Google wave in 2 minutes
Labels: Global trends, Technology
Getting F1 to the checkered flag...
I don't like to talk specifically about Aconex (this is not a marketing blog, after all!), but the Yas Island project is one that I mention, purely because of it's size and the volumes of information that were generated and managed on that project and this information may be interesting to some of you.
Some background: Yas Island is a US$40 billion, 25 km2 development located off the city of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The development includes the Yas Marina Circuit that will host the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix in 2009, as well as world-class hotels, theme parks, golf courses, shopping malls, marinas, apartments and villas. Highlights include the Warner Bros. Theme Park, the Yas Island Water Park and the world's first Ferrari theme park. The developer, ALDAR, is the premier property development, investment and management company in Abu Dhabi.
With the track and related infrastructure needing to be completed by race day on November 1, the pressure was really on. The project team was (typically for a project of this scale) widely distributed across the globe (around 95% of the organizations engaged on Yas Island have their head office located outside of the Middle East). Turnover of staff (and even organizations) is quite common, so having continuity of documentation and information is a challenge that (if not handled well) can cause projects like this to quickly come unstuck.
The sheer scale of documentation and information flow on this mega project is quite amazing. Some of the amazing stats include (and keep in mind that this is only 2 1/2 years into the development):
- More than 5,700 users
- From 380 companies
- Located in 29 countries
- More than 8 million documents and correspondence items.
- Within the first six months of the project, more than 1,000 people from 80 companies had been trained and were using the system.
Would projects like Yas Island be possible without a web based collaboration tool? I would say quite emphatically - no! The coordination and approvals alone would be mind blowing and the handover process would have taken months longer.
Labels: Global trends, Good practice, Project profiles, Technology
Improving transparency, accountability and efficiency on ARRA projects
Continuing my US government theme... Earlier today we released a white paper called, "Three critical challenges on any ARRA construction project, and how to overcome them with online collaboration". Although it's written for firms engaged on economic stimulus projects in the US, the content is relevant for anyone involved in construction/infrastructure works.The paper references an interesting post by Jim Till on his Just Sharing blog called "ARRA Stimulus Funds and Your ECM Project?".
Labels: Global trends, Good practice, Technology
Five things to know before going to Libya
Labels: Global trends
Concrete signs of recovery?
Labels: Global trends
US Government embraces SaaS
Technology is moving fast, and by using technologies from the 90's, Goverment agencies (and many private companies) have been missing out on the advantages of SaaS. This is something that was acknowledged, with the blog contining to say "Our policies lag behind new trends, causing unnecessary restrictions on the use of new technology. Past practices too often resulted in inefficient use of purchased IT capabilities across the federal government. We are dedicated to addressing these barriers and to improving the way government leverages new technology." Wow. That is a great forward step in policy.
It will be interesting to see how effectively this initiative works, or whether procurement managers will revert to their own and familiar ways?
Labels: Global trends, Good practice, Technology
Google wave and construction collaboration tools
Labels: Global trends, Technology
Three reasons why online collaboration is essential on Alliance projects
Front page of Australia's main business newspaper, The Australian Financial Review, last week, was the story that, to help state governments deliver high-risk infrastructure projects, Treasury officials are developing a national set of principles for 'alliance projects'. This would mean that, on publicly funded works, governments would share the burden of cost blow-outs and delays with contractors.
Often called a "pain-share/blame-share" arrangement, alliance projects help both parties to pull together towards the common goal, without the commercial barriers, red-tape and finger-pointing that can slow things down. Without question, this is a positive move and should fast-track the complex projects needed to boost the economy, while ensuring optimum use of public funds. Whether other countries that are also in a hurry to push through stimulus package-driven infrastructure projects follow a similar path remains to be seen.
With an alliance project, it's only logical to use an online collaboration platform. In line with the spirit of the contract, parties working together with common goals should use common systems. Using a project collaboration system facilitates a culture of trust, supported by transparency and information sharing – both major contributors to project success.
On top of this, I can think of at least three reasons to use an online collaboration system on projects of this type...
- These are large, complex projects that will involve dozens of companies, sharing hundreds of thousands of documents and mails. They should be using a collaboration system anyway!
- As well as streamlining communication between parties, both entities (and indeed everyone on the project) benefit from the gains in efficiency. What would be the point in one party using a best-in-class online collaboration system to manage their project information, while the other gets buried in paper documents?
- In the event of dispute, the audit trail on a collaboration system can often help to resolve the matter quickly, without souring the relationship by resorting to litigation or arbitration.
Has anyone (successful or unsuccessful) worked on an Alliance project? Be interested to know your views regarding the client-contractor relationship.
Labels: Global trends, Good practice
Risky Business
Labels: Global trends
New service for firms looking to enter Libya
As mentioned in this previous post, it has been interesting how much Libya has been popping up in the news lately. There's an article in Building Global (the online version of the UK's Building magazine) which reveals details of a new service, provided by The South East Centre for the Built Environment, aimed at helping small British construction firms to enter the Libyan market.
The service includes introductions to other firms and advice about how to set up business in the country, how to obtain visas and how to repatriate revenues. At £13,000 (around US$20,000) it's not cheap, but apparently they've already had expressions of interest from about 45 companies.
Why the interest? According to the Libyan British Business Council, Libya's GDP is predicted to grow 8% from 2008 to 2011 and it has a massive construction program underway, including a £100bn infrastructure works plan.
In the Related Articles section underneath, there are articles about Italy committing $5 billion to support Libya's construction and infrastructure projects over the next 25 years, and details of Libya's plans to build a $5 billion economic city for oil and gas businesses. The latter is part of Libya's plan to massively increase oil production and begin exporting gas. It aims to nearly double its crude oil production by 2012.
Interesting times in Libya. We're engaged on some massive housing, education and infrastructure programmes there, including some major airport developments in Tripoli, Benghazi and Sebha. Definitely a market we'll be keeping an eye on.
Labels: Global trends
Stimulating reading
Like many companies in the AEC industry, we're looking with interest at the stimulus package announcements and hoping that each one has a sizeable chunk allocated to infrastructure investment.
Nearly all major economies have announced at least one package so I thought that, to get an idea of where the opportunities lie, it would be interesting to compare them and see what they've put on the table for infrastructure spend.
The figures below are all in US dollars and have been converted using current rates. The $265 billion stimulus package put forward by the European Union is additional to these figures.
| Country | Stimulus Announced | % of GDP | Infrastructure Investment | Types of projects |
| United States | Feb 09: $825bn | 6.0% | $120 billion | Transport: $46bn Education: $21bn Energy: $31bn Water: $6bn |
| Canada | Dec 08: $30bn | 2.4% | $12 billion | Public works: $4bn Green Energy: $1bn Schools: $2bn |
| Germany | Jan 09: $63bn Nov 08: $42.2bn | 2.2% 1.3% | $33 billion | Education/Health: $10bn Roads: $1.3bn Rail: $850m |
| France | Dec 08: $35.3bn | 1.4% | $23 billion | Housing: $2.4bn Public works: $5.3bn |
| Spain | Nov 08: $14.7bn | 1.1% | $10.3 billion | Public works: $10.3bn |
| United Kingdom | Nov 08: $29.2bn | 1.1% | $4.5 billion | Public works: $4.5bn |
| Australia | Oct 08: $26bn | 3.4% | $15 billion | Education: $10.5bn Housing: $4.7bn |
| Japan | Dec 08: $687.7bn Aug 08: $125.7bn | 15.7% 2.9% | $53 billion | Green Energy: $16.3bn Public works: $26.4bn Health: $17.3bn |
| China | Nov 08: $585.6bn | 18.0% | $219 billion | Housing: $4.1bn Regional works: $4.6bn Education/Health: $2.5bn Public works: $4bn |
From these numbers, nearly $2.5 trillion will be spent by these countries alone to try and get the global economy back on track. What's interesting to note is that countries joined to the WTO's 'Government Procurement Agreement' can bid on each other's projects. For example, companies from the United States, Canada, the European Union, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, Singapore, and Switzerland are all entitled to bid on infrastructure developments in each others' countries, significantly opening up the opportunities worldwide. Companies from Mexico, Australia, and Chile can also bid on projects, as these countries have free-trade agreements with most of those countries.
Although the jury is still out on the extent and timing of any impact of this stimulus spending on the wider economy, the construction industry has certainly taken note. The past few months have seen a deluge of conferences and seminars in most major markets aimed at helping firms understand where the opportunities lie. Aconex has recently sponsored and attended two of these - in Sydney and Houston - and the mood of participants in both cases was cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the infrastructure sector over the next 12 months.
Labels: Global trends
Information 100 times faster
Following on from my post last month about the impact of internet speed on construction project productivity, I was pleased to hear last week's announcement that Australia's federal Government will lead the build of a national, fibre-to-the-home broadband network. At an estimated cost of up to AU$43 billion (making it Australia's largest ever infrastructure project), the new service will deliver speeds up to 100 times faster than currently available.
On a national level, it's estimated that, when fully operational in 7-8 years, the new service is likely to increase Australia's gross domestic product by 1.4 per cent over a 5-6 year period, adding about AU$15 billion to the economy.
Naturally, my main interest is in the impact it will have on construction collaboration technology and project delivery. The new service will mean that users of online document management and collaboration tools in Australia will potentially be able to access, download and share their files up to 100 faster, leading to significant efficiency and productivity gains. This is an exciting prospect and should help to further drive uptake of these systems.
Labels: Global trends, Technology
Davis Langdon's 2009 construction outlook
Consultancy firm Davis Langdon's World Construction Outlook 2009 (as summarised in the UK's Building magazine) paints an inevitably bleak picture for many of the world's major markets, but suggests enough potential opportunities to keep us getting out of bed in the morning.
It's interesting to compare this report to their Top 10 Fastest Growing Construction Markets report, which I blogged about in June last year. Re-reading my post, it's evident how rosy the global construction outlook seemed at the time - opportunities aplenty in China, India, Russia and the UAE, and emerging economies such as Poland and Vietnam were beginning to entice investment. Fast forward little over eight months and the decline of the global market has been staggering. As Davis Langdon say in their World Construction Outlook report, 'it's been a bruising 2008 and prospects for the short to medium term are not bright either'.
They (necessarily) state the obvious: that there is expected to be a significant downturn in the European, Japanese and North American construction markets and that the demand for commercial and residential construction in most markets is non-existent. However, like most people, I'd rather focus on what they see as the opportunities for AEC firms over the year ahead.
As touched on previously in this blog here and here, the report highlights that the best opportunities for growth are in the infrastructure markets of developing economies, with road, rail and port projects being announced. In addition, several of the world's largest economies have announced stimulus packages that allocate significant spend towards construction - for example, America's $787 billion measure holds $130 billion for construction, mainly highways, buildings and other public works.
Davis Langdon's report makes interesting reading, but the only thing for certain at the moment is that few of us have any idea what their 2010 outlook will look like!
Labels: Global trends
Collaboration technology: Australia v The UK
Last week I came across some research that was released last year about the value of construction collaboration technology. Studies into this topic are scarce, so I'm surprised it took so long to end up in my inbox.
The research was conducted by a QS firm called Lowry Consulting and focuses on the Australian market. The findings were presented at Construction Innovation's 'Clients Driving Innovation' conference in March 2008, under the heading 'The Development and Adoption of Project Collaboration Systems in Europe and Australia'.
Lowry Consulting's presentation compared their findings to a 2006 UK report which is acknowledged as the most comprehensive study into this area. The UK report, 'Proving Collaboration Pays', was commissioned by the Network for Construction Collaboration Technology Providers (made up of the major players in the UK market, including Aconex) and conducted by Benchmark Research.
In this study, 272 users of collaboration technology from 195 companies took part in a survey. I don't yet have the sample size and methodology that Lowry Consulting used, but one of my colleagues called him to request it, so I'll update this post when we know more.
Whereas my impression has always been that the UK market is a few years more mature than the Australian market, Lowry's research suggests the gap is narrowing, certainly in terms of their appreciation of the benefits of collaboration systems. In fact, in most cases, the Australian respondents are even more positive than the UK respondents. Here are a few highlights of the comparison...
| NCCTP-Benchmark (UK) | Lowry Consulting (Australia) |
| 75% of clients give preference to contractors with collaborative systems. 67% of clients would exclude contractors unwilling to use collaboration systems. | 100% of clients surveyed either prefer or insist on contractors or consultants who are experienced with collaboration technologies. |
| 96% of those interviewed said they had experienced benefits from using collaboration technologies. | 93.5% of those interviewed said they had experienced benefits from using collaboration technologies. |
| Drawing approval times improved by 26% | Drawing approval times improved by an average of 45-50%. |
Labels: Global trends
Libya immune from financial crisis
One of the most interesting markets we've recently entered is Libya. I have to admit that, when we started Aconex nearly nine years ago, I really didn't picture Libya as a place where we'd be doing business. In fact, this was probably still my view until 18 months ago. Now, we're involved in housing and infrastructure projects there that are as large and ambitious as anything we've seen.
Why? The article "Libya Immune from Global Financial Crisis" that appeared last week on Building Global (an online arm of the UK's Building magazine) helps paint the picture. It highlights a new report than presents Libya as a highly attractive construction market, with strong GDP growth and demand for housing and office space. Although probably not on the top of every firm's list, Libya could be well worth a look for US, European or other contractors finding that their domestic well is running dry.
Labels: Global trends
Saudi a silver lining?
There's obviously been a lot in the news recently about the effect the global economic crisis has had on the United Arab Emirates and Dubai in particular, so it's probably a good time to take a look at some of the other opportunities in the Gulf region. I recently mentioned how impressed I was with Bahrain, but this market, and even the UAE pales in comparison to the giant that is Saudi Arabia.
Construction Week Middle East editor, Rob Wagner, pondered in his recent issue whether Saudi could be a silver lining in the current financial crisis. As he puts it, "If there ever was a country that can survive the global crisis without so much as a bruise or paper cut, the Land of the Two Holy Mosques can pull it off."
The basis for this optimism is a new report from Jones Lang LaSalle, the world's leading real estate investment and advisory firm, which believes that Saudi's real estate market is set to grow significantly over the next four years.
In the report, titled "The Gulf's Powerhouse - Saudi Arabia's Real Estate Market," Saudi is highlighted as the primary driver in the region and potentially the best country in the Middle East for investors to plant money in hotels, commercial space and residential projects.
So what are the factors that make a place described by Lonely Planet as "an emblem of everything most inexplicable to the West" so attractive?
Massive economy and construction market
Saudi has the region's largest economy with a GDP of $608 billion - 20% more than the other GCC countries combined. This isn't gradual growth either, the country has seen GDP increase by an average of 15% per annum since 2002. It also has the region's largest construction market. For a quick taster, Arabian Business's 'Top Ten Saudi Construction Projects' is a real eye-opener.
Size and growth of population
At 27 million, Saudi has more than double the population of the rest of the GCC combined; it's also been the world's fastest growing large country over the past 10 years. In addition, its population is young (with around 45 percent of its people aged below 20) and urbanizing, which has helped drive the real estate market...
Largest real estate market in the GCC
Again Saudi is the region leader, with more commercial floor space than all of the other GCC countries combined. And these segments are set to grow. There is a major housing shortage, there is potential for new high-rise developments in CBD locations and the country is uniquely positioned to benefit from the expected growth in religious tourism over the next few years. This equates to more houses, more offices, more retail and more hotels.
Drive towards international-quality assets and facilities
For the first time in its existence, Saudi is committing major financial resources to housing and infrastructure. More than 285 civil construction projects worth in excess of $260 billion are currently underway or in design. The tens of billions of dollars being invested in educational facilities (part of a 25-year strategy) is hugely impressive and shows admirable purpose.
From our own experience, Saudi has been a tough market to operate in (red tape and unreliable internet connection being two of the main challenges). Whether it will become more appealing remains to be seen, there are certainly some exciting, ambitious projects in the pipeline.
Oh, and there's another big reason why Saudi is well cushioned from the global financial crisis: it has 25% of the world's oil reserves! As Rob Wagner concludes in his article, "There is no such thing as a sure thing. But Saudi Arabia may be the closet thing to it."
Labels: Global trends
Perfect time to get smart on infrastructure projects
An article in the business pages of The Age (Melbourne's main broadsheet newspaper) this week amusingly uses Bob the Builder to illustrate how the financial crisis has impacted the construction industry.
It's put that, whereas the previously optimistic Bob's catchphrase was "Yes we can" when asked whether he could dig it, build it or fix it, he may now need to qualify that with, "...but only if we can access the funds and transfer the risk to government." Not as catchy, but even Bob will have to ride this one out.
As mentioned in my recent post about Dubai's market, 'Decline in Dubai?', the silver lining in times like these is that it will give companies and governments a chance to better analyse and prioritise infrastructure projects.
If research by law firm Blake Dawson is anything to go by, this could be a very good thing. Their recent survey of the infrastructure industry found that a quarter of Australia's projects worth $1 billion or more experienced cost blow-outs of $200 million or more. Of smaller projects, one in five had cost overruns of more than 20% of their value. More than half of the respondents said that projects were not adequately defined in the first place leading to problems after contracts were signed. Clearly those with the purse strings need to be smarter about where the dollars are being invested.
The article concludes, 'Sound investment in infrastructure - which has been properly assessed and funded - will create jobs, stimulate the economy and help Australia play catch-up on the backlog of both major and minor pieces of much-needed infrastructure.'
I couldn't agree more and, as this will account for a large chunk of the construction and engineering industry's business over the foreseeable future, can only hope this thinking is echoed in many of the other markets that we're operating in.
Labels: Global trends
Going global the Woods Bagot way
A global architecture firm without a headquarters? That's the unusual business model that one our clients, Woods Bagot, has adopted.
This article in Australian e-newsletter SmartCompany outlines how this 139-year-old building design practice, has managed to build a business with 1,000 staff across 14 offices worldwide without a central head office. Could this be a new template as to how AEC firms go global? It's certainly working for them - turnover tripled last year.
Labels: Global trends
Decline in Dubai?
The article 'Brakes on for Dubai Market' in Australia's Architecture & Design magazine is the latest to flag a "bumpy ride" for Dubai's property market. Written from the perspective of how a dip would affect international companies operating in Dubai, it quotes a director of design firm Woodhead as saying that the drop off in work would lead to significant lay offs. Of course the big question facing firms operating in the region is whether this is an inevitable and short-term cooling, or whether it's the start of a more dramatic decline.
Morgan Stanley didn't make themselves overly popular with developers in August with their prediction that Dubai property prices would likely fall by 10% after years of unrelenting growth. This was largely based on the consultancy's view that developers are relying too heavily on "high end" projects at the expense of more affordable housing (which, as anyone who's tried to find accommodation in Dubai will tell you, is hard to argue).
I was in Dubai a couple of weeks back and, based on how things are looking for Aconex and what our clients are saying, it's looking more likely that this will be an inevitable stabilization of a market that was booming at an unsustainable rate. Over the past 6-8 weeks we haven't seen projects being cancelled so much as people holding off making decisions. This is starting to change and, over the past week or two, projects are getting the green light again.
Whereas there may be fewer of the extravagant, showpiece developments that the city has become synonymous with, there is still demand for realistically-priced housing. This will, in turn, drive the infrastructure projects that population growth in Dubai (not to mention the wider region) is crying out for. I think we'll see that these factors, combined with the Dubai's solid economy and banking system, should ensure that Dubai is still a highly attractive market for AEC firms to operate in.
Labels: Global trends
Building a document
We've just been engaged on an unusual project in the UK - for a start, there's not a crane, brick or piece of scaffolding in sight. Our system is going to be used as the collaborative platform for members of the Sustainable Environment Foundation as they put together their 'green paper'.
This Green Paper is an interesting project. It's a private sector charitable initiative that will report on how the construction industry can minimize its impact on climate change. Companies like BioRegional Quintain, Savills, Lend Lease and even Greenpeace and the WWF are putting the paper together and its findings will be handed over to government next year. All in all, it should be a highly significant report.
The Foundation was keen to use a collaboration tool to cut down on paper usage. It's widely agreed that collaboration tools cut the need for paper (in the 2006 NCCTP study 'Proving Collaboration Pays', 79% of the collaboration tool users surveyed said it reduced their need for paper documents and 91% said they spent less money on couriers and postage), although I don't know of any independent, quantitative comparisons of paper reduction between a project that is using a collaboration tool and one that isn't.
That said, it's encouraging that organizations like those in the Foundation see how collaboration tools can support sustainable practices.
Labels: Global trends, Project profiles
In the news... Aconex closes $107.5m growth funding deal
We announced last week that Aconex has secured a AU$107.5 million (US$85m) growth funding deal with US-based private equity firm Francisco Partners. As far as we're aware, it's the largest ever private equity capital raising by an Australian technology company.
As you can imagine, we're all very excited about what this means for the business and are looking forward to using the funds to develop our product and grow the business.
A few things about the deal are particularly significant in the context of the collaboration technology market:
Acceptance of construction collaboration tools
The investment indicates the market's acceptance that web collaboration tools are on the fast track to becoming standard on construction and engineering projects. We've seen global uptake of our system double each year for the past five years and even the most mature markets, such as the US and the UK, are experiencing strong growth.
Excitement around SaaS
Without exception, all the private equity firms we met with had high expectations for the SaaS (Software as a Service) market. A report I read by International Data Corporation estimated that the overall SaaS market will grow at a compound rate of 32.0% annually. As discussed in previous posts, this mode of delivery is by far the most suitable for the collaborative environment of construction and engineering projects.
It's not all doom gloom!
Despite the current turmoil in some financial centers, many of the world's key construction markets - the Middle East, North Africa and SE Asia for example - have so far been unaffected. Firms operating in these boom markets will be considerable less exposed over this tumultuous period, and can still experience strong business growth.
If you want to find out more about the deal, there's a podcast of an interview I did with ZDNet here. Also, our next task is to hire about 50 software engineers, mainly in Melbourne Australia, so if you know of any suitable candidates, please push them to the Aconex website!
Labels: Global trends, Technology
SaaS: flexible, scalable, affordable
Perhaps 12-18 months behind the UK and US in its adoption rates, but good to see that Australia is catching on to the value of the software as a service (SaaS) model. An article called "Software Engine at the Ready" (login needed to read it) in the 21/8 issue of Business Review Weekly magazine profiles a mid-tier construction firm's use of SaaS technology.
Like most mid-tier contractors, the firm, Ichor Constructions, operates on multimillion dollar budgets on paper-thin margins, and the sophistication of its project management software can decide success or failure. The prohibitive cost of purchasing the required software meant that Ichor was unable to tackle more complex, lucrative projects. The article explains how, by using a SaaS project management tool for its benchmarking and forecasting, they were able to grow from a $15 million company to a $50 million company.
Talking about the initial reasoning behind the shift to SaaS, Ichor's GM is quoted as saying, "Cost was the biggest factor. By running the software on a remote server it's a lot cheaper than owning and maintaining it internally, and I don't need to worry about finding someone with the technical expertise to make my server work."
Whether for tracking forecasting data or managing documentation, more and more construction and engineering firms are moving towards SaaS solutions due to their flexibility, scalability and affordability. In the online document management market we're already seeing the SaaS providers pull away from the pack as clients see the value of this model.
Labels: Global trends
Mega blog
I've come across a blog about one of my favourite topics: mega projects in the UAE. It's filled with interesting entries and, with new developments being announced almost daily, there's obviously no shortage of breaking news and talking points to cover. The author is Brett Siegel who has a property background and is clearly very passionate and knowledgeable about the subject.
One post in particular brought a smile to my face. It's about Jumeirah Lake Towers, a "city within a city" that will include 87 residential, commercial and mixed-use towers situated around man-made lakes and a promenade. It will even feature an "air conditioned buffer zone" where, in hot summer months, the outdoor temperature can be cooled (only in Dubai!).
The reason it made me laugh was because our Dubai office is at JLT and the development is not quite at that stage yet! The last time I was there, my taxi driver spent 20 minutes driving round the site on a dirt road, trying to find another dirt road that would take us to our tower. Because most of the towers are under construction, the roads are absolute bedlam with trucks, labour buses and overloaded vans jostling for space. The image of relaxing by a lake during your lunch break seems a long way off!
But that's the beauty of Dubai. Just a few years ago, the JLT site was an empty patch of land, 30 minutes from the centre. In a couple of years' time it will be a stunning, self-contained community that is a desirable place to live and work.
If you want a good overview of the main mega projects in the UAE, Brett's '10 Most Important Mega Projects in Dubai' and 'Top 10 Mega Projects in Abu Dhabi' posts are good starting points.
Labels: Global trends, Project profiles
Different industry, same challenges (and same solution)
An article in Middle East technology publication ITP.net highlights an issue in the oil and gas industry that is proving costly, and yet has a tried and tested solution.
It reports that data storage provider EMC held an Energy Solutions Day in Abu Dhabi in June, during which IT management of oil and gas companies talked about managing growing information stores while minimizing downtime and enabling collaboration.
According to EMC, back-up and recovery of data is a key consideration for oil and gas companies due to the amount of information that is distributed around a number of sites or offices. Staff need to be able to store data securely and cost-effectively. They also need to be able to facilitate collaboration between knowledge workers in exploration and production, process safety, operations, and other areas.
To recap, the challenges are that the energy industry involves:
- Complex working structures involving dispersed, multi-disciplined parties
- The need for team members, across several functions, to be able to access and share information in real-time, even from remote locations
- A requirement to maintain a comprehensive and secure archive of data
- A robust, scalable and cost-effective system for data management that includes disaster recovery
Sound familiar? These are exactly the same factors encountered in construction; and the construction industry has been using web collaboration tools to overcome them for much of the past decade.
More specifically, the challenges highlighted above all point towards the need for the energy sector to adopt web collaboration tools that are delivered using the SaaS model.
Although the resources and energy sectors are progressive users of IT, they are a few years behind the construction industry in their uptake of web collaboration. The gap may be closing, though - we are beginning to see more engineer-led industries (such as mining, oil and gas) recognize the benefit of implementing these tools.
Labels: Global trends, Technology
Venezuela anyone?
Building, the UK's top construction magazine, recently published an article on the merits of doing business in the world's ten fastest growing construction markets, as ranked by consultancy firm Davis Langdon. It's a fascinating piece, and raised a few eyebrows around the office.
Whereas the obvious Top Ten candidates are there - China, India and Russia as the top three, and the UAE (6th) - there were a few surprises, too. Vietnam (4), Poland (5), Egypt (7) and, most of all, Venezuela making it into tenth spot. Although the tip for companies looking at Venezuela to "Go to Mexico instead" might halt any interested parties!
As well as highlighting new opportunities for construction firms, this report also hints at the massive potential for expanding the use of online document management tools, especially by linking the head offices of firms based in the UK, Europe and the US with their ventures in new markets.
Labels: Global trends
New blogger on the block
I recently came across a new blog called Collaboration Corner that was started a couple of weeks ago by Joe Croser from collaboration technology provider Bentley.
Great to see more and more thought leadership in this space (this post by Paul Wilkinson on his Extranet Evolution blog outlines some of the others) and I thoroughly recommend you check it out. Like Connected, a blog by three of Buzzsaw's managers, it appears that it will often focus on his company's products, but Joe is obviously an enthusiastic advocate of how collaborative solutions can enhance the construction industry and so I look forward to reading his thoughts.
Labels: Global trends
Booming Bahrain
Just come back from a trip to the Gulf and, as always, feel inspired after seeing some of the innovative and ambitious developments underway. It's easy to get jaded by the extremes being thrown around, as every project tries to out-do the next one, but the Bahrain World Trade Center is quite unique.
Although the UAE gets most of the headlines, Bahrain is carving out a niche for itself and is well on its way to becoming a tourism and financial hub. The small Kingdom has a disproportionate amount of mega projects on its books such as the Financial Harbour, Riffa Views residential-golf development, the Qatar-Bahrain Friendship Bridge, Reef Island and Health Island (yes, it is what it sounds).
But the World Trade Center is a real stand-out and will probably become the 'icon building' of the country in the same way that Burj Al Arab Hotel is for Dubai. Designed by Atkins, it has two towers, each 240 meters high, with 50 floors. No big deal so far. What makes it different is that it's the first skyscraper in the world to integrate wind turbines - it has three 29m turbines built on bridges between the towers. They aren't just for show either; they provide 15% of the power for the two towers. Unsurprisingly, it's already won several awards for sustainability. In a region that generates a sasquatch-sized carbon footprint, the BWTC will be a positive symbol for Bahrain.
Labels: Global trends, Project profiles
Counting the cost
People often ask about the quantitative gains of using an online document management tool. Although it's hard to measure the full value, as many benefits relate to aspects such as risk management and control, I keep the following stats pinned up on my wall - they never fail to amaze me (the source is a Coopers & Lybrand study that appeared in PC Magazine a few years ago)...
- 90% of corporate memory exists on paper.
- 80% of company documents are stored on local hard drives, and are therefore inaccessible to the organization unless they are recreated on paper.
- Professionals spend 5 to 15% of their time reading information, but up to 50% looking for it.
- 7.5% of all paper documents get lost and 3% get misfiled.
- The average office spends $150 in labour finding a misfiled document and $350 on recreating a lost document.
- For every 10 printed pages, only 1 is ever consulted.
- The average document is copied 19 times.
- In the average office - of all the pages handled each day - 90% are merely shuffled.
Even if some of these numbers seem a bit on the high side (and, to me, some of them do), they make a pretty compelling case for banishing paper from the construction supply chain!
Labels: Global trends
You say tomato, I say...
A great thing about our industry is that, with projects becoming more internationalized, and team members based in many countries, you get an insight into other cultures, attitudes and work practices. It's fascinating to hear how other people go about their business and how they would tackle a particular challenge.
An example can be seen in Emmanuel Netter's blog post 'Aconex et la gestion des fichiers de CAO' (Aconex and management of CAD files), which is a response to my recent post 'Handling CAD drawing and Xref file exchange'. Emmanuel, a prominent figure at French collaboration provider Prosys, sees the method I laid out as 'Anglo Saxon and rigorous' and quite different to the more 'anarchic, Latin' approach.
His blog, CPLUSN, is in French so in case you don't read the language (or trust the Google translation), the main section of the post (roughly) translates as...
In tools developed for the French market, like Mezzoteam, additional modules automate the retrieval of related documents. In short, if I open an AutoCAD file, Mezzoteam will automatically retrieve the X-refs, even grabbing local copies to save on transfer time, if they are up to date.
The approach advocated by Robert is more consistent with what we see in generic tools, since file retrieval and the maintenance of links between files is done manually by the CAD Manager. You are building a local set of reference data, which the CAD manager works from.
We can see a "clash of cultures". On one side is a requirement for automation and high productivity, driven by the wish for quality assurance, but requiring everyone to play by agreed rules. On the other is a more flexible approach, less effective on paper but also less demanding in organizational terms.
So maybe the old stereotypes of Anglo-Saxon rigor and Latin anarchy have been played out in this case!
Based on the above, it appears that the differences are as much to do with the principles of the system as with how X-Refs are managed. The automated retrieval model described is interesting and suggests that there is local software being utilized that can manage downloads and cache files for re-use later. Also, it hints that users can access files (X-refs) that they have not been explicitly been given access to.
My initial thought is that, while Mezzoteam's system may be easier in some regards to the SaaS collaboration tool model, there may be security implications. Could firms be left open to unintended consequences if people can see things that the author did not want them to see? A thought-provoking post and I'll certainly look into this more. Has anyone else had experience of using both approaches?
Labels: Global trends, Good practice, Technology
Can you help me?
Something worth adding to the previous post 'Google Docs, a competitor to construction collaboration tools?' is that, in addition to the limitations of the product, Google Docs will never be able to compete with the leading construction collaboration vendors on customer service. Despite its success as a business, Google Inc. can't come close to providing the specialist support, training and implementation expertise that industry projects need.
A quick scan around the websites of some of the top collaboration providers shows that they all provide (as a minimum) phone and email support during business-hours as well as supplementary consultancy and implementation services.
I'm now looking on the Google site and.... I can't find a helpdesk number. Anywhere. Let alone the option to talk to someone who is specially trained in the Google Docs product and understands the construction industry.
The expert human touch when the users have a problem is the main reason why specialist construction collaboration vendors will trump generalist tools like Google Docs.
Labels: Global trends, Good practice, Technology
Google Docs, a competitor to construction collaboration tools?
We received a comment earlier this week asking our thoughts on the merits of Google Docs. As the author said, Google Docs is a free tool that can perform some of the functions of a construction project management system. It provides easy indexing, searching, automatic versioning and live editing whereby multiple users can edit documents at the same time, with a built in chat function for users to converse while editing.
I'm sure many software providers live in dread that Google will launch a free tool that is potentially a substitute for their product. However, although Google Docs is a good generic tool for the simple sharing of docs, it is not really a competitor to construction project management tools.
Here are some of my thoughts:
- Construction and engineering projects demand a system that is customized to the needs of the industry. Google Docs has some nifty features but it falls a long way short of providing the functionality and sophistication required for an industry project. There are some fundamental requirements that Google Docs can not perform, such as workflow management and reviews, web forms for correspondence management and reporting for outstanding overdue items (or any kind of reporting for that matter).
- Having a system that allows docs or files to be deleted is bad for the audit trail and court-worthiness of a system.
- Google docs has limited storage capabilities - and you can delete items to stay within the storage limits - which is very bad for capturing the full history and audit trail of the project.
- Google Docs does not have an organization-employee and project structure, which does not suit large construction and engineering projects.
- Allowing users to share data while also allowing areas for data that are private to particular organizations is critical in wide adoption of web collaboration systems on projects. If everyone can see everything, or even if the admin organization can see everything, then people will not widely adopt it. We have seen systems that have a similar security model to Google Docs being implemented on construction and engineering projects and they either fail totally, or the amount of data captured is a small percentage of what is captured by a system that supports collaboration while also allowing privacy (because people will go outside the system for anything that they want to keep private). And - ultimately - capturing all the data is the best form of risk management on a project.
So, while Google Docs is a good tool for people that want to share some docs in a very basic way, it does not suit collaboration on projects (particularly medium-large scale) that require industry-specific functions and workflows, indelible audit trails and reporting features.
Labels: Global trends, Good practice, Technology
Collaborating with competitors
I'm writing an article on what happens when some of the companies collaborating on a particular project are direct competitors in the 'real' world. It's an interesting topic, with no shortage of contentious areas, such as how competitors share intellectual property and who controls it.
To achieve successful project collaboration, I strongly believe that companies must have complete control and clear ownership of their intellectual property. One drawback of using installed software on a multi-company construction project, for example, is that firms can be required to store their drawings and documents behind a competitor's firewall. In a litigious world, this does little to encourage collaboration! In contrast, most project collaboration vendors that deliver their product using the SaaS model provide an independent platform that allows each company to own and control the files it has created or received. This creates a level playing field for everyone on the project - and encourages collaboration.
I'd be interested to know your experiences in this area. Have you ever collaborated with a competitor? What were the implications regarding control or ownership of project information?
Labels: Global trends, Good practice
Airport development is sky high
As most people in the industry will be aware, airport projects are big business at the moment. Research conducted by Streamline Marketing Group found that airport development in South Asia, Africa and the Middle East has reached a new high, with projects and expansions now valued at over US$68 billion.
The Gulf countries account for $43 billion of this growth, with $21 billion worth of development under way in the UAE alone. The figures highlight massive airport expansion in Jordan, Iraq, India, Sri Lanka and across the African continent.
When looking through a list of these developments, what really jumps out is the sheer scale of so many of them. For example, heading the list, at $10 billion in value, is the new Al Maktoum International Airport at Jebel Ali, UAE, which is set to become the largest in the world, handling 120 million passengers annually. Next on the list are the developments of Abu Dhabi International Airport at $6.8 billion and Qatar's $5.5 billion New Doha International - again, serious capital investment.
Airport projects interest me because they get so much value from construction project management tools. They are a chance to work with large project teams and with top contractors and specialist consultants from around the world, and they typically generate millions of documents and correspondence items. In addition, they are built to a tight schedule and so require fast exchange of information, plus data security and document control is hugely important.
These projects tend to be at the forefront of industry good practice and there is high uptake of collaboration tools within this sector. Alongside the major casino resort projects we work on, it's hard to think of another vertical industry that can benefit so much from using construction project management software and collaboration technology.
Labels: Global trends
Skill shortage just part of the jigsaw
An interesting entry on the Contract Journal blog discusses the importance of good recruitment and suggests that it's an area neglected by contractors, who pay the price later on.
From our own perspective, finding quality staff is one of the single biggest challenges facing the business. We require some very specialist skills and need them globally - trying to find ten doc controllers for a project in Algeria was an interesting one!
The author (Emma) mentions techniques such as "job shares, flexible working, nine-day fortnights and the same bonus and benefits from the site to the boardroom" as being incentives offered by contractors to recruit good people. The article concludes that, "Clearly, finding and keeping talented new staff is a tough job - but made easier with the promise of a better work-life balance, career progression and a happy work environment."
I'd be interested to know other orgs' opinion, but we find that finding staff that have the skills is only a small part of the task; finding staff that are skilled and also fit our culture and share our values is the biggest challenge. It's these people who move up quickly in the org and create a happy work environment, making the investment worthwhile.
Labels: Global trends
Another boom year for collaboration technology
Being the end of the year, it's a good time to reflect on the AEC industry's uptake of collaboration technology tools. Without doubt, '07 has been another big year for online document management. No agreed market size figures exist (something often bemoaned by commentator Paul Wilkinson in his blog) but, along with some others, Aconex has seen continued growth in uptake this year. Importantly, this has consisted of a steady increase in mature markets, rapid growth in emerging markets and early adoption in developing markets.
Mature markets such as the UK, US and Australia continue to lead the way, with the UAE and some of its neighbors close behind. Particularly encouraging this year was the real growth in India and Greater China, massive markets whose economic booms are driving commercial and infrastructure development. We are also seeing the first signs of growth in developing markets such as North Africa and Eastern Europe - several projects are now being managed online in Romania for instance, a country we would hardly have expected to operate in a few years ago.
As these countries move up the ladder in terms of their uptake of collaboration technology, they will contribute growth and breadth to the market over the next 12 months. Despite healthy market growth for some of the key vendors (Aconex has seen its revenue double in each of the past five years), at the moment we are barely scratching the surface. We expect another challenging but exciting year as more of the globally AEC industry comes to regard online document management as an essential tool.
Labels: Global trends
Singapore, the emerging market role model
An article in November/December's Cityscape magazine, a bi-monthly about real estate in emerging markets, has identified Singapore as a role model for emerging markets. From a construction perspective, it tells an interesting story.
Singapore's plan for land use and transportation kicked off in the early '70s and is updated every ten years. Originally, its 'ring concept plan' saw the development of a ring of small towns around the central water area. Expressways were designed to link the towns across the island and the International Airport and the Mass Rapid Transit system were built.
The next 15 years concentrated on the Central Area, resulting in 155 projects turning former neglected and squatter areas into a modern, financial hub. An urban design plan began to transform the skyline. At the same time, Singapore selectively held onto its past, with historic districts such as its Chinatown, Little India and Singapore River given conservation status.
The next stage of development aims to cope with a population of 5.5 million. There is huge demand for residential and business space, with foreign investors committing $1.6bn towards office developments. One project we're working on, the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort, which has a casino, two theatres, convention facility and a 50-storey hotel tower, typifies Singapore's planned approach. With similar developments in the pipeline, Singapore shows no signs of slowing down - a positive sign for other emerging markets.
Labels: Global trends, Project profiles
Mind the knowledge gap
We recently had an employee celebrate seven years at the company. Not exactly gold watch territory but, since we've been in business for around eight years, it was a nice milestone. Of course, the downside of having loyal staff members like this is that it can leave a big hole if they leave. They take their accumulated knowledge and part of the corporate memory is lost forever. This is obviously a real concern in a project environment, where turnover of staff is high.
On the plus side for us, many construction, PM and engineering companies see collaboration technology as part of the solution to managing this 'knowledge gap'.
Dependable document archives, and audit trails of transactions and communication can help overcome problems when team members leave during a project. In particular, they make it easier for newcomers to understand the history of the project and get up to speed quickly. Since the days of 20 years' service are obviously long gone (even 2 years isn't bad these days), systems for managing knowledge are really proving their worth in all kinds of businesses.
Labels: Global trends
Off the beaten track
Following on from Leigh's line of thought, I'm currently doing a bit of globetrotting so that I can attend some Aconex member forums. These are held annually - this year in 13 cities - and are a chance to get together with clients and users, discuss future product plans and hear what they are (and aren't!) happy about. They are also an great way to pick up on stories and experiences from projects around the world: the challenges people are facing, the types of projects they're involved in, and so on. Despite spending most of my trip at airports this annual road show is one of the highlights of the year for me.
What struck me most this year was hearing about the scale of some of the commercial and infrastructure developments, and where they are being undertaken. We hear so much about the mega projects of the UAE and China, but some of the developments underway in North Africa and India, in particular, rival anything else in terms of scale and complexity.It got me thinking about whether this would have been possible even ten years ago. Just how did people manage to control information on the really big projects when most communication was done using paper documents?
Labels: Global trends
Dubai - the poster child of mass construction
I've just got back from spending a week in our Dubai office and the speed and scale of development there never ceases to amaze me. I remember when we first decided to set up an office there in 2003; it was an absolute no-brainer. At the time, we had one international office in London and so I was stopping over in Dubai on the way there. I stepped off the plane and within ten seconds was on the phone to Rob saying, "We have to set up here!" The amount of construction in the airport alone would be worth the investment, and that was before seeing the rest of the city.
Dubai has obviously now become the global poster-child of the extremes of construction - both in the size and scale of the developments and the audacity of some of the concepts and designs. Developments such as Dubailand, The Lagoons, Burj Dubai, The Palms, Sports City and The World are all multi-billion dollar projects on a scale never seen before. Building a world-class city virtually from scratch has required expertise that has need to be sourced from around the world - architects from UK, project managers from the US, consultants from Hong Kong and Australia - there's an eclectic mix of cultures and expertise coming together to help build a city.It's this globalization of the construction industry that has driven the need for tools that help people work together across borders, and this is one of the most exciting aspects of our industry at the moment.
Labels: Global trends
