BIW’s web-based collaboration platform now allows team members to respond even more quickly and appropriately to new information. By integrating document review and the relevant follow-up actions it lets users initiate context-sensitive processes with just a click of a mouse.
For designers, BIW Information Channel version 4.3 also features major new commenting capabilities and extended support for AutoCAD users; BIW also offers change management support for commonly-used contracts, and has expanded its archive services to meet different project team member requirements.
Demonstrated at BIW User Groups held in Woking on 6-8 July, the new features prompted one architect to say they put BIW “light years ahead of the competition”.
“This is a major advance for online collaboration,” says BIW chief executive Colin Smith. “Simple storing or sharing information (documents, drawings, forms, etc) online is no longer enough - organisations want better support for key business processes. BIW is leading the way in delivering better individual and team processes.
The ‘Integration’ edition
“We have dubbed it the ‘Integration’ edition to reflect our objective of supporting information, people and processes. When presented with new information – a new design drawing, for example – BIW users will be able to use their view of that data as the starting point for new processes. They can quickly and efficiently channel their reactions to team colleagues without having to switch between different applications.”
Uniquely among the leading UK providers of online collaboration technologies, BIW has continued to invest heavily in its own visual collaboration environment (VCE). Other providers use separate, third-party viewing products; this means users must ‘jump’ between applications when they need to issue notices or ask for clarifications about the drawing, document or form they have been reviewing. The BIW Information Channel VCE, by contrast, allows a BIW user to launch a wide range of formal processes seamlessly associated with the item under review.
For example, while still viewing a drawing, a BIW user could, in addition to conventional commenting and ‘red-lining’ dialogues, instigate a request for information (RFI), a change order request, an early warning notice, an instruction or – depending on his or her role in a project – any of several other formal processes.
BIW contract packs
In particular, BIW Information Channel can also be pre-configured to meet the communication requirements of project teams working to the most widely-used contracts such as the NEC and JCT forms. Recognising that many team members will need to request and agree contract changes – through early warning notices, change order requests, notifications of compensation events, etc – the BIW system can be configured to integrate standard notices with information relating to the ongoing project and relevant team members.
To further improve the familiar ‘look and feel’ of commonly-used documents, online notices, submittals and other forms can also incorporate any logos or other branding devices used by each company, and can include any number of fields, along with titles, dividers, bold text and other formatting.
Major new commenting features
Continued ‘ease of use’ development related to the VCE has also expanded the BIW system’s online commenting capabilities. Significantly, designers and other users can now add file attachments to their on-screen comments, such as sketches or ‘red-lined’ mark-ups on drawings or other documents. Such comments and attachments can also be targeted at particular users or made private, ensuring issues can be resolved through quicker, more focused collaboration between interested parties.
BIW/AutoCAD integration
BIW is also expanding its complementary set of integration tools. Through a BIW plug-in, designers using AutoCAD can already publish drawings to BIW Information Channel more quickly and without leaving their CAD application. Colleagues using AutoCAD LT will now be able to purchase a BIW plug-in to do the same.
BIW Archive service
While some BIW customers choose to retain the online system as a tool for ongoing operation and maintenance management purposes, BIW also offers archive facilities whereby the client can receive a portable hard disk drive containing all the project documentation and exchanges between project team members, complete with a web-interface to enable them to navigate the data as though it was live. BIW has now extended this service to cover all members of the supply chain – particularly useful where firms may need to retain records for professional indemnity insurance (PII) purposes, for example. Instead of having to maintain their own separate electronic or hard-copy archive of project-related communications, contractors, consultants, subcontractors and other team members can now also receive a device containing all the data to which they had access, or which was issued to them, during the project.
Other BIW Information Channel enhancements
- A ‘publishing lock’ allows users within a company to temporarily check-out and then check-in files so that other users do not start to edit the same drawing or document simultaneously.
- The project calendar feature can now show meetings and other project milestones across multiple projects where the user is working on several schemes at once. It can also be used to schedule recurring team meetings, and users can synchronise events between MS Outlook and their BIW calendar.
Faster decision-making, lower costs, greater efficiency
“Software development for such demanding markets as the UK architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), property and utilities sectors is a delicate balancing act,“ says Smith. “On the one hand, we need to show new users that we have a simple user-friendly interface that works how they want to work. On the other, we also have to respond to the demands of our more sophisticated and experienced users for increasingly rich functionality. With the ‘Integration’ edition, I think we have achieved both objectives. “For most users, actions are stimulated by something they have seen or read – a CAD drawing, minutes of a meeting, or an information request – and it is logical for them to respond directly to that stimulus. Because we do not rely on third-party viewing applications, we have much greater control over how users interact with our collaboration platform. Whether you are a new user working with BIW Information Channel for the first time, or a seasoned user constantly looking for new functionality, the ‘Integration’ edition enables more responsive, context-sensitive collaboration – speeding up decision-making, cutting costs, and improving efficiency.”
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Notes to editors:
- 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 communication platform 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 10 July 2005, the total number of BIW Information Channel users had reached 45,552, from 4892 different organisations. Collectively, these users had logged in over 7.25 million times, to work on over 3000 projects with a total capital value estimated at around £20 billion.
- BIW customers include United Utilities, Sainsbury’s, BAA, housebuilders Crest Nicholson and the Peabody Trust, Marks & Spencer, the Ministry of Defence, the Wellcome Trust, O2, Mace, Bovis Lend Lease, Kajima, Gleeds and developers Land Securities, Ballymore and Garbe.
- BIW and BIW Information Channel are registered trademarks or trademarks of BIW Technologies Ltd.
