Nov 24 2006

Construction Computing Show 2006

I have just spent two days at the Construction Computing Show at London’s Barbican Centre.

BIW took a stand this year, taking advantage of an arrangement between the organisers and the IT Construction Forum whereby ITCF IT Partners could get space at a special rate. I also presented an ITCF seminar each day entitled The Extranet Evolution: How web-based construction collaboration technologies are changing project team communications (both were well-attended – it was standing room only at the first one!).

In my presentation, I summarised the NCCTP market research but focused on the wider challenges of encouraging collaborative working within the UK AEC industry. I then suggested customers now need to look beyond document management and simple processes and look for “collaboration-plus” technologies – platforms that also support key business processes which were often previously managed by separate ‘point solutions’.

Other collaboration vendors at the show included 4Projects, Business Collaborator and BuildOnline. The latter left the show before lunchtime yesterday, their marketing guy complaining they “hadn’t met a single client” – and following my post about Mark Suster and Koral, I was told “Mark now spends almost all his time in the States”. Union Square also had a stand, complete with a masseur offering therapeutic massages. I also spotted visitors from Asite and from Aconex (had a quick chat with Yuval Attias).

BIW certainly picked up a few sales leads, and I renewed a few old acquaintances (I was particularly pleased to meet Rob Howard, an architect turned academic whose past work on collaboration I quoted in my book, and Paul King, who has just joined Bentley after several years with TPS Consult in Croydon, where we were colleagues for some years).

Overall, my impression of the show was that it was smaller than in 2005, and while the co-location of the event with a Bentley conference may have attracted some delegates, it may well have deterred some exhibitors – some Autodesk resellers didn’t exhibit this year, for example. From my perspective, it was also a good networking event. On the down side, however, some fellow exhibitors felt the organisation efficiency could have been better (particularly during stand build-up).

The Construction Computing Awards (reception and dinner held on the evening after the show’s first day; see my previous post here) were a bit of a farce. One of the BTC organisers opened proceedings but his remarks were almost completely unintelligible, and the comedian Ray Walker was almost inaudible to most of the guests sat in the rear half of the room. Total attendance was around 160 (which included a few friends of BTC staff), several firms used it as a staff social event so there were relatively few industry customers, and with networking opportunities therefore limited few lingered after the award presentations (incidentally, I would be interested to know how many people actually voted in each category – for there seemed to be some very strange decisions! I think my doubts back in August were well placed).

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/11/construction_co-2/

Nov 24 2006

Autodesk Buzzsaw revenues up 79%

Cadalyst’s report on Autodesk’s latest financial statements includes the following paragraph about its Buzzsaw offering:

“Revenues from Buzzsaw, a collaborative project management solution, increased 79% over Q3 2006. [Autodesk president and CEO Carl] Bass attributed that gain to the company’s focus on market segments where Buzzsaw has been successful, such as home builders, as well as to the additional capabilities brought into the Buzzsaw as a result of Autodesk’s acquisition of Constructware.”

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/11/autodesk_buzzsa/

Nov 20 2006

Cimmetry AutoVue for SharePoint 2003

Not everyone needs the full-blown collaborative capacity of a construction collaboration platform (aka ‘extranet’) to share and collaborate upon design drawings. Particularly when working within organisations, teams can share drawings using a simple Microsoft SharePoint solution, and Cimmetry has just released a version of its AutoVue viewer product for just such an environment. Read the AECcafe.com article or the Cimmetry news release.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/11/cimmetry_autovu/

Nov 17 2006

Styles&Wood – an update

Further to my 8 November post on Styles&Wood, a Tesco insider has been in touch to correct and update my information. He writes:

Although our initial implementation was the Union Square Workspace, we have bespoked the system significantly since then (using Styles and Wood developers)….so S&W are becoming more than just re-sellers. However, I was also amused at their claim that we now have the largest system of its kind in the UK (and will be asking them how this is calculated).

Also of note is a reference to the claims of the 4Projects people. 4Projects used to be the system of choice for many of the contractors working on Tesco projects – however, formal project management information is now managed on My Property (for all Tesco construction projects).

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/11/styleswood_an_u/

Nov 14 2006

BuildOnline and Koral

BuildOnline CEO Mark Suster is running two companies. As well as running the UK-based construction collaboration vendor, Suster is also CEO of California-based Koral. This is an interesting development on two or three levels: first, Koral itself seems an interesting business with a strong Web2.0 content collaboration product; second, I wonder whether this will have an impact on BuildOnline? Third, could it be the precursor to another merger or acquisition in the AEC collaboration space?

Koral

Koral appears to be about 18-months old, with eight staff (but still growing – I found three vacancies advertised just last month), a development team divided between the US and UK (see StartUpSquad blog), and is:

“a content collaboration company delivering Web 2.0 for Business, launched by 3 serial document management entrepreneurs. The Koral solution is purpose-built for end users overwhelmed with documents in email, folders or corporate LANs and who need a better solution for sharing content with a salesforce, partners, customers or collaborators.”

The Koral website includes a blog, and judging from Suster’s updates, it’s been a busy time out in California. In “Day 1 Blog 1 Company 2”, he talks about the challenge of launching a new product (and reminisces about the start-up of BO) – you can see the 26 September video of the launch on YouTube here. At the beginning of October, he had a busy week preparing for the Dreamforce Show and dealing with VC approaches following the launch show (DEMO – see the DEMO Koral video). And late October saw him attending the Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.

It sounds an interesting product, and Suster certainly appears committed to collaborative technologies. In addition to his use of a corporate blog, I liked the Wiki-based FAQs (it reminds me of a similar set-up at service-now.com), and as a web service Koral is already available to users of the Software-as-a-Service movement’s favourite, Salesforce.com, through its AppExchange (see Koral news release).

BuildOnline impact

There is a strong BuildOnline presence in Koral. In addition to Suster (the same CV photograph is used on the BO and Koral websites), Koral’s management page says Suster’s two fellow co-founders are both (ex?) BO people too: Tim Barker (Vice-President of Products) “led Product Management at BuildOnline, … where he spearheaded the company’s expansion into the financial services sector” and Ryan Lissack (Chief Architect) “spent his previous 3 years in London as the Chief Architect at BuildOnline” and now appears to be based in San Mateo, California.

BTW, this is not the first time that BO executives have got involved in new start-ups. Just over a year ago, in October 2005, short-lived BO marketing director Ian Howells left BO to join Alfresco – coincidentally based in the same town as BO: Maidenhead (see post).

From the afore-mentioned blog entry, it seems Suster is keen not to repeat some of the negative experiences of BuildOnline:

“I started my first enterprise in November 1999 at the peak of the Internet 1.0 boom. We started the company in London and got a team of highly skilled people around the table pretty quickly. … We landed a key story about the company in the Financial Times, which was followed by coverage in Red Herring, Time Magazine, Fortune and then the front cover of Europe’s best known venture capital magazine at the time, Tornado Insider. …

“It was all very flattering, but we had one major problem. We were struggling to live up to the hype that was created almost by accident because our product was brand new and we didn’t really have a strong sense of who we were and what we wanted to build. Suddenly we had thousands of requests from potential customers, investors, employees, journalists and we weren’t ready to respond. We hadn’t even thought about how we were going to handle customer service let alone our product roadmap. The company eventually grew into its proper sized skin and has gone on to success in its sector but it was a difficult few years adjusting.

“I vowed to do my next venture in a totally different way. This time we spent almost six months designing the product we wanted to build and validating the market before cutting any code. We talked about what large business problems we thought existed and how we could solve them. We agreed on a business model that we thought would lead to success and we promised to keep focused on our end-users rather than just the economic buyers. We then coded for a year before telling anybody about our new product concept.”

It sounds like the Koral team have been incredibly busy and there must have been some impact on BO. Of course, there is no reason why an individual can’t be CEO of two businesses, particularly in the internet age when international boundaries and time-zones can be easily overcome. And, as Koral’s existence is in the public domain, we must assume that the BO staff, directors and shareholders are aware of Suster’s dual roles.

From my own perspective (working for a BO competitor, BIW, and meeting regularly with people from other construction collaboration technology vendors), though, I do what messages this sends to the AEC market and to BO competitors in that space.

Only last week (see BIW’s growth continues – but what about the others?), I looked at the differing financial performances of the leading vendors and the snapshot view 18 months ago didn’t exactly show that BO’s UK operation was in robust shape. Maybe things have improved dramatically since then? Maybe Mark Suster feels that BO has reached a position where he can hand over the reins, return to the US and devote his energies to Koral? Or if things are not looking so great, perhaps he is preparing his exit strategy?

If I was a BO customer, I might be wondering how much time the CEO is spending on running things at BuildOnline (remember, it was less than two months ago that Autodesk acquisition of Constructware earlier this year prompted some of my contacts to suggest that there might be further mergers or takeovers in the offing). Reviewing the search-engine entries for this blog, I have seen readers combining BuildOnline’s name with two or three other providers – Citadon has been the most frequently mentioned. Of course, they may be simply doing company or product comparisons, but maybe there is substance to the rumours of mergers or acquisitions?

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/11/buildonline_and_1/

Nov 09 2006

Changes at 4Projects

I notice that sales director Gerard Callaghan no longer features among the senior people at UK collaboration vendor 4Projects, while executive chairman Paul Callaghan has become non-executive chairman.

(23 November update: Having met Gerard at this week’s Construction Computing Show, I am pleased to say that he is still 4Projects sales director – the disappearance from the 4Projects website apparently arose due to a change of directorships in 4Projects Management Ltd.)

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/11/changes_at_4pro/

Nov 09 2006

Adobe ignores extranets?

An Adobe survey of 657 US-based AEC professionals undertaken by Harris Interactive (reported by AEC.Cadalyst.com) has found that, despite the advent of electronic means of exchanging project information, paper still remains the most popular form in which to review CAD information. Indeed, paper is even more popular in 2006 than it was when a similar survey was undertaken in 2004, with electronic review even less popular! (see CAD question results). The article continues:

“Top collaboration tools are e-mail (92%), fax (69%) and audio conference (67%), each cited by 67% or more respondents. Newer tools such as Web conferencing (15%), instant messaging (14%) and video conferencing (14%) are also in use, but less commonly.”

What I found astonishing about this latest article was that there was no mention at all of web-based construction collaboration tools (aka project extranets)! Surely, at least some of the sample used such tools to exchange information? In 2004, it was used by 17% of the sample (see here), and Cadalyst’s Michael Dakan quoted (3 March 2005) the survey’s findings:

“an electronic solution that allows customers to combine all key file formats and send them electronically to team members in a secure fashion, would improve efficiency”

This oversight becomes even more crucial when you consider some of the dissatisfaction with existing methods cited by respondents:

“lack of clarity in changes and comments (56%); incompatible platforms, software or data formats (35%); and difficulties communicating across time zones (10%)”

and the “top pain points encountered in file exchange”:

“the lack of accurate and timely project information (44%), the many different types/formats of documents (41%), the amount of time it takes to search for documents (41%) and the inability of team members to electronically review and comment on a document (36%)”

The same survey is also discussed by Patrick Aragon, an Adobe employee, in an AECbytes article. Perhaps understandably, as an Adobe staffer, he ends up talking a lot about the PDF format and makes only passing reference to the use of web-based systems, but I am surprised that the latter were apparently not regarded as important in the Adobe/Harris survey (or at least in the Cadalyst coverage of it).

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/11/adobe_ignores_e/

Nov 08 2006

Styles & Wood flotation

Ordinarily, the Stock Exchange flotation of a UK contracting business wouldn’t interest this blog, but the company in question is Styles&Wood (this week’s Contract Journal has a news story on the flotation and dealing in its shares began yesterday).

The reason I note the move is that Styles&Wood has an operating division called StoreData, which:

“provides retailers with technology based property information solutions that capture, manage and communicate critical data relating to their store portfolio and associated property activity. This data can include design models and standards, supplier allocations and project specific data.”

In short, it competes in the UK document management/collaboration space with other ‘extranet’ vendors.

According to its 2005 Annual Report and Accounts (covering the year up to 31 December 2005):

“StoreData … outperformed its planned targets for the year. We extended the Tesco property data system known as ‘My Property’ to over 6,000 licensed users to make this the largest system of its kind in the UK. We also provided bespoke information systems to Boots, B&Q and Barclays as more retailers see the benefits, particularly cost related, that can be derived from efficient storage and management of property data.”

Why is a contractor developing software, you might ask. It isn’t. StoreData is essentially an implementation of Union Square’s Workspace knowledge management application, which Styles&Wood is reselling to its customers. While more often deployed as an internal database and document management solution, it does have extranet capabilities.

One small observation I would make on the Tesco claim above regards the 6,000 licensed users figure making this “the largest system of its kind in the UK”. How can Styles&Wood substantiate this claim? Do they have knowledge of how many users there are of other collaboration systems in the UK retail sector? BIW has a substantial user base within the Sainsbury supply chain, for example, while Asda use Sarcophagus extensively – and both relationships are very mature, and usage could well rival that of Tesco’s system. 4Projects also claims both Tesco and Tesco Express as customers – is there some overlap or are the systems used for different things (for example, could one be used for managing standards, while the other is deployed for actual construction projects)? I would be interested to know.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/11/styles_wood_flo/

Nov 08 2006

BIW’s growth continues – but what about the others?

The latest news release from UK construction collaboration vendor BIW Technologies says it has just completed its sixth straight year of growth. Turnover in 2006 (year ending 30 September) reached £4.6m – up from just over £4m in 2005.

BIW has always been very open about its performance, regularly publishing news releases, but some of its UK competitors are more reticent. A notable exception is Asite, which, being regulated by the London Stock Exchange (ASE), has to publish its annual report and accounts (see 28 September post re Asite interims, for example); 4Projects, despite being a ‘Small Company’ so far as Companies House is concerned, has also reported turnover and profits figures via articles in Contract Journal (see 18 May post).

Otherwise, one has to rely on filings to Companies House and, as small businesses don’t have to give detailed returns, this can make comparisons very difficult. Even if we focus on those businesses where we can glean some detail, some have different year-ends, and there can also be long time lags between a financial year-end and the actual filing of a company’s accounts – the latest figures for BuildOnline UK, for example, cover the year ending 31 March 2005, all of 18 months ago (and I don’t think they include BO’s operations outside the UK) – so they may not reflect the current financial health of that business as a whole.

(Even then, it is very difficult to make meaningful comparisons unless we know how each business licenses its software. Up-front license fees can give a very rosy complexion to a vendor’s figures, compared to vendors whose customers pay monthly subscriptions and so only account for the fees they receive during that year. And if a business has more than one product in its portfolio, or is part of a larger group, it becomes even more difficult to identify how well it is doing in a particular market.)

Company year end T/0 2005 T/0 2004 T/0 2003 PT Profit 2005 PT Profit 2004 PT Profit 2003
BIW 30 Sep 4.018 3.018 2.691 -0.192 -0.516 -0.816
BuildOnline 31 Mar 2.856 2.462 1.736 -0.551 -0.259 -0.697
4Projects* 31 Mar 2.1 1.6 1.0 0.27 0.13 0.14
Business 

Collaborator**

 31 Dec 1.9 1.476 0.935 0.030 -1.837 -0.349
Asite 31 Dec 1.529 1.674 1.697 -1.327 -3.962 -2.457

* 4Projects’ figures based on press announcements (4Projects is a “small company” – see below)
** BC 2005 figures are ‘guess-timated’ based on combined BC and SciSys commercial unit figures, assuming similar performances to previous years.
Small companies: No figures available for Aconex (UK), Cadweb, Causeway, ePIN or Sarcophagus. As “small companies” meeting two of the following criteria – annual turnover of £5.6million or less, balance sheet total of £2.8 million or less, average of 50 of fewer employees – they need only submit an abbreviated balance sheet to Companies House.

With the above caveat, reviewing the last three years’ financial performance of five UK-based ‘extranet’ businesses, one can conclude that, with the exception of Asite, all the main players are increasing turnover, but it’s a bit more up-and-down on the profits front:

  • BIW had a 2005 turnover more than £1m ahead of its nearest rival (and nearly £2m ahead of the third-placed competitor)
  • BIW, 4Projects, BuildOnline and Business Collaborator have all seen turnover increasing
  • 4Projects has been consistently profitable
  • BIW appears to be moving towards profitability
  • Asite’s declining turnover has seen it drop from third place in 2003 to fifth in 2005

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/11/biws_growth_con/

Nov 03 2006

“QS News” feature on mobile working

UK trade magazine QS News has published a feature article written by me: Why ‘I’ always comes before ‘T’.

In the article, I argue that providers and users of mobile IT solutions in the construction industry need to focus on ‘whole life information‘ instead of getting hung-up about technology hardware and connectivity issues. The key should be enabling seamless re-use of information rather than employing a series of point solutions to manage successive parts of the process, and I use BIW’s new defects resolution product as an example of how mobile applications and ‘back-end’ collaboration solutions can be integrated to improve the efficiency of on-site quality control processes.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/11/qs_news_feature/

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