Apr 02 2007

4Projects sales reach £3.4m

According to a 24 March 2007 article, Jobs created as group wins new markets, in north-east England newspaper The Journal, UK construction collaboration vendor 4Projects has “currently” achieved sales of £3.4m, and “is expected to reach £5m by the beginning of next year”.

4Projects non-executive chairman Paul Callaghan said: “With 4Project [sic] we supply project management software services to 80,000 users throughout the world; we have a business that is involved in projects in the construction, utilities and retail industries to the value of £16bn.”

It is not really clear to which year the £3.4m relates. 4Projects’ financial year ends on 31 March. The last published claims regarding the company’s turnover and revenue came in May 2006, when Contract Journal reported 4Projects turnover for the year ended 31 March 2005 as £2.1m (see post); I haven’t seen any figures for the FY ending March 2006, and it’s obviously too soon to expect audited figures for 2007.

However, I suspect Mr Callaghan’s claims do relate to its financial year just finished. 4Projects’ turnover grew by about 30% in the year 2004-05; assuming similar growth over the following two years, 2005-06 turnover would be around £2.7m, so 2006-07 sales of £3.4m would seem about right.

To put this into context: fellow collaboration competitor Styles&Wood StoreData saw turnover grow 38% to £1.59m in 2006 (see post), while Business Collaborator grew turnover 22% to £2.35m in the same period (post) and BIW (my employer) grew 16% to £4.66m.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/4projects_sales/

Mar 30 2007

Ecospace

UK trade publication, Building, says: “A big complaint about collaboration tools is that everybody is familiar with a different system, which means companies have to spend time and money training their staff when they start a new project.”

It goes on to report that UK collaboration vendor Business Collaborator is working on Ecospace, a €12m (£8.1m) European-wide project to develop an open standard for collaboration platforms. BC is the only construction-related technology provider involved in the project (BC customer Atkins is also involved; other participants include SAP and Hewlett Packard), but CEO Sanjeev Shah is said, by Building, to be keen to share the outcomes with others. (Read the BC news release)

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2007/03/ecospace/

Mar 30 2007

Asite BIM

 

Software news in the latest issue of UK construction industry magazine, Building, talks about Asite BIM, suggesting that the UK project collaboration vendor is “about to shake up the world of online collaboration again with the launch of an online single building model”.

“Users will be able to collaborate on the design of the building, tender it, order components, then collaborate on its construction all in one environment. This should eliminate design errors and clashes – an audit trail tracks changes, and a tool ensures they are authorised.

… the model interfaces with other Asite tools, and external users’ software. For example, users can select the doors for a project, then go to the Asite procurement tool, view prices and purchase them.

Intelligent objects that meet the internationally recognised IFC standard allow a range of software tools to use this data. For example, designers can work with their in-house software but can update the building information model (BIM) because of the IFC standard.

Users can also check the BIM using Asite’s viewer. The design can then be tendered on Asite – all the components being identified makes this much easier. Once it reaches the construction stage, components can be easily ordered and the team can continue to collaborate using the tool.

Asite CEO Tony Ryan admits the solution is “not going to change the world overnight. There is a gradual change from 2D to 3D, then to a BIM. It’s [sic] will be a gradual adoption.” The article finishes by saying Asite will launch its BIM in April: “We would like to have our first projects using this by the third or fourth quarter of this year,” says Tony.

Back story

Asite first talked about its BIM product last October, then announced (again) the “forthcoming release of Asite Collaborative BIM at the Building SMART Week Conference” in Washington DC (see 24 October 2006 post). Presumably, the Asite BIM release date will coincide with the third buildingSMART international conference in London on 18 April – part sponsored by Asite (see post).

I think Tony is right to be cautious about adoption of BIM. As I have previously written (see BIM, BIMs or SBIM?, for example, and I returned to the theme earlier this week), use of genuine BIM (as opposed to 3D) requires a fundamental change in project teams’ approaches to design and construction, and industry experience to date suggests that, even within some quite innovative AEC organisations, the approach may currently only be employed on around one-in-ten projects – and adoption within the wider AEC industry will be much lower than that.

Asite viewer

I was intrigued by the mention of an “Asite viewer”. To date, Asite has – like fellow UK vendors 4Projects (see Brava! woes at 4Projects?) and Business Collaborator (among others) – relied on the IGC Brava! product to support its collaboration applications (Project Workflow and Project Workspace). However, a quick Google search and I found the answer.

The Asite BIM viewer is actually based on a viewer from Oslo, Norway-based Octaga AS. The IFCwiki has a page on Asite BIM which says:

“Asite has integrated Octaga Modeller from Octaga AS as the preferred 3D viewer of IFC files via a tightly-coupled java integration. Asite and Octaga have worked extensively together to provide a 3D viewer applet customised for end-user needs and optimised for Asite Collaborative BIM.”

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2007/03/asite_bim/

Mar 29 2007

Business Collaborator website overhauled

The website of UK construction collaboration technology vendor Business Collaborator has just been overhauled. Compared to the clean interface of the previous site, the new home page is much ‘busier’ with a four-column layout and lots of links to further information.

(The trite photo-library image of people in hard-hats on a construction site – see previous posts here and here – is still used but not on the home page.)

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2007/03/business_collab_1/

Mar 29 2007

Brava! woes at 4Projects?

Industry sources tell me that UK construction collaboration vendor 4Projects has been having major problems with its third-party drawing viewer application (Brava! from Informative Graphics).

I have been emailed several bulletins from 4Projects’ status ticker, spread over a three-day period up to and including this morning:

  • Updated 29/03/2007 10:02:30 – We are still experiencing problems with our Brava software, unfortunately the nature of this issue impacts on the general performance of the extranet, therefore we are taking Brava offline whilst our investigations continue. This issue has been further escalated with our third party Brava software provider. The resolution of this issue is our highest priority …
  • Updated 28/03/2007 11:46:22 – We have currently taken Brava offline, whilst we continue to isolate the cause of the issues we’ve been experiencing. Thank you for your cooperation. A further update will be posted shortly.
  • Updated 28/03/2007 10:11:31 – We are still experiencing issues with the Brava software. We have a dedicated team working on this problem. We are doing all we can to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. Feel free to contact us should you have any particular questions. Thank you for your patience, and assuring you of our prompt attention at all times.
  • Updated 27/03/2007 15:26:12 – We are currently experiencing a problem with our Brava software, you may notice drawing opening times are slower than usual. We are investigating this issue at the moment, and will post another update shortly.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2007/03/brava_woes_at_4/

Mar 29 2007

From SaaS to ‘Webware’

Following on from my previous post (about defining BIM), my favourite Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) blogger, Phil Wainewright has identified a new alternative term for SaaS. In So long SaaS, welcome webware, Phil also links to a new Webware website, and, as “SaaS is a throwback to the past”, gives the older term “a couple years at most”.

One slight complication is that there are several IT firms trading as Webware, and they don’t all embrace the SaaS/on-demand paradigm. For example:

If webware as a concept takes off, they may find their domain names increasingly valuable.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2007/03/from_saas_to_we-2/

Mar 29 2007

BIM and ‘lean construction’

Further to Monday’s post on BIM, I see Nigel Davies at EatYourCAD has written about (Mis)understanding BIM. Helpfully, he starts by explaining what BIM is not – in short, BIM is not 3D, or Revit, or a single database or “single building model”, or Project Lifeycle Management, or even Building Information Modelling (instead, Nigel prefers to call it Building Information Management). He finishes:

So what is BIM?
In simple terms BIM is the management of project information, both the construction of that data and the iterative process of exchanging it. BIM is the added intelligence to project data that allows anyone to interpret that data correctly, removing the risk of assumptions. BIM is the process by which the right information is made available to the right person at the right time.

I was struck by the last part of this definition. It reflects something I saw yesterday. At the Constructing Excellence BE Members Forum in London, during a seminar on “lean construction”, we learned (from the excellent Brian Swain of Rubicon) that being “lean” involves:

“delivering:

  • the right things (including information)
  • to the right place
  • at the right time
  • in the right amount
  • and in the right condition”

That the same kind of words should be used in two different contexts is not surprising, as I think ‘lean’, ‘collaborative working’ and BIM all have some degree of overlap. Certainly, the case study examples of efficiency savings given yesterday arose from early engagement between designers, contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers (“everyone from the architect down to the muck-shifter and the cleaning contractor) and the early sharing of problems, ideas and information – ie: the right information to the right people at the right time.

In the Shepherd Construction case study, which looked at ‘lean’ delivery of a Leeds apartment block, this early involvement of people “at the workface” led, for example, to the design of new integrated services plates (combining power, TV and telephone sockets), door detailing that dramatically reduced waste of plasterboard, and eradication of needless packaging for some central heating components.

Clearly, these examples came from simply sharing information through face-to-face meetings, etc, but I have also seen examples of teams using construction collaboration technologies (aka ‘project extranets’) to identify issues and develop similar ‘lean’ design improvements and efficiency savings. In due course, BIM will surely take this still further.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2007/03/bim_and_lean_co/

Mar 26 2007

Wikis and AEC collaboration

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the starting point of a contributed article to AECbytes.com. In Enterprise Wiki: An Emerging Technology to be Considered by the AEC Industry, Ondrej Kalny likens the information-sharing approach of BIM to the wider need for collaboration within a typical AEC project team, using a ‘hub and spokes’ diagram that will be very familiar to anyone who has considered using a ‘project extranet’ platform over the past few years.

Somewhat optimistically, he then suggests: “Wiki, however, operates on a more general set of data when compared to BIM and can readily address most of the communication problems faced by AEC professionals.”

I have been a long-time Wiki enthusiast, both domestically (as a Wikipedia editor, for example, since 2003) and professionally (my employer, BIW, uses Wikis on its intranet and is looking to extend their use), but I do not yet see Wiki becoming a mainstream technology within construction teams – particularly when the AEC industry has only, perhaps grudgingly, begun to adopt construction collaboration (aka ‘extranet’) technologies – a type of system he seemingly almost completely overlooks in his article.

‘The Basics of Enterprise Wiki’

Reading Kalny’s Wiki definition, he describes functionality that is already available within most industry-strength AEC collaboration systems: secure access, links to documents and images, email functionality, categorisation of information, audit trails, etc.

Look at his claim: “Compared to other content management systems, wiki lets users easily gather all the up-to-date information and correspondence pertinent to a project within one central location“. Substitute ‘wiki’ with ‘extranet‘ and you have a succinct definition of a technology already tried, tested and trusted on thousands of projects in the US, Europe, Australasia and other markets.

He lists some different approaches to deploying Wikis, but none sound as though they could be implemented quickly, particularly where you need to bring together several separate companies, each with their own IT systems, firewalls, etc. However, there are several widely used systems (both locally hosted and delivered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or on-demand applications) – all of which can be quickly configured and rolled-out into a multi-company, multi-disciplinary AEC team in a matter of days. Moreover, they use familiar website principles, have been developed specifically for the AEC industry, with AEC-specific structures, forms, workflows, naming conventions, etc, and are usually supported by professional staff with detailed knowledge of AEC projects.

‘How Wikis Can Help in the AEC Industry’

Kalny then looks at several areas where wikis “are more efficient than the traditional and even some modern (non wiki) communication media” (note use of the word ‘some’). However, while there are undoubtedly some internal efficiency gains to be had, few are relevant to the multi-company project team:

  • Wikis can be used to replace email for communication of in house non confidential information with long term information value. – Fine for internal email, but of limited value for a typical project team comprising several different companies. What is needed is a way of communicating that allows all exchanges to be captured within a single repository for future reference – and email is not the answer (see my previous views on email here and here, for instance)!
  • Use wiki to track, resolve and archive design issues. (When an employee leaves or retires from the company, the information is still available in the wiki, not lost in a private mailbox.) Currently, once most design information is shared within a project team, it tends to be contained in drawings and specifications which are then shared for comment and subsequent revision, usually with AEC professionals in other companies. Modern collaboration platforms provide sophisticated mark-up and commenting tools, with full audit trails and complete version control, that allow authorised team members to develop designs using familiar computer applications and conventions – not email. And all this information, including all inter-company interaction, can be archived at the end of the project for future reference purposes.
  • Use wiki to organize, index and archive completed projects for future reference. As just mentioned, ‘extranet’ systems allow information about completed projects to be organised, indexed and archived. Clients may require a full project archive; supply chain members may just need an archive containing all the data to which they had access during the project.
  • Use wiki to develop an in house knowledgebase about standardized design techniques and software. I can think of instances where major clients, contractors and consultants may want to capture internal knowledge for future possible re-use – indeed, I have spoken to the IT team at UK-based architect Feilden Clegg Bradley, which has used wiki to share information within its practice (see the 2005 Sharing Knowledge case study, pp. 32-35). However, particularly for use in construction projects, an ‘in-house knowledgebase’ may become another “island of information” unless the enterprise enables easy sharing of data with its external partners. For example, I have worked with a major UK retailer who uses the web-based BIW standards functionality to share all its corporate standards with its key contractors, subcontractors and suppliers.
  • Project owners (such as Departments of Transportation, Departments of Design and Construction, etc.) could use public wiki with restricted editing permissions for outside users to better address questions from designers and community. … Already extensively enabled through ‘project extranets’.
  • Wikis are known to significantly reduce meeting times or even eliminate meetings, because most of the issues are resolved directly in the wiki. Same applies to construction collaboration platforms/’extranets’.

Kalny lists several organisations which have used wikis successfully, but admits “their deployment in the AEC industry is still rare,” before urging the AEC community to “put some effort into exploring and realizing the full potential of this emerging technology” – which I support.

As mentioned, BIW has been looking at Wiki functionality for some time and I can think of a few ways in which it could be utilised to support web-based collaboration/’extranet’ technologies (for example, I think some operation and maintenance manuals could easily be reconstituted as wikis). But if teams are struggling with ad hoc email, face-to-face encounters and “little bits of paper and notebook knowledge that ‘someone’ has”, I think wikis may help internally. They should not be seen (yet) as a replacement for properly implemented ‘extranet’ type technologies when it comes to sharing information among multiple companies involved in the delivery of construction projects.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2007/03/wikis_and_aec_c/

Mar 26 2007

Use of BIM

In an article, Use of BIM, at AECcafe.com, Susan Smith writes about the difficulty in assessing how widely Building Information Modelling (BIM) is used. She says:

“Many vendors would have the public believe that BIM is used in an enormous number of occasions…” but “It is difficult for vendors to qualify where BIM is being used and where it isn’t …. Part of the reason for this is that A/E firms already have numerous seats of a 2D CAD software in place, with users who have upgraded to 3D but are not necessarily using BIM. … Many firms create models, but not necessarily BIM models. HOK … estimates that perhaps 10% of their projects are full BIM projects. Some of the confusion lies in the fact that 3D is a big part of a BIM model, but not the only factor in a BIM model. ‘BIM is about ¾ 3D model, and the other ¼ is additional information,’ Mario Guttman, firmware CAD director, HOK, pointed out.”

At CADD Manager, Mark W. Kiker, in Extent of BIM tool use in the industry, has been thinking about the same topic. After doing some number-crunching based on the number of US architect users of Autodesk Revit, he suggest the take-up is only around 13% or one-in-eight. He concludes:

“the penetration of Revit and BIM is over estimated in the popular thinking.  Not many are using BIM on active projects.  Not all firms that have Revit are using them on all projects.  Most are using them on a small portion of their overall workload, say 10 to 20 percent of projects.”

Smith says:

“it will take some time to … gather in the data on how many projects are using a full BIM model for the execution of their projects, as opposed to using only a part of a BIM model, and how well any of these processes are working for them. Many vendors are working on this research right now.”

There is certainly growing interest in BIM on both sides of the Atlantic, and as Smith’s article mentions, interoperability is becoming an issue in discussions about the future of BIM. I have been contacted about a couple of interesting UK events in this area during April:

  1. IAI UK is hosting the third buildingSMART international conference in London on 18 April 2007 (UK collaboration vendor Asite is listed as a supporting sponsor – Asite is being discussed in one of the case study sessions, by speaker Mark Oliver, a former BuildOnline MD who joined contractor Laing O’Rourke in early 2004).
  2. The following week, the SCRI Forum and Construct IT for Business are holding a seminar at the University of Salford on 24 April, chaired by IAI’s Nick Nisbet.

I will be interested to hear how widely speakers claim BIM is being adopted at these events.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2007/03/use_of_bim/

Mar 23 2007

Uniting Construction IT

Last September (see A co-ordinated approach to construction IT in the UK), I mentioned an initiative to create a more coordinated approach to managing IT interests in the UK AEC industry. You can now read about United Construction IT on the website of ConstructIT for Business (one of the organisations competing for our attention).

It talks about creating “one consortium which may take the form of a virtual organisation”, and says the UK Department of Trade & Industry has embraced the concept and is sponsoring two activities to help move the initiative forward:

  1. a survey of top organisations covering a number of disciplines
  2. a DTI conference under the title of United Construction IT:

“The conference will involve as many Construction IT entities as possible, excluding none. There will be academic presentations, industry showcases, technology showcases, and the showcasing of all construction IT entities. There will also be bridging activities such as “industry challenge” debate, where following a process, the industry and academic community challenge each other on the exploitation of research works.”

There are no details about when these activities may take place, but the page lists 12 organisations involved.

It’s perhaps indicative of the potential for confusion that some of these bodies are already combined. For example, the ITCF and Avanti are both part of Constructing Excellence, while the CICA is part of the NCC. (I believe BRE is also involved).

I understand from one of the NCCTP participants that the ITCF could take on the role of disseminating IT-related outputs/research, hosting the UCI website within ITCF/CE website (thanks, Duncan).

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2007/03/uniting_constru/

Load more