Making IT real

The secret of success in business is to operate a company philosophy that can add value to client projects and this clearly would not be possible without Information Technology.

Taylor Woodrow Construction, whose head office is based at Southall in Middlesex, says that their continuing commitment to IT research not only keeps them ahead of new developments, it ensures their ability to deliver real cost, time and efficiency benefits.

With a whole division dedicated to IT, their commitment to R&D as an integral part of their business is self-evident.

Roger Blundell, engineering director, explains: "When making long-term development plans, you can't consider a business in isolation. Participating in industry research helps us to consider our specific requirements in the context of construction as a whole and allows us to identify innovations that will influence our development in the long-term."

An analysis of the company's present and future business needs identified similar priorities to the industry research.

Design management and site/office communications emerged as areas where the most immediate benefits could be derived from IT. The common factor was the need for an efficient, reliable way to access and share knowledge.

The first stage of the company's IT strategy aimed to allow every individual in the company to have the basic capability to communicate, collaborate and share information routinely, without the underlying IT infrastructure acting as a barrier to communication.

Site teams were given particular attention because they generally have less opportunities to experiment with information technology.

"Taylor Woodrow is an international project developer, so sites are at the sharp end of our operations," continues Blundell. "We recognised that geographical remoteness could also leave sites technologically remote, so we wanted to ensure this didn't happen."

Taylor Woodrow wanted to identify what people on site actually needed out of IT and which tools were most appropriate.

The company led a research programme in the mid-1990s called Communications By Computer Between Main Participating Organisations On Site (COMPOSITE) which helped to inform the company's initial implementation of IT in this respect.

It proved that investment in e-mail and digital camera technologies, for example, would bring immediate efficiencies to site communications and document management.

Another immediate priority was the establishment of TayWeb, the company's intranet, as a central databank for all internal team members where corporate knowledge can be captured and shared.

TayWeb provides features such as a People Channel, containing details of all employees to enable teams to be selected according to skills appropriate to specific project needs; a knowledge base, containing outputs from all R&D and including "Top Tips" on improving things and avoiding problems.

There is also on-line access to British Standards, Building Regulations and Health & Safety legislation.

In addition to TayWeb, site teams have instant access via e-mail links or a free Technical Helpline to in-house experts who can help to resolve issues on anything from cladding to concrete. A typical recent example was a request for advice on proving the adequacy of a roof in terms of design life and waterproofing qualities. Acceptance of the proven design by the client brought an estimated saving of £11,000 over the original proposal.



As well as internal team communications, the company had to consider its communications strategy towards external partners.

As a leading management contractor on major projects, TWC needed a means of uniting team partners drawn from external organisations, with different IT agendas and different software and hardware preferences.

Research to explore the industry's long-term requirements for computer integration is still ongoing, so Taylor Woodrow introduced an interim solution.

Richard Harrison of TWC's project modelling team explains: "Until industry standards for computer integration are realised, we saw very little point in investing in application-specific software when perfectly adequate proprietary brands for word processing, drawing, manipulating photographs, and so on, already existed. All we required was a means of allowing all partners to share and access project information using the IT tools that were already familiar to them."

The company achieved this goal by exploiting internet technology. They reasoned that, if chat rooms can exist for individuals with a common interest to come together and exchange information, it should be possible to apply the same principle to a project team. The technological means of achieving this were again explored through practical research.

A secure web site, devoted solely to the needs of the project, is the result. For those with the correct password, access to the site is achieved using a simple internet connection and commonly available browser software.

However, unless the client wishes otherwise, the site cannot be located or accessed by searching the Net in the normal way.

"Collaborative project web sites bring all the advantages of electronic document management systems, but with the enormous added advantage of the internet. They're cheap and offer instant global access at any time from anywhere in the world," says Harrison.

They have also proved popular with clients such as BAA and Tesco (see project profiles).

Having achieved their initial goal of IT- enabling every team member, internal or external, the company is firmly focused on its long-term objectives to standardise and fully integrate its IT systems.

Again, research is playing an essential role. A major stumbling block has been the lack of suitable proprietary software for dealing with construction's needs.

Through research collaboration, Taylor Woodrow believes it has played a key role in developing software that is now commercially available. Two deployment projects are currently under way to assess the software on live projects.

However, Taylor Woodrow has no interest in diversifying as an IT provider.

"We're an international project developer, not an IT company," says Blundell. "We undertake research so that we can continue to achieve our target, which is to deliver high quality projects to budget and on programme. To do that, you must have knowledge and you must share that knowledge. We consider that the IT tools and experience we have at the moment are unsurpassed and we are willing to share this learning with our partners for the benefit of our clients."