EXTRANET NEWS *
Published Weekly
Editors: Joel Orr, N'omi Orr, Stephen Orr
http://www.extranetnews.com
1. ConstructWare:
In Step with the Market
2. The List
3. Tidbits
4. Quote of the Week
1.
ConstructWare: In Step with the Market
EXTRANET NEWS interviewed
Scott Unger, CEO, and Steve Setzer, PR. (http://www.constructware.com) We also spoke with Laura Dowling,
director of information services for WELBRO Building Corporation, a ConstructWare customer.
At a time when most AEC
extranets are struggling to stay afloat, ConstructWare
is prospering: 2001 sales were $8.5 million, up from $3 million in 2000.
EXTRANET NEWS believes that this success is due to the company’s unerring
ability to keep pace with their customers, while most of their competitors have
tried to bring computer technology to the construction industry before the
participants were ready for it.
Everything Unger and Setzer
told us was simple, buy-low-and-sell-high stuff. Example from Unger: “Software
is a productivity tool. It only works if it helps people do things better,
faster, and cheaper.” Self-evident, you say? Then how come ConstructWare
almost tripled last year, while other companies had massive layoffs?
Perhaps part of the secret
is that Unger was a builder before he started this software company. His
understanding of his customers is total. “We started with builders; now we have
architects, and are beginning to see the subcontractors join in,” he said.
The 80-person company - 15
were added just this year – operates as an ASP (application service provider),
so that the customers need not install software on their systems. “Everything
is taken care of at our data center,” says Unger. “We are experts in backup and
security. Uunet hosts for us; their data center is
directly on the Internet backbone.”
The software is a true
Web-based application; it does not use Citrix terminals.
“We sell direct, and we
keep our price low. You buy by the project user: It’s
$540 per user per year.”
User Laura Dowling, of
WELBRO Building Corporation, began using ConstructWare
when it was specified in a bid received from a government agency. "WELBRO
had a collaborative Domino/Lotus Notes-based construction management system
that was working well but didn't allow for collaboration with outside entities.
To stay competitive, WELBRO knew we needed to extend, and we decided to
pilot Constructware on a design/build project for the
“ConstructWare
made it easy and inexpensive for us to try a pilot project,” said Dowling.
“When we did, we were hooked. The system literally puts everyone on the same
page,” she said.
“Also, I love how ConstructWare listens to its customers. They have made
themselves accountable to us: Every year at the user conference, they build a
list of promises based on user requests. The following year, they give
themselves a ‘report card’ on how well they kept their promises.”
We asked ConstructWare about customizability. “We’ve got a pretty
good idea of the workflow requirements in construction, and they are much the
same from one company to another. We don’t offer APIs (application program
interfaces). Our customers aren’t programmers, and would rather not need them,”
said Unger.
WELBRO’s Dowling added, “I want as little software here as possible. It’s
just getting too expensive to manage.” ConstructWare’s
Web-based nature takes care of that.
What’s the next set of
features to be added? “Integration with accounting systems,” said Unger. “Also,
wireless for field workers is coming, but not quite yet.”
Our take: Good product –
remarkable company!
2. THE LIST
Total companies: 253 (see
who’s on The List at http://www.extranetnews.com)
We’ve decided that the
recently-popular “blogs” (short for “Web logs”) are a form of extranet, and we
will begin tracking them and examining their use.
Most blogs are personal
diaries, an easy way to say, “Here’s a link to an interesting site, and here is
why I think so.” Many are boringly, cloyingly, embarrassingly personal, like
the diary of a pubescent thirteen-year-old. In fact, many of them ARE diaries
of pubescent thirteen-year-olds, complete with dirty words.
But the fact that there are
many terrible blogs does not impugn the technology. Go to, say, Blogger.com,
and you can set up a free collaborative journal in minutes.
(To probe further, here’s a
page with a list of definitions and explorations of blogs and blogging:
http://www.lights.com/weblogs/definitions.html.)
We’ll be searching for
applications of blogs in engineering-related activities and reporting on them;
if you find any, please let us know at editor@extranetnews.com. Meanwhile,
we’ll start listing the blog services and products we discover in The List. And
as we review the products and services in depth, we’ll delete the ones that are
simply not useful to the engineering community.
ADDED: 17
Actify SpinFire, visualization and
collaboration software;
Antville.org, an
experimental open source site;
Blogger.com, apparently the
most popular blog site;
DiaryLand.com, mainly
personal;
Drupal.org, open source
content management;
Free-Conversant.com,
discussions and collaboration;
GreyMatter.com, powerful,
customizable free software;
LiveJournal.com, mainly
personal, but still usable;
MoveableType.org, software
for creating your blog;
Pitas.com, simple and
mostly personal;
PostNuke.com, content
management tools;
Quicktopic.com, free and
simple discussion group and document-sharing software;
Radio UserLand,
blog software from the legendary Dave Winer;
Scoop.kuro5hin.org, media
collaboration software and service;
Weblogger.com, more
business-oriented than most;
Xanga.com,
mostly personal, but with flexible features.
3. TIDBITS
* Go to
http://www.enr.com/new/indcal.asp for ENR’s
construction industry calendar.
* The seminar
"Introduction to Lean Construction" will be presented in
* Check out CADwire: Go to http://www.cadwire.net for a daily dose of well-organized news, press releases, and
commentary from Joel and his associates in Cyon
Research Corporation.
* Spend time with industry
and media leaders in a resort environment. “The best industry event in 20
years!” agree most attendees. REGISTER NOW: COFES 2002 - The Third Congress on
the Future of Engineering Software is scheduled for May 2-5 at the
* Coming up soon: AIA
Technology in Architectural Practice Spring Conference: Six Degrees of
Collaboration
See http://www.aia.org/pia/tap/conference/schedule.asp for details.
* The American Institute of
Architects 2002 National Convention and Expo;
* Attend A/E/C SYSTEMS
2002,
4. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Here in
- Dwight D. Eisenhower