3 more clients for BIW | BIW Technologies

THREE MORE CLIENTS TURN TO BIW'S INFORMATION CHANNEL

30 April 2001

Following the closure of project collaboration systems provider iScraper, developer Garbe UK, the Welsh Development Agency and EasyEverthing have opted to use Building Information Warehouse's Project Information Channel to manage their projects.

iScraper's UK operation folded in early April. The company was managing information for 12 ongoing projects, including a £40m Garbe scheme in central London, two projects for the WDA and three EasyEverything projects. BIW offered employment to all iScraper staff and approached each client with proposals to migrate their project data from iScraper's servers to BIW's.

Transfer of drawings related to Victoria House, a grade two listed office building in Holborn, is already in progress. Garbe director William Avery said: "We were keen not to delay the Victoria House project, which is about to go out to tender. BIW presented a strong technical and commercial proposal that offered a swift migration of our data with minimal interruption to the project team's work."

The team for the Victoria House scheme includes project manager Amec Capital Projects, Alsop Architects, structural engineer Anthony Hunt Associates and building services engineer Max Fordham & Partners. All users are being offered training to help ensure a smooth transition to BIW's systems.

The WDA has agreed to transfer both projects it was running on the iScraper system to the Project Information Channel, and the migration of the data is already under way. The projects were office schemes for new businesses and growing firms at the Llantarnam business park, south Wales. One is a complex of small pavilion style offices with communal conference facilities, the other is a hi-tech multi occupancy building.

Easy Everything was planning to use iScraper for the global expansion of its Internet cafes. Gavin Kieran of Easy Everything said: "We have been pleased with progress on the transition from iScraper to BIW."

BIW chief executive Colin Smith said:

"To minimise any interruptions to work on the projects, clients and users will still have access to the iScraper system during the transition period. This helps maintain continuity. Moreover, the former iScraper employees who have joined BIW will maintain their close understanding of these clients and their projects.
"We are looking forward to helping these organisations manage their current and future projects, and I am sure other iScraper customers will be switching to BIW within the next few days."

Notes for Editors:

Building Information Warehouse (BIW) provides supply chain integration services to the global AEC (architectural, engineering and construction) community. Its core services were developed in partnership with the UK government, universities, major construction industry clients, professionals and contractors. Rather than looking at a building project from the perspective of the consultants, contractors or other professionals, BIW focuses on the end product - the client's building - and aims to capture all of the information associated with it. With the Information Channel, the client can then operate and maintain its facility more efficiently, and - for repeat clients - knowledge gained in initial projects allows continuous improvement in later schemes.
At the end of March 2001, BIW's Information Channel was being used on 298 UK projects, with a further eight overseas. Over 750 different companies use the system, with a total of 4,600 individual users. Key clients include Capital One, Sainsbury's, Crest Nicholson, Marks & Spencer, Manchester Airport, Ikea, Kajima, Asda and N G Bailey.
iScraper was founded in 1998 in Israel, and - at its peak - employed around 82 people worldwide (12 in the UK), providing services to 120 projects (with a capital value of £4 billion) and some 2,500 users around the globe. BIW offered help to all UK clients affected by the closure of iScraper. The company had worked on 35 UK projects (total capital value around £1 billion); about a dozen were 'live', including schemes for EasyEverything, Amey Ventures, Welsh Development Agency, Garbe UK, Hull SuperStadium Consortium, Chelsfield and BT/Exterior.
Garbe (UK) Limited is wholly owned by the Hamburg based Garbe Group, engaged throughout Germany in commercial developments of all types, including specialist retail outlets under the brand name of "Stilwork", recreation centres and logistics centres. The group's first project in the UK is the refurbishment of Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, which will comprise 20,000m2 of offices, retail outlets, restaurants and leisure facilities to be completed by September 2002. The Information Channel will be used for subsequent developments as they come on stream.
Established by the UK government in 1976, the WDA has been tasked with regenerating the economic prosperity of Wales in the wake of heavy industry decline in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Working for Wales and industry, the WDA has played a pivotal role in the dramatic economic development success of Wales, attracting many world class companies to invest in the country.
EasyEverything is the chain of the world's largest Internet cafés. It is the brainchild of Stelios Haji-Iannou, the easyGroup chairman, who also founded easyJet.com and easyRentacar.com. The 21 current cafés all have literally hundreds of computer terminals and all are open 24 hours a day, serving a total of over 1.6 million customers a month.