EXTRANET NEWS * Week of 17 November 2003

EXTRANET NEWS * Week of 17 November 2003
Editors: Joel Orr and N'omi Orr
http://www.extranetnews.com

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1. MERIDIAN RELEASES PROLIANCE
2. THE LIST
3. TIDBITS
4. QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Correction: Brigitte Hayes pointed out that we had misunderstood a statement she made about Groove in our interview with her, published last week; that product does not intrinsically support "versioning."

1. MERIDIAN RELEASES PROLIANCE

Joel interviewed John Bodrozic, co-founder and president of Meridian Project Systems (www.mps.com).

MPS is one of the most stable and respected companies in AEC project management. Privately held, it has been promoting its Prolog suite of project-management tools to mid-size construction firms, in the 50-500-employee range. It recently released Proliance, a complete Web-based enterprise-business-management system for large owner and construction firms ($250 million in annual revenues or more than 500 employees).

A few years ago, Meridian released ProjectTalk, an ASP that hosted Prolog so that users could purchase access to it on a price-per-seat-per-month basis. With over 75,000 users, ProjectTalk has become one of the most successful Web-based project-management systems for AEC.

Meridian moved slowly into the Web-based project-management market, lagging in particular behind some of the venture-capital-funded dotcoms. That turned out to have been a good choice, as most of the startups wound up closing or shrinking with the economy and the dotcom crash.

However, it wasn't lack of foresight that kept Meridian out of this seemingly "hot" market, but simple business caution. "We began designing Proliance in 2000," said Bodrozic. "XML and .Net were 'in the air.' We embraced both, and built a true enterprise-class suite of software--something uncommon in our industry."

"Producing as ambitious a software product as Proliance required a financially viable software company with the ability to take its time designing and building a system for third-generation IT infrastructure," he added.

"The three keys of the Proliance architecture are domain-specific applications; full process management; and a modern Web-services XML platform, designed from the ground up for ease of integration," said Bodrozic. "We felt this was very important. No 'after-thought' API could be as good as building in powerful integration capabilities."

The design team considered acquiring a workflow engine, but then decided to build their own. "We are very glad we did; workflow has turned out to be the pivotal piece of Proliance's infrastructure," remarked Bodrozic.

"While we are good .Net citizens, we do not require SQL Server; we are able to use non-MS databases, such as Oracle, as well," said Bodrozic.

Users need only have Internet Explorer 6 to access Proliance. "Also, every document has its own audit trail; you know where it is, and where it has been," said Bodrozic. "In fact, every document and data element has an XML schema, as well as a unique URL."

Early Proliance users include Trammel Crow; Skanska USA; and Gilbane, along with several others.

Who is the competition for Proliance? "We see the enterprise software vendors--principally Oracle Projects, but also SAP and others. Our advantage is that we build our products in response to the needs of operations people," he added.

The general economy's ups and downs matched the Proliance development cycle well. As business begins to pick up, Meridian is ready with this enterprise-level product. "And yet, Prolog sales have also been growing apace for the last couple of years, as well," said Bodrozic.

Cost: Proliance is highly modular; the initial installations have ranged from six to seven figures.

The software can be installed behind the user's firewall, or run on the ProjectTalk ASP system.

Our take: MPS has quietly assumed a leadership role in the world of construction-management software for large companies. We don't think firms with more general orientations, such as Oracle and SAP, will be able to compete effectively with MPS's industry-specific features and culture.

2. THE LIST

Total companies: 262 (see who's on The List at http://www.extranetnews.com/).

3. TIDBITS

· LIVE! "HOW TO SELECT AND IMPLEMENT AN EXTRANET" - Dr. Joel Orr is the lead presenter of a two-hour teleseminar that can save you time and money. Hear live users’ comments. Q&A with users and Dr. Joel Orr. 19 November or 24 November, each at 1 pm EST.
Cost to attend: $39.
Go to www.extranetnews.com for more info and registration.

· Basex Collaborative Business Environments Conference
2 December; The Penn Club; New York, New York. www.strategicthinkers.com/strategic/dec03agenda.nsf/pages/home

· Conference Board of Canada Strategic Project Management Conference. 3-4 December, 2003; Hilton Toronto; 145 Richmond Street, West Toronto, ON Canada M5H 2L2. www.conferenceboard.ca/conf/dec03/project_mgmt/overview.htm

· PROJECT EXTRANETS IV: SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATIVE WORKING; MAXIMISING EXTRANETS FOR OPTIMUM RESULTS, organized by Ross Sturley and Construction News, London, England, 3 December 2003, at the IEE Savoy Place. The one I attended a couple of years ago was outstanding.
See http://www.projectextranets.co.uk/ for information.

· Knowledge Management for Government
15-16 December, Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA. http://www.federalevents.com/km/overview.shtml

· COFES2004: The Congress on the Future of Engineering Software
1-4 April, 2004, in Scottsdale, AZ. The usual extravaganza; not just talks! Keynote: Dr. John Koza, inventor of genetic programming. Mark your calendar! A chance to meet with other smart people under magnificent conditions and talk about the future of engineering technology!
http://www.cofes.com Check the site to learn who has already registered to attend!

4. QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever."

--Thomas Jefferson

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