Sep 20 2006

Give PIECC a chance

Yesterday I attended a workshop at Loughborough University to discuss Planning and Implementation of Effective Collaboration in Construction, the PIECC (pronounced ‘peace’) project.

The event was one of the final deliverables of a two-year, EPSRC-funded project run by Loughborough’s Mark Shelbourn and Dino Bouchlaghem (with industry involvement from Avanti, Arup, Buro Happold, Capita Symonds, Mott MacDonald and Taylor Woodrow Construction). According to the soon-to-be-published handbook, the “project has developed a decision-making framework to aid project team members to plan and implement collaborative working into their projects” (I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the PIECC handbook quotes the definition of ‘collaborative working’ that I developed in my book). The framework covers four key areas:

  • developing a joint business strategy
  • developing a collaboration brief for the project
  • guiding to the team to plan the solution to be introduced
  • providing guidance on implementing the solution

Despite my active interest in collaborative working and associated ICT issues, I only became aware of the PIECC project earlier this year (I am not the only one; I mentioned it last week to a couple of colleagues at the NCCTP marketing meeting and they also claimed no knowledge of it), and – despite the Avanti involvement – I don’t recall it being mentioned in any of Constructing Excellence meetings I have attended over the past couple of years.

I suspect my lack of awareness of PIECC will be shared by many others within the UK construction industry outside of the project’s partners. Indeed, at today’s workshop I did express the hope that some effort might yet be expended in raising awareness of PIECC and disseminating information about it.

It would be a shame if it disappeared or got forgotten. PIECC has some useful guidance on addressing some of the people and process issues that underpin successful collaboration (yet again, I found myself re-using the 80:20 people and processes v. technology rule of thumb I put forward in my book), and – in its support for the Avanti approach – it implicitly endorses the PIX Protocol, which I had a minor role in developing a couple of years ago. Perhaps its greatest value lies in the agenda it provides for teams wanting to organise and run a workshop to promote collaborative working.

In this respect, I suspect it will become another weapon in the arsenal employed by consultants promoting the Avanti approach, alongside the PIX Protocol, perhaps complementing existing toolkits, eg: the Office of Government Commerce’s Successful Delivery toolkit (published July 2003) and the associated procurement guide 05 (The Integrated Project Team: teamworking and partnering), and the Strategic Forum for Construction’s Integration Toolkit, published in late 2003.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/09/give_piecc_a_ch/

Sep 18 2006

Changes at BuildOnline (5)

The latest batch of changes at UK-based on-demand extranet vendor BuildOnline see the sudden departure of Bob Godfrey (Managing Director – Northern Europe) and job-title changes for his former colleagues Gert-Jan de Kieviet and Franck Meudec, now respectively managing directors of BO’s North EMEA and South EMEA regions.

Careful readers of the website of the UK collaboration vendors group, the NCCTP, may also have noticed that BO, one of the founder members, no longer features among the membership.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/09/changes_at_buil/

Sep 14 2006

Lagan favours SharePoint

The latest Contract Journal profile looks at Belfast-based contractor Lagan Construction. Asked about collaboration tools, IT manager Jim Fennell says: “Our in-house collaboration tool is SharePoint, while the choice when operating externally is driven by the client or the joint venture we are in.”

tags: , contractor, SharePoint

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/09/lagan_favours_s/

Sep 13 2006

A co-ordinated approach to construction IT in the UK

Back in February (Long overdue CICA changes), I touched briefly on the need for there to be a more coordinated approach to managing IT interests in the UK construction industry. I suggested there was a potentially confusing array of organisations – the CICA, the IT Construction Forum and Construct IT for Business – representing general construction IT interests. In addition, there are various niche interest groups, such as the NCCTP (UK extranet vendors), COMIT (mobile IT) and the IAI.

Today, I learned (courtesy of colleagues on the NCCTP marketing group) that there is an initiative – apparently entitled United IT – which aims to create a web portal bringing together all of the UK’s IT-related membership organisations and provide a conduit for details of academic research, events, etc. It’s early days, yet (only a couple of meetings so far, I’m told, and no discernible web presence yet), but perhaps this will be a stepping stone towards rationalisation of the representative bodies?

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/09/a_coordinated_a/

Sep 07 2006

Asite to hold conference

UK collaboration vendor Asite is to hold a half-day conference in London on 4 October 2006. Its "ReThinking Construction Update Conference" programme includes a "Presentation of Asite progress" and a keynote from former Asite chairman Sir John Egan, plus the interesting prospect of a "Major new development to be launched".

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/09/asite_to_hold_c/

Sep 05 2006

NCCTP research featured in “Building” magazine

The latest publication to feature the NCCTP’s recently published research report "Proving Collaboration Pays" (see previous post) was the leading UK weekly, Building (25 August 2006 issue).

The article, How good are extranets?, by Sonia Soltani, doesn’t just focus on the report though; it gives the views of numerous users – from Bouygues UK, Gleeds, HTA, Fitzpatrick, the BBC, Bovis Lend Lease, Price & Myers, HBOS, Atkins and WSP (and me!). Some of the benefits claimed are substantial:

  • "a large retailer using collaboration tools across its projects saves about 200 man-days in a year" (Gleeds)
  • "collaboration tools … make visible the shortcomings of other people in the team" (architect HTA)
  • "we save one-third on administration costs compared with how much the project would have cost if managed with traditional methods" (contractor Fitzpatrick)
  • "it doesn’t have to be just a glorified filing cabinet – it can be used to develop more efficient relationship with the global supply chain" (BBC)
  • "it’s transparent. It is a single source of truth to have all the information in one environment" (Bovis Lend Lease)
  • HBOS "got what it really wanted: more efficiency through an increased speed of approval and the ability to turn documents out more quickly"
  • "On a £50,000 project, some £3000 is spent on hard copies, deliveries and time delay. With project extranets, that cost can be cut out" (Atkins)

Perhaps predictably (see Moaning Architects (4)), it is designers that tend to complain about the downside (though I am not sure their estimates are an accurate reflection of the time actually taken):

  • "It takes 30 minutes to upload a drawing, then you have to call or email the recipient to let them know the drawing is there. And if the browser doesn’t work…." (HTA)
  • Price & Myers suggest "uploading 50 drawings may take a whole day".

I liked the final paragraph, which is worth quoting in full:

To become construction’s favourite tool, web-based collaboration should be even more high-tech and, at the same time, less impersonal. Andy Scott, the chief information officer at WSP, wishes the systems could replicate a conversation between three people who are firing questions at each other across the room. He says: "If technology could make the team more interactive with instant messaging, chat conversations, video conferencing, that would make a huge difference. It has to become more human."

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/09/ncctp_research_/

Sep 04 2006

The email 10-to-1 rule

In A 10-to-1 rule of email based project management, Lars Plougmann neatly demonstrates one of the major problems with email in a project environment. Starting with a ten-strong team, he suggests an important change notified by email could end up with the following result:

  • 9 people read the email
  • 8 people file the email (in their private folders, thereby duplicating effort)
  • 7 people are interrupted in their work or thoughts when the email arrives
  • 6 people will never be able to find the email again
  • 5 people didn’t actually need to know about the change
  • 4 people joining the project in the next phase wouldn’t have received the email
  • 3 people will be able to find the email again, should they need to
  • 2 people will check back to the email at a later date when they need the information
  • 1 of them will understand the email in context, be able to find it at a later date and action it

All is not lost, of course. You can send the email again at a later date, project participants can forward the email on to new members of the project team and the message can be re-iterated and explained in meetings and conference calls.

His article also has a useful link to a Business Week article, E-Mail Is So Five Minutes Ago, talking about greater adoption of alternatives to email, including private workplace wikis, blogs, Instant Messenger, RSS and “more elaborate forms of groupware such as Microsoft SharePoint, which allows workers to create Web sites for teams’ use on projects.”

The latter could, of course, also include construction collaboration technologies (aka “project extranets”) of the kind employed on a growing number of UK construction schemes (see, for example, my 4 March post Email used to issue 65% of CAD information). Many of these have deliberately avoided use of email (partly for just the reasons Lars outlines – but mainly to ensure that a complete audit trail of all project communications is retained in one central location), perhaps only using email to notify an individual when there is something that demands action rather than copying everybody in ‘for information’. (See my previous posts on The email argument, and here).

tags: email, extranet, project management

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/09/the_email_10to1/

Sep 04 2006

SaaS adoption accelerating

An ASPnews.com article by Michael Hickins quotes new research from the Aberdeen Group showing that companies of all sizes have begun adopting software-as-a-service (SaaS) in order to get solutions implemented more quickly, achieve faster ROI and lower their IT costs, and “It’s no longer a minority of companies” – making 2006 the first year that this is the case.

SaaS is now considered a quick way to resolve a pressing business issue, with quick ROI and lower total costs of ownership (TCO). The Aberdeen study also showed that SaaS adoption extended beyond small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) needing a CRM solution.

tags: SaaS

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/09/saas_adoption_a/

Aug 22 2006

Extranet E-vacation 2

I will be in Italy for a few days, so don’t expect m(any) updates until my return in early September.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/08/extranet_evacat/

Aug 22 2006

Podcasts

By coincidence, I found two bloggers doing their first podcasts on Friday. QSNews editor Phil Clark has done one on that most basic form of communication: speaking (click here), and SaaS pundit Philip Wainewright’s first podcast, Why Business is driving SaaS adoption, is here.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/08/podcasts/

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