Online collaboration

contractjournal.com Newsletter: 26.05.05

The Changing Landscape of Online Collaboration

Once the sole prerogative of larger companies, the deployment of collaborative workroom technology is now becoming more accessible.

A collaborative workroom or project extranet is simply an electronic network linking a number of different individuals or organisations for the purpose of exchanging information in digital form. Such networks have the opportunity to significantly improve the way the construction industry works and reduce the likelihood of mistakes and disputes, the biggest causes of waste and inefficiency in construction. As early as 1999, at the Chicago Summit on the Future of Engineering Software, leaders from organisations such as Ford Motor Company, Microsoft, GSA, Bentley and others agreed that “Within three years, no new engineering project of any consequence will be initiated without the use of a project Web or extranet”. However four years later, in the UK construction industry at least, the takeup of this technology is still in its infancy with small to medium sized contractors reluctant to embrace the concept, often owing to their perception that these systems are prohibitively expensive, difficult to use and really only within the reach of the very largest companies.

Cost savings

But, this is not necessarily the case. Making use of collaborative technology to manage the flow of information on a construction project will contribute dramatically to cost savings. For example, most systems allow for the sharing of documents, drawings, schedules, specifications and many other forms of data via a universal cross platform viewer, eliminating the need for all parties to commit to licensing the originating software. With secure email and discussion forums providing instant communication with the project team, meeting and travel costs will shrink dramatically. Also, the expensive task of distributing hard copy documents can be eliminated and paper and printing costs will be reduced as material will be printed only by those persons actually needing to make use of it.

It is clear that the tangible benefits alone will provide savings for the majority of construction projects, yet the intangible savings in time and risk can pay for the extranet many times over. Using a collaborative system will cut down the time taken to generate, track and file documents, and will enable quick and efficient searching through both live and archived information. In addition, automated document distribution will ensure that all members of the project team have access to the most up-to-date versions of the various project documents so that mistakes generated by someone working from an old document or drawing are removed and more people are able to contribute to the design and supply chain. And where mistakes do happen, the audit trail generated by the system will provide a reliable record of all communications and help avoid the likelihood of costly litigation.