Jan 20 2006

Harvard conference, March 2006 (again)

With some six weeks to go before the Harvard University OCPM conference on 8 March (see previous post), Burcin Becerik tells me that around 20 people have already registered for the event, and she expects the numbers to grow as March approaches. I will now be attending the event (booked flights and accommodation online today), and am looking forward to meeting up with some US contacts who I have only previously ‘met’ through blog, email and telephone contact.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/01/harvard_confere-2/

Jan 19 2006

Rok set on in-house capability

The print version of UK trade magazine Contract Journal has a monthly feature called ‘Company’ life in which CJ offers insights into working life within well-known construction groups. This uses a standard set of questions and includes one on whether the company makes use of project collaboration tools. The company under the spotlight in the 18 January edition is contractor Rok, whose IT director Richard Gifford responded:

"On larger schemes, we use project collaboration tools both internally, within Rok, and externally, for information flow to and from our architects and legal team, for example. Currently, we use Buzzsaw and BuildOnline, but we want to take this part of the sequence inside Rok rather than use an ASP such as these. We could then deploy this collaboration technology to our smaller sites and it would also help build up a knowledge base within Rok, rather than on someone else’s interent site."

Such comments suggest that the collaboration technology vendors still have a long way to go to convince conventional IT people that ASP solutions offer a viable alternative to locally-hosted, inside-the-firewall solutions (Gifford’s response also suggests that BO and Autodesk have perhaps (a) failed to show Rok that their solutions could be used on smaller projects, and (b) not shown Rok that an organisation can build a secure knowledge base on an ASP platform).

Rok’s conservative view is probably shared by many UK construction organisations, yet businesses in other sectors are increasingly willing to embrace web-based services (a move recently endorsed by Microsoft’s Bill Gates no less – see my post Microsoft to go ‘on demand’). If this trend finally takes hold within the AEC sector, perhaps Gifford, and others like him, will relax their opposition to ASPs.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/01/rok_set_on_inho/

Jan 19 2006

Wi-fi use not widespread

OK, so I’m in the minority…. A BBC news item, Wi-fi slow to enthuse consumers, says only a handful of people use a laptop to go online when they are away from home:

"Just 11% used laptops in hotels, 7% on trains and 3% in coffee shops…. 15% thought there were not enough wireless locations for them to use the technology…. Just under 20% of laptop owners said they did not know how to use its wireless functions and one in four said they did not want to pay to use a wi-fi hotspot."

I sympathise with the last point but there are, thankfully, some enlightened organisations which are providing free wi-fi in some locations (Islington Council, for example). Living in and working near London, I am probably better served than many people (one of my friends keeps a mental list of coffee shops across London which either have free wi-fi or are close to buildings where wi-fi networks can be used to access the net; and one of my neighbours has a wireless network which I can access from my living room – though not my home office), but I still resent paying £5 to use a T-mobile hotspot on my travels; if it can’t be free, at least make it affordable, like my recent encounter with DoBo Wi-fi.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/01/wifi_use_not_wi/

Jan 17 2006

Kajima Uses Buzzsaw to Help Win PFI Projects

Been there, done that…. This Autodesk Buzzsaw news release comes some four years after Kajima found BIW was the key to PFI success (subsequently signing a corporate deal).

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/01/kajima_uses_buz/

Jan 17 2006

Craigslist

As a former freelance, I was interested in yesterday’s Media Guardian article, ‘I’m seriously trying to be more cynical’, about Craig Newmark, the founder of the classified advertising site, www.Craigslist.org (and its many regional offshoots, such as http://london.craigslist.org/).

Newmark is rumoured to be considering an online newspaper, which may roll out this spring, and "collaborative filtering technology … to help people find the most trustworthy versions of big stories". He likes the idea of "community truth" derived from a global army of well-meaning fact-checkers – rather like the Wikipedia, where the scale of its readership enables errors to be quickly spotted and fixed. The article doesn’t say journalists will be squeezed out (quite the opposite: "it’s the writers who can adapt to the new technologies … journalists are going to come out of it with better careers") but it does predict the end of traditional paper and print newspapers. The analogy with the music recording industry ("people who sell plastic circles with the music on it") is thought-provoking.

In a way, this idea fits quite neatly with the predicted demise of traditional software ("people who sell plastic circles with computer code on it" perhaps). In the Software as a Service (SaaS) or on-demand software era, as Phil Wainewright wrote (see previous post), "since it costs nothing to make a copy of a software product, the only way vendors will be able to make money is by delivering functional services and business processes."

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/01/craigslist/

Jan 16 2006

Now traditional software is dead!

During the Christmas period, Software as a Service (SaaS) outages at TypePad and Salesforce.com (among others) prompted some to suggest the SaaS model was fatally flawed (see my 29 December post). Now, courtesy of Phil Wainewright, I read that "traditional software is already dead". He quotes, Jason Maynard, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, suggesting that this is a timely reminder to Wall Street (and, I would add, other financial institutions) to start taking on-demand software more seriously.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/01/now_traditional/

Jan 13 2006

Buzzsaw: second-most widely used ASP? (3)

Further to my 14 December post, I see Randall Newton has picked up on the same claim by Buzzsaw. His starting point for a post entitled Constructware Announces Big Growth in 2005, But Who’s Number One? is yesterday’s end-of-2005 highlights announcement by Constructware (see release).

Randall describes the latter: "generally regarded as second to Autodesk Buzzsaw in the construction ASP (Application Service Provider) market", which as a generalisation is probably as much as anyone can accurately claim in the absence of any accurate statistics compiled on a consistent basis. However, Randall does point out Constructware’s counter-claim (based on the 2004 CFMA IT survey) that it has "double the market share of its nearest competitor". So we are still no wiser, really.

I did note Constructware’s use of the term "active users", which I applaud (assuming this means, say, those who have used the solution in the past 12 months). As I have said before, there is a world of difference between those who can potentially use an application, and those who actually use that application (if Constructware’s active user base is in the region of 28,000, perhaps they exceed Buzzsaw’s active user base?).

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/01/buzzsaw_secondm/

Jan 11 2006

NCCTP challenge

Early January is traditionally a time for New Year’s Resolutions, and for predictions about the year ahead. True to my form in previous years, it’s taken me almost a fortnight to formulate my (work-related) good intentions for 2006 – and my predictions may take even longer.

One resolution was formulated over a festive pint or two after December’s NCCTP marketing group meeting. I dimly recall suggesting that representatives from each of the NCCTP members should participate in the Great Yorkshire Bike Ride – a 70-mile charity ride from Wetherby to Filey (riders from 4Projects and Sarcophagus reportedly completed the 2005 edition). This year’s event is to be held during Bike Week 2006 on Saturday 17 June, with entries accepted from late February onwards. I plan to ride myself and to recruit some other BIW riders. Perhaps the NCCTP should have a friendly challenge to see which business can raise the most sponsorship?

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/01/ncctp_challenge/

Jan 11 2006

NCCTP AEC collaboration market research

As previously mentioned, the UK construction extranet vendors’ association, the NCCTP, is commissioning an independent market research agency, Benchmark Research, to undertake a survey of end-users of its members’ technologies. After attending the kick-off meeting today, I know the research is likely to take place during late Spring 2006, with the results revealed at an NCCTP conference proposed for the autumn.

While such research will be enormously useful in identifying what users percieve as the benefits of the technology, it will not give us a clearer idea of the take-up of the technologies across the UK AEC industry. Is there an industry-wide survey taking place in which the NCCTP could insert a question or two about the use of online collaboration? If you know of one, please let me know.

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/01/ncctp_aec_colla-3/

Jan 11 2006

Wi-fi access, again

I make no apologies for returning to a regular topic. It seems my wish for wider wi-fi access is shared by MPs at Westminster, according to a Silicon.com article (I particularly liked the sub-head: "I can work at Caffè Nero but not here").

Earlier today, on my way back from an NCCTP meeting at CIRIA‘s Old Street office, I stopped off at London Bridge station to pick up voicemails, email, etc. I had a drink in the Bridge Bar which is a DoBo WiFi hotspot. While not exactly free, it’s certainly a lot cheaper than my T-mobile experience last November, at only £1 for a 30-minute voucher. As the website says: "No credit cards, no subscriptions, no hassle."

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2006/01/wifi_access_aga-3/

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