December 2002 saw two milestones: the total number of users of the BIW Information Channel service passed the 20,000 mark, and BIW now hosts information relating to over 1,000 projects. At 29 December, the total number of registered users had reached 20,648, from 2493 different companies. The total number of projects was 1015, with a total capital value conservatively estimated at around £9 billion. Over 297,000 drawings have been published on the system to date, along with 161,000 other documents.
BIW chief executive Colin Smith says: “Industry surveys indicate that collaboration technology is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception for all significant construction projects, and our latest statistics confirm this trend. We passed the 10,000 mark in November 2001; just over twelve months later, our user-base has more than doubled, and is now growing at a rate of some 900 new users every month.
“At one time, prospective clients were reluctant to select a system just in case the provider’s hosting infrastructure proved incapable of supporting their projects. We are attracting a growing number of clients who recognise that we offer a highly reliable, robust, secure and scalable service. Tens of thousands of industry professionals use our system every week; we now average over 110,000 user sessions every month.”
BIW clients include Sainsbury’s, Capital One Bank, housebuilders Crest Nicholson and the Peabody Trust, Marks & Spencer, BAA, the Ministry of Defence, the Welsh Development Agency, O2, Asda, the Wellcome Trust, Kajima and developers Stanhope and Garbe.
Smith adds: “The number of projects we host is not artificially inflated by counting lots of small schemes within large multi-site programmes. For example, Gleeds recently announced (December 2002) that it is to manage 92 High Street refurbishment projects for 02 using BIW Information Channel. We counted this as one project; if we did count each location separately, our projects total would be well over 2000.”
Note to editors
- Project collaboration services from BIW Technologies (www.biwtech.com) were first employed in 1999 on UK construction projects for Sainsbury. BIW believes it is the European leader in web-based collaboration systems for the construction and property industry, measured by both number of projects and number of users.
- At 29 December 2002, the total number of drawings was 297,201; the total number of documents stood at 161,243.
- BIW Information Channel is a sophisticated web-based supply chain integration technology, designed specifically for construction projects or programmes. Each client is provided with a unique, project-specific website created around a knowledge database. Using this, all data can be made available to every project team member – from the earliest concepts and specification, through detailed design, buildability studies, pre-fabrication, construction, maintenance, operation and improvement to the eventual demolition or dismantling of the facility.
- Recognising that hosting involved complementary but non-core skills and expertise, BIW sought a ‘managed hosting’ partner capable of creating and managing the sophisticated technical infrastructure needed to deliver its software technologies. BIW’s managed host, Attenda procures, configures, installs and maintains the necessary servers, routers, firewalls and other devices. Once configured, Attenda then provides dedicated bandwidth for BIW’s applications, and connects the servers to the web via its own network, where the application is constantly monitored to ensure availability and optimal performance. With Attenda, BIW is able to implement, maintain and update services in less time and with higher reliability than other hosting methods. Moreover, managed hosting ensures BIW’s technology services remain easily and seamlessly scalable. This is vital as its user base grows, as demand for bandwidth increases, and as the applications are upgraded.
