EXTRANET NEWS * Week of
Editors: Joel Orr and N'omi Orr
http://www.extranetnews.com
1. BUZZSAW: HELPING OWNERS BUILD TRUST
2. THE LIST
3. TIDBITS
4. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
1. BUZZSAW: HELPING OWNERS BUILD TRUST
EXTRANET NEWS spoke with Chris Bradshaw, VP of Autodesk Building Collaboration Services, and Gabrielle Friedy, the group's PR manager.
Autodesk Buzzsaw began as a venture-funded startup, populated largely by Autodesk executives. After running through most of its $90 million, it was folded back into Autodesk.
It's tempting to characterize the story as "rich kid leaves home, spends all his parents' money, then goes back to live at home again. That wouldn't be a helpful metaphor here.
I think it's more like this: Someone believes that the AEC community desperately needs the benefits of Web-based collaboration. But the community doesn't have money to experiment with. Plus, the convoluted business nature of construction projects means that "more productive" doesn't always translate into "I make more money." So there is pretty stiff cultural resistance to automation of any kind.
So this someone says, "Let's make it easy to use. Let's invest in an infrastructure so solid that security won't come up as an issue. And let's let people try it out by giving it away for free."
Then the dotcom market crashed. Autodesk, still believing in the idea, still appreciating the value of the executive team, takes the company back and continues to build.
The alternate scenario is of a valid business idea that encounters difficulty with a major change in the market, but is recognized as having intrinsic value, worth saving and refining.
Now Autodesk Buzzsaw supports 600+ accounts, with more than 70,000 active, paying seats. "We're very careful about the numbers we claim now," said Friedy. "They don't include any 'trial' users or any inactive seats." That's to be expected; accountants for public companies are a lot more conservative than the bean-counters in startups.
And the numbers are steadily increasing. With accounts such as Toys 'R' Us, Six Continents (a hotel chain), and Chick-fil-A, Buzzsaw is really getting a workout.
What piece of the market seems to be the "sweet spot" for Buzzsaw? "We're finding the most traction with owners," said Bradshaw. "They have the most at stake, and they also have the ability to tell everyone else what to use. But not all owners—primarily those for whom the building is a revenue-generating asset, like a hotel chain, a hospital corporation, or a retail store chain. Not, say, a software company, even if they are building a new campus." This is a recurring theme among vendors today. Timely completion can "make or break" one of these owners, so Web-based project management holds many clear benefits for them.
What slows down adoption? "I noticed with our larger accounts that every project seems to hit a 'lack of trust' phase, where sharing ends," said Bradshaw. "Most of the companies have 'tiger teams' that travel around from project to project. They share everything, and trust each other's estimates and commitments. But when they deal with people outside their team—contractors, subs, and so on—they find that they are not given good information or meaningful commitments."
"'What do you do to track things?' I asked. In one case, a 'tiger team' member showed me a huge check-list, with over 200 items, that he had developed over many years and many projects. He said he can gauge how far along things really are by how many items he has checked off on his list."
"Another man told me, 'When I see a particular counter appear in the store, I know we are a certain number of days away from opening.' So that's why these people weren't excited about seeing Buzzsaw interface to Microsoft Project or to Prolog," Bradshaw said. "They feel that better reporting mechanisms won't improve the quality of the data."
"On the other hand, builders swear by project management and scheduling tools. But that's the world they control," Bradshaw added.
What makes you different from your competitors, aside from being owned by the Coca-Cola of CAD companies? "Ease of use and ease of learning," said Bradshaw. "There isn't a great variation in features among the vendors in this space. But our system was expressly designed to resemble Microsoft's desktop and tools, and to support drag-and-drop. So for anyone who has ever used Windows, there's very little learning before they can be productive."
"We're also more reliable than most of our competitors. We commit to 99.99% uptime; that works out to no more than four minutes of downtime per month. Much of the original $90 million went into creating an infrastructure that can support that commitment," he continued.
"And our users know that their information is not getting hidden away in some proprietary data structure. All their files are right there, always accessible. I've found that's important to people."
What's coming? "Growth. Localization into French, Chinese, and other languages—and not just content, but training and sales, too. And, yes, better interfaces to scheduling and other applications," said Bradshaw.
Our take: To me, Buzzsaw
seems to take a far less technological approach to its market than some of its
competitors. The product isn't trying to win the feature race. But perhaps it
has found a key rhythm—the rate at which its market is willing to accept
technology. It seems to be marching to the beat of that drummer, rather than
that of
2. THE LIST
Total companies: 255 (see who's on The List at http://www.extranetnews.com/)
3. TIDBITS
bom.com becomes Arena Solutions, joins ranks of PLM providers. Read all about it: http://www.arenasolutions.com. (I nominate their splash page for "most informative and attractive opening animation.")
· Not only can Joel's upcoming book, "The Dandelion Principle: Structuring for Greatness," be previewed at http://www.dandelionprinciple.com, but you can also sign up there to receive a series of "seedlings" from "The Dandelion Principle" via email. So what are you waiting for?
· Constructware (http://www.constructware.com) has just added what may well be their best-yet white paper to their collection of edifying materials: "Achieving the Benefits of Data Exchange: Trends and Options - Enterprise Data Management for the Construction Industry." While the title is long, it is descriptive. And the white paper is very well-written, and nicely illustrated with diagrams. Kudos to Scott Unger, Steve Setzer, and crew!
· Groove Networks contracted with IDC to write a white paper: "There's More to Collaboration than Email." It's a worthwhile read: http://www.groove.net/extras/beyondemail/idc/?tip=1202h
·
International
Builders' Show;
·
International
Air-Conditioning Heating Refrigerating Exposition;
·
COFES2003,
4. QUOTE OF THE
WEEK
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be
our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot
alter the state of facts and evidence."
- John Quincy
Entire newsletter copyright © Cyon
Research Corporation 2003