...technology. “The larger and more complicated the project, the more likely it is to work,” he says. Brasfield & Gorrie has standardized on Constructware.

Garrett

At Barton Malow, Go says he prefers Meridian, because “it works for us. The people are construction people, and I have good access to them.” But he and Garrett both say having a collaborative culture is more important than the choice of software. “The software is just a way to get there,” Go says. “They are all good products. You figure out what your requirements are and find the product that comes closest to meeting them.”

“It’s all a database,” adds Guy Punzi, a Skidmore Owings and Merrill associate partner and senior technical coordinator using Constructware on a lab at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York City. SOM often uses Buzzsaw for design collaboration because Punzi says it has good tools for working with AutoCAD files. But the hospital wanted to standardize on a construction management tool.

Punzi says products differ in how they “push” information of importance to the user. When Constructware was selected two and a half year ago, it seemed the vendor “understood the construction process and the quirks of it” a little better than the competition, he says. But he notes, however, that such systems need constant improvement to keep up with technology. “And it’s not cheap. I can’t see architects being able to afford this. It would have to be something an owner or contractor would support,” says Punzi.

Veteran users say management philosophy has a big role in achieving success. Communications fly. Requests for information about emerging issues and documentation deficiencies zip around and managers can see how well participants respond. Some say that helps managers go after slackers, but experienced users call that a wrongheaded view. The real value, is that transparency means there is nowhere to hide, so everyone performs better, they say.

“People learn very quickly that sharing more information with other people is a powerful idea when it means everyone has a shared vision of reality,” explains Kevin Sanders, CIO at San Francisco-based architect Gensler. It makes people nervous at first because “we are all exposed,” he adds. Sanders strongly believes in the technology, although he says there is a lot of work ahead, particularly in establishing industry standards for work flow.

The most important steps in implementation are to define processes and get the team to follow them. Owner-mandated systems face less resistance from players. Picking the right project is key. “The bigger the project, the more worthwhile,” says Go. Smaller, faster projects can be over before the team gets the rhythm, he says.

Several vendors focused on the top of the market, however, see promise with smaller contractors. Primavera, recently introduced “Contractor,” a slimmed-down Web-based companion to its P3e/c system, and on Oct. 4, Citadon, whose ProjectNet has long focused on massive work, launched a $70-a-seat, “Small Team Edition” for small players.

New Players

Pang (Photo Courtesy of e2020 technology)

In yet another sign that this market is hot, CMiC, Toronto, launched a Web collaboration suite on Aug. 17. Corecon Technologies, Huntington Beach, Calif., launched the first Web version of its estimating/project management/collaboration system Oct. 1. And Yok Pang, an engineer and project manager who uses Geographic Information Systems to serve up major construction program data, also decided to take his six-year-old custom product to market.

Pang and his company, e2020 Technology, Irvine, Calif., use map and graphic presentations to give a versatile and understandable window for accessing information. “Maps represent a lot of quick information. You hit the target on the map and all the details come out. We designed this for capital project tracking, environmental compliance and construction management,” Pang says. The City of Los Angeles is using the system to manage the funding, planning, and construction of a $600-million bridge rehab program and others. He adds: “ A Web base is unavoidable in my mind. That is the way to go. The future is there.”