BIW COMES TO RESCUE OF iSCRAPER CUSTOMERS

11 April 2001

Building Information Warehouse, the leading UK provider of collaboration technology for construction projects, is offering help to all UK clients affected by the imminent closure of service provider iScraper.

"As we realised that we could no longer sustain the business on our own, we identified BIW as the UK market leader and sought their support," says Peter Ross, UK managing director of iScraper. The company has worked on 35 UK projects (total capital value around £1 billion); about a dozen are currently 'live', including schemes for EasyEverything, Amey Ventures, Welsh Development Agency, Garbe UK, Hull SuperStadium Consortium, Chelsfield and BT/Exterior.

BIW has recruited all of iScraper's UK staff, including the three directors. The new recruits are already working with BIW's 51-strong, UK-based team to finalise plans enabling iScraper's customers to switch to BIW's Information Channel. With detailed, 'in-house' knowledge of the iScraper technology and personal understanding of each customer's requirements, BIW believes it can work closely with any iScraper client wishing to ensure the minimum amount of disruption to their project.

"Clients will clearly not want ongoing projects to be disrupted, so we are creating the procedures that will allow them to migrate their projects to our Information Channel platform," says BIW chief executive Colin Smith. "With the former iScraper staff on our team, I think clients will be confident that BIW offers the best way of ensuring existing projects are not compromised by iScraper's demise"

Founded in 1998 iScraper combined staff with construction professional and technology backgrounds to develop a range of online construction management solutions. The Israel-based company opened offices in the US, UK, Germany and Spain, but last month laid off 25 staff at its Israel HQ. The Madrid office was also closed.

At the end of March 2001, BIW's Information Channel was being used on 298 UK projects, with a further eight overseas. Over 750 different companies use the system, with a total of 4,600 individual users. Key clients include Capital One, Sainsbury's, Crest Nicholson, Marks & Spencer, Manchester Airport, Ikea, Kajima, Asda and N G Bailey.

Notes for Editors:

• Building Information Warehouse (BIW) is the UK market leader in supply chain integration services to the global AEC (architectural, engineering and construction) community. Its core services were developed in partnership with the UK government, universities, major construction industry clients, professionals and contractors. Rather than looking at a building project from the perspective of the consultants, contractors or other professionals, BIW focuses on the end product - the client's building - and aims to capture all of the information associated with it. With BIW's core product, Information Channel, the client can then operate and maintain its facility more efficiently, and - for repeat clients - knowledge gained in initial projects allows continuous improvement in later schemes.
• iScraper was founded in 1998 in Israel, and established headquarters in New York, USA. It was backed by venture capital funds including APAX, ISP Corp and Softbank, and - at its peak - employed around 82 people worldwide (12 in the UK), providing services to 120 projects (with a capital value of £4 billion) and some 2,500 users around the globe. Worldwide projects include 838 Fifth Avenue, New York; the Azrieli Center, Israel; Stirbei Voda, Romania; and Hali Sofia, Bulgaria; Larger projects in UK comprise B&Q Warehouse in Middlesex; and Merry Hill and the Waterfront in West Midlands.