KAJIMA ADOPTS BIW INFORMATION CHANNEL AS CORPORATE STANDARD

24 June 2002 
 
Construction industry giants find collaboration technology cuts costs

The European arm of Kajima, one of the world’s five largest contractors, has agreed a four-year deal, potentially worth £1 million, to employ collaboration systems from BIW Technologies (BIW) as its corporate standard for all projects in the UK and mainland Europe up to 2005.

This follows a recent £1.5 million contract extension between BIW and Sainsbury’s Property Company to use the BIW Information Channel collaboration web service on the management of all existing and future projects until 2005.

BIW Information Channel is now used by over 2,000 companies working on 700 projects worth in excess of £6 billion. Increasingly, companies are using the BIW technology to manage entire series of projects not only during the design and construction phase but also as a knowledge base for future operation of the facilities.

Kajima first used the BIW Information Channel communication platform on a retail project in north Wales in 2000 and has since employed BIW’s system on more than a dozen other projects, including office developments in central London, government agency buildings in East Anglia and Merseyside, and factory buildings in northern France. The contract could net BIW over £1 million over the next three years if Kajima’s workload continues to expand.

Dick Barker, managing director of Kajima Construction Europe (UK) says: “In every project where we have used this technology, we have saved time, cut costs and improved efficiency during design and construction. Moreover, the system has helped to support and differentiate our bids for private finance initiative (PFI) projects; for example, by using the technology from the earliest stages, BIW Information Channel helped the Kajima-led multidisciplinary team achieve preferred bidder status for the £33.5 million North Tyneside schools scheme.”

North Tyneside Council approved the selection of a consortia headed by Kajima Europe as its preferred bidder for its Schools for the Future PFI project on 16 April 2002. Kajima is working with architect Seymour Harris Keppie on the scheme, which covers four new schools in Wallsend and Whitley Bay. Kajima will provide ongoing maintenance of the schools throughout the 30-year contract along with cleaning, catering and grounds maintenance services.

“The huge number of drawings and other documents already managed using BIW Information Channel will grow as this project moves from the design phase through construction on site and onto management of the finished schools,” adds Barker. “We are creating a knowledge base to help us manage these facilities throughout their operational lives.”

“For a growing number of customers like Sainsbury’s and Kajima, BIW has moved beyond support for individual projects, and is helping them manage entire series of projects,” says BIW chief executive Colin Smith.

“Through collaboration, teams can develop innovations that differentiate their bids and make them more competitive. Where contractors such as Kajima are regularly involved in PFI-type work, our technology also helps them to capture the experience, information and best practice generated on early bids. This can be re-used to promote continuous performance improvement and to reduce risk on later schemes.”

More information from:

• Paul Wilkinson, BIW Technologies: 0845 1300 800 (mobile 07788 445920)
• Seamus Mockler, Kajima Construction Europe (UK): 020 7465 0007 (mobile 07866 734234)
• Tina Christou, Sainsbury’s Property Company: 020 7695 7571

Notes to editors

• BIW Information Channel is a sophisticated web-based supply chain integration technology, 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 specification, through detailed design, buildability studies, pre-fabrication, construction, maintenance, operation and improvement to the eventual demolition or dismantling of the facility.
• Project collaboration services from BIW Technologies (www.biwtech.com) were first employed in 1998 on UK construction projects for Sainsbury. The customer list now includes Capital One Bank, housebuilder Crest Nicholson, the Peabody Trust, Marks & Spencer, Manchester Airport, the Ministry of Defence, Ikea, the Welsh Development Agency, Asda, the Wellcome Trust, and developers Stanhope and Garbe.
• In June 2002, the total number of users of BIW Information Channel passed the 15,000 mark. They are drawn from over 2,000 companies, and are working on some 700 projects worth in excess of £6 billion.
• In the UK, Kajima Europe’s successes include showcase projects such as Stockley Park, Europe's pioneering and highly successful business park; a complex refurbishment in London Piccadilly for the Embassy of Japan; and major London office developments for Daiwa, MID, Goldman Sachs, Railtrack, Sumitomo and Cable & Wireless, among others.
• Sainsbury’s was one of the first to employ web-based collaboration systems to speed up design and delivery of new projects, beginning with its Clapham store in 1998. Since then, the retailer has adopted BIW’s system as its standard communication platform on over 400 UK projects