The training courses were backed by the Network for Construction Collaboration Technology Providers (NCCTP). This trade body was established to promote the effective use of online technology to support collaborative working on construction projects, and the initiative with CITA was its first venture in Ireland.
If there is further demand for similar training, other NCCTP members will be invited to deliver courses – the NCCTP’s members include all the leading UK providers: 4Projects, BIW Technologies, BuildOnline, Business Collaborator, Cadweb, Causeway Technologies and Sarcophagus.
“We circulated details of the proposed course in early April and received numerous expressions of interest,” says CITA’s Alan Hore. “We quickly had to organise an additional course to cope with the demand.”
“BIW is keen to develop the NCCTP’s relationship with CITA,” says Paul Wilkinson, head of corporate communications at BIW. “We know that many professionals in Ireland’s construction industry are interested in collaboration technologies, and BIW’s system, BIW Information Channel, has already been deployed on several Irish projects.”
• For more information on CITA or the CITA courses, go to www.cita.ie
• For more information about the NCCTP, go to www.ncctp.net
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Notes to editors:
- More information from Judy Costigan, CITA Events & Marketing Manager, Dublin – +353-21-4887057
- The Construction IT Alliance was established in 2001 to encourage participants in the Irish construction industry to harness the potential of information and communications technologies and to act as a catalyst for industrial collaboration. Its objectives are: - To inform the Irish construction sector of relevant IT developments - To establish and disseminate best practice in the use of IT in the construction sector - To encourage IT related research and training collaboration between the Irish academic sector and the leading firms in the Irish construction sector - To establish and maintain links with relevant national and international organisations - To encourage the strategic use of IT by all firms in the Irish construction sector
- Project collaboration services from BIW Technologies (www.biwtech.com) were first employed in 1999 on UK construction projects for Sainsbury’s. BIW believes it is the European leader in web-based collaboration systems for the construction and property industry, measured by numbers of users, usage and volume of data.
- 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 or programme-specific website created around a knowledge database. With this, data can be made available securely to every team member – from the earliest concepts, through detailed design, buildability studies, pre-fabrication, construction, maintenance, operation and improvement to the eventual demolition or dismantling of the facility.
- At 1 May 2005, the total number of BIW Information Channel users had reached 43,286, from 4667 different companies. Collectively, these users had logged in over 6.5 million times, to work on around 2700 projects with a total capital value estimated at around £18 billion.
- BIW customers include United Utilities, Sainsbury’s, BAA, housebuilders Crest Nicholson and the Peabody Trust, Marks & Spencer, the UK Ministry of Defence, the Wellcome Trust, O2, Mace, Bovis Lend Lease, Kajima, Gleeds and developers Ballymore, Land Securities and Garbe.
- BIW and BIW Information Channel are registered trademarks or trademarks of BIW Technologies Ltd.
