NEW VERSION OF BIW SOFTWARE DELIVERS MAJOR CLIENT AND USER BENEFITS

18 June 2001

BIW Technologies (formerly Building Information Warehouse) has launched a new version of its collaboration technology, offering significant additional benefits to clients and users. BIW has also modified the branding of its core service and created a new corporate identity to emphasise its role as a technology provider.

Its core collaboration technology, Project Information Channel, will now be known as 'BIW Information Channel'. BIW chief executive Colin Smith explained: "For many people, a project involves just the design and build phases, and most collaboration systems focus only on these aspects. BIW Information Channel, however, is a whole-life service. It captures information for use beyond the construction stage, allowing an owner to operate, maintain and improve the facility more efficiently.

"Adopting the name BIW Information Channel also links us back to the product's UK research origins," he continues. "In 1998, the Process Protocol project at Salford University produced a generic design, construct and maintenance process for the construction industry, and specified the need for an 'information channel' to enable the whole supply chain to communicate and archive what was done and when."

Major software advances

The new issue of BIW Information Channel, version 3.0, has a fresh 'look and feel' and incorporates many additional features requested by existing clients and users of BIW's service.

Each user's home page is now configurable. In addition to the project summary, users can choose a range of complementary information sources customised to their role. Since many users operate across many projects simultaneously, the home page can also indicate whether they have documents for review in their associated projects.

Facilities for viewing drawings and their associated details have been enhanced. BIW has developed its own CAD viewer, usable by both PC and Mac users. This viewer offers additional features including distance and area measurement, plus a mark-up ('red-lining') functionality that is fully integrated with BIW Information Channel's existing database-driven commenting system.

Other new features include: support for Request for Information (RFIs), Technical Questions (TQs), and for issuing instructions, simplifying information-sharing within disparate teams; a Project Calendar for project meeting management; a Project Milestones system to help project managers monitor progress against critical milestones; a simple to use 'Document Explorer' search facility to help locate and view documents quickly; and a new batch document loader which works on both PCs and Macs without need for local software.

• Setting-up drawing registers is now simpler, and there have been improvements in how site photographs are handled.
• Project information co-ordinators can now create global issue lists for use throughout their projects.
• The security set-up has been enhanced.

"BIW has been providing online services to UK clients and their project teams for more than three years now, and our user base is increasingly sophisticated in its demands," says Smith. "These improvements will help Information Channel maintain its dominance of the UK collaboration services sector, but we are not resting on our laurels. As a responsive application service provider, we are already working on the next version so that we stay two steps ahead of the competition."

New corporate identity

Reflecting its focus on technology, BIW has decided to change its name from Building Information Warehouse to BIW Technologies, BIW for short. "Our clients and partners already abbreviated our name," says Smith. "We have now formalised this." A new company logo has been devised and, as part of the revamp, BIW has also reorganised its web presence.

It has created a dedicated corporate website (www.biwtech.com) giving detailed information about the business and its services. This is now separate from the long-established portal, the Building Information Warehouse (www.biw.co.uk) which still features its core service: a free, searchable database of industry organisations, including suppliers, contractors, consultants and trade bodies.

More information from:
Paul Wilkinson, BIW head of corporate communications - 0845 1300 800 or mobile 07788 445920

Notes to editors:

• BIW's project collaboration systems were first employed in 1998 on UK construction projects for Sainsbury and BAA. The customer list now includes Capital One Bank, housebuilder Crest Nicholson, Marks & Spencer, Manchester Airport, Ikea, the Welsh Development Agency, developer Garbe UK and Asda. As the technology is adopted by each client's supply chain, BIW's Information Channel user base has grown rapidly. By the end of May 2001, it was being used by over 5500 people from 920 companies working on some 350 UK projects.
• BIW Information Channel is a sophisticated web-based supply chain integration tool or 'project portal', originally designed specifically for construction projects. 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 specifications, through detailed design, buildability studies, pre-fabrication, construction, maintenance, operation and improvement, to the eventual demolition or dismantling of the facility.