • Moreover, where clients or contractors are working across multiple projects, the ‘global reporting’ tools built into the more sophisticated collaboration platforms could be used to compare waste management performance across different sites, different designers, different supply chains, etc.

SWMP benefits

Some hard-nosed contractors will doubtless be moaning about the additional administrative burden of complying with yet more legislation, but, according to Envirowise, the benefits of SWMPs are clear:

  • Provides a structured approach to management and recycling on site
  • Reduces cost of waste management
  • Increase profit margins
  • Better control of regulatory risks relating to materials and wastes on site
  • Compliance of contractual needs of public and private sector
  • Improved response to queries from environmental regulatory agencies

So, corporate compliance is just one benefit, there are also financial benefits to be had, and, as corporate social responsibility emerges as an important theme for many organisations, SWMPs provide a mechanism for clients and their designers, contractors and suppliers to provide clear measures of a key aspect of their environmental performance.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/04/site-waste-mana/

Apr 02 2008

Web-hosted software on the rise

Various IT publications and websites (eg: Infomatics) are covering market research commissioned by [my employer] BIW Technologies which suggests the global credit crunch could prove to be a boost to the software as a service (SaaS) sector, as businesses opt to spread software spending over a longer period, according to research. These are the headlines, but there are also some other interesting nuggets of information (see full news release); I was, for example, interested by the revelation that many UK IT directors believes the UK lags behind its international counterparts in adopting SaaS (true in some – but certainly not all – areas).

BIW’s survey suggests that SaaS could double its annual revenue in the UK to £2.5bn over the next three years. More than 65 per cent of the 300 IT directors surveyed thought the current economic climate – already boosting the performance of some IT services companies – would lead to greater SaaS uptake.

Recent research from analyst Forrester Research showed uptake of SaaS tripled in large companies last year. Almost 70 per cent of those surveyed by BIW thought the proportion of their overall software needs that would be provided by SaaS would at least double over the next five years, from around 15 per cent currently to more than 30 per cent.

But there were concerns over security: 70 per cent of survey respondents thought that SaaS was potentially more of a security risk than traditional software because it is hosted online and could be subject to hacking.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/04/web-hosted-soft/

Apr 01 2008

Awards time

It’s that black-tie time of year. Last night, the Construction News Quality in Construction Awards 2008 were presented at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London’s Park Lane. And tonight sees the Building Awards 2008 presented at the same venue.

I went to last night’s ceremony, supporting Bovis Lend Lease – shortlisted in the ‘Excellence in the use of ICT’ category for its development (with my employer BIW) of InTouch, a replacement for its venerable Hummingbird system. Almost five months after submitting an entry, getting shortlisted and after a presentation to the judging panel, sadly, BLL didn’t win but – as with all finalists – it has the satisfaction of seeing its achievements described in the event programme (details reproduced here). The winner was a housing maintenance management system created by housing association United House; the other shortlisted candidates were Morgan Professional Services, Atkins and Construction Photography.

I won’t be going to this evening’s event (though I’m sure there will be people with the stamina to do both) – I’ve been to the Building Awards a couple of times, the last time being the year (2006) BIW won the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ category.

Those doing both events will doubtless see some similarity in the night’s topical jokes. Back in 2006, just about every industry event poked fun at Wembley Stadium and Multiplex; this year’s target is – on last night’s evidence – likely to be BAA’s Heathrow Terminal Five project, much in the news at the moment due to its baggage handling problems. It got a bit of a bashing last night from comedian compere Patrick Kielty, but BAA still walked away with two awards (Client of the Year, Collaborative Engineered Design) while the T5 principal contractors picked up the occupational health award – all decisions probably made before the baggage handling system issues arose), and I expect whoever is compering this evening’s presentations will also find T5 a convenient target.

Incidentally, well done Building for its April Fools Day news item: Elephants to work on UK construction sites.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/04/awards-time/

Apr 01 2008

More on Web 2.0

Just a few days after I wrote about Web 2.0 and a Parity white paper, Cisco has just released a study on the use of video and Web 2.0 technology in businesses worldwide (see also ebiz story). The survey, of 850 corporate IT decision-makers, revealed that, as consumer adoption has grown, so companies have begun to embrace video and Web 2.0 technologies to help grow their businesses, reach customers, increase collaboration between employees and look for more environmentally conscious means of communicating.

More than half of the respondents said they are using video and Web 2.0 tools today, while another 25% said they are exploring such tools (but nearly all admitted they had to address network infrastructure issues first). Cisco’s Marie Hattar says:

“With the increased globalization and spread of the enterprise workforce, IT’s role is expanding from managing network operations to also shaping a business’s impact by innovating how employees, customers and partners communicate and collaborate.”

Interestingly, the study suggests that US companies that plan to use video conferencing technologies in the next five years are also most likely to be faster-growing companies, as measured by fiscal year growth. The fast-growing companies in Europe and the emerging markets are most likely to use Web 2.0 tools in the next five years.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/04/more-on-web-20/

Apr 01 2008

Sword Group acquisition

The Sword Group (December 2007 buyer of troubled Anglo/US construction collaboration vendor CTSpace – see post) has been on the UK company acquisition trail again, buying Glasgow-based on-premises contact centre software developer Graham Technology.

Update (2 April 2008): The value of the deal wasn’t originally announced, but Scottish newspaper reports (eg: The Herald) suggest a figure of around £30m. Some commentators (eg: Gartner’s Michael Maoz in DestinationCRM) have also noted that this acquisition is a departure from Sword’s recent focus on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Update (14 May 2008): Graham Technology has been re-branded Ciboodle, after its flagship product. The parent Sword Group also acquired another company in Scotland: Aberdeen-based Technology Managers.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/04/sword-group-acq/

Apr 01 2008

Coreworx

Just read a news release saying that Software Innovation, Ontario, Canada-based vendor of the Coreworx project collaboration application, is being acquired by Acorn Energy.

Coreworx (“integrated document control, workflow and collaboration for capital projects”) is mainly used in the north American oil and gas, mining and power generation industries by owner/operators and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies (eg: Fluor).

Update (15 August 2008): The transaction was announced as completed on 14 August 2008, with John Moore, CEO of Acorn Energy, saying “Coreworx vision and our customers’ needs combined with Acorn’s resources will transform Coreworx into a holistic tool for planning, building and managing the intelligent plant of the future.”

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/04/coreworx/

Mar 27 2008

ICT in the construction industry (+ cycling)

Last year, as briefly mentioned, I got recruited to a working group looking at ICT and Automation issues for the National Platform for the Built Environment. Our small team, which included Sarah Bowden (Arup), Steven Yeomans (Buro Happold) and Martin Ong (ex-BAA), successfully completed a report just before Christmas and – I am pleased to say – it prompted Paul Howard, a freelance journalist writing a piece for UK construction trade weekly, Contract Journal, to get in touch.

His article was published this week (online version here), and it helpfully lists “some of the more eye-catching benefits for an ICT-enabled construction industry”, including:

  • Use of a virtual environment to create prototype or model solutions that meet all the various dimensions of the brief – functionality, aesthetics, logistics, ease and safety of construction, operation and maintenance, whole-life cost, sustainability, etc.
  • Manufacturers and suppliers (already involved in the design process) reusing model information for offsite fabrication of the required components in the optimum sequence for just-in-time delivery to the facility.
  • All project personnel wearing small devices that monitor their exact position, giving warnings, where necessary, regarding the individual’s safety and security.
  • Those with managerial responsibilities being able to interrogate the online environment to get real-time updates on schedules, project costs and other performance parameters.
  • Upon completion, using the building model as a powerful asset management tool, linking the facility owner/operator with relevant suppliers or maintenance contractors, with all repairs or replacements automatically recorded.

Cycling connection

I was due to meet Paul Howard again this evening, reflecting a shared interest in cycling. As well as writing about construction, Paul is also a cycling writer and just about to publish a new book – Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape – about the five-times Tour de France winner Jacques Anquetil. He had invited me to attend a book launch event in Islington but domestic commitments got in my way. Nonetheless, I wish Paul well with his new book (published by Mainstream Publishing in April) – I can’t wait to read it, especially after reading the April issue of Cycling Plus magazine, where Paul has also written a related article about Anquetil.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2008/03/ict-in-the-cons/

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