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 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-based 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 online 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 collaboration 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 collaboration 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 collaboration 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 collaboration 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 reviews, web forms for correspondence 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 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 way to reduce risk 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
