Dear Sir

In the article ‘On the extranet trail’ (NCE, 7 March 2002) Francis Newman says: ‘Cadweb is the only e-project management system on the UK market … meeting the requirements of British Standards ISO 17799.”

I would support [his] first statement [that growth in the use of project extranets will be matched by an increase in disputes] – up to a point – but Mr Newman’s claim is inaccurate.

We may see an increase in disputes, but the scale will depend upon the care that clients and their project teams put into selecting their e-project management system.

First, will they choose a system that encourages collaboration of the kind envisaged by Latham and Egan, or simply try to replicate existing, often confrontational, processes using electronic means?

Second, will they choose a system delivered via a secure, robust and reliable technology infrastructure, ideally audited to recognised standards such as ISO 17799?

Over 600 projects to date have been managed using BIW Information Channel, and so far we have had no legal disputes relating to data being lost or corrupted, nor any questions about documents’ legal status. In the event that such a dispute should arise, we can draw on the resources of our hosting partner Attenda which also implements ISO 17799.

Yours sincerely

Colin Smith
Chief executive
BIW Technologies