Desk research is currently underway and the study’s telephone survey phase is scheduled to take place during May and June 2006. The results will be released at an NCCTP conference in the autumn.
“Each individual vendor can produce case studies and anecdotal evidence of the benefits of their own collaboration system,” says Duncan Mactear from 4Projects, chairman of the NCCTP’s marketing group which commissioned the research. “However, we are looking to identify what benefits might be shared by users across all the NCCTP members’ systems.”
The research is the latest NCCTP initiative to promote awareness and interest in construction collaboration technologies. In November 2005, the group held a successful one-day conference – ‘Making collaboration pay’ – in London.
“The UK construction industry needs a source of informed, reliable and vendor-neutral advice and information about collaboration systems,” says BIW’s Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the market research steering group and author of a recently published book on the subject. “We hope the Benchmark survey will validate the claims we make about our various systems, helping convince more industry professionals to take their first steps with ‘extranets’.”
- ends - Notes to editors:
- The Network for Construction Collaboration Technology Providers (NCCTP) was established in late 2003 to promote the effective use of online technology to support collaborative working on construction projects.
- The NCCTP’s members include all the leading UK providers: 4Projects, Aconex, Asite, BIW Technologies, BuildOnline, Business Collaborator, Cadweb, Causeway Technologies and Sarcophagus.
- Paul Wilkinson’s book “Construction Collaboration Technologies: The Extranet Evolution” was published by Taylor & Francis in September 2005, and has been endorsed by the NCCTP as the UK’s first detailed guide to construction project ‘extranets’.
- Benchmark was established in 1985 to provide specialist market information to meet the needs of UK manufacturers and providers of IT solutions. It has also developed an impressive track record in researching the training, public sector, construction and the trade and exhibition sectors.
