EXTRANET NEWS * Week of 20 October 2003

EXTRANET NEWS * Week of 20 October 2003
Editors: Joel Orr and N'omi Orr
http://www.extranetnews.com

1. DOING ONE THING WELL: CONSTRUCTION COMMUNICATOR
2. THE LIST
3. TIDBITS
4. QUOTE OF THE WEEK

1. DOING ONE THING WELL: CONSTRUCTION COMMUNICATOR

Joel interviewed Richard Sampson, Richard Sampson Associates (http://www.constructioncommunicator.com).

In "Good to Great," Stanford's Jim Collins writes, "In his famous essay, 'The Hedgehog and the Fox,' Isaiah Berlin divided the world into hedgehogs and foxes, based upon an ancient Greek parable: 'The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.'" (Read more at http://www.jimcollins.com/lab/hedgehog/index.htm.)

Richard Sampson has had a small project-management firm in Fremont, California, since the late eighties. To serve his clients, his firm developed a software tool called, "Construction Communicator," to track and manage time-critical information--mainly, RFI's (requests for information).

Most construction-related extranets have an RFI-tracking facility as part of their suite of features. Of course, to get it, you have to implement the whole suite.

Construction Communicator does one thing, and does it well: RFI tracking and management. For $500 per project, with no limit on the number of users, your RFI's can be under control.

It's Web-based, so there is no software to buy and install. It's easy to learn and to use, so there is virtually no training cost. And it is secure, and designed so that only people who are authorized to see the information actually get to see it.

What's not to like? Well, if I were a construction professional, I'd be concerned about piecemeal automation of the project process. RFI's are just a piece of the picture. How well will this piece integrate with other pieces when I decide to go further?

But this is a product born of the practical needs of a project management company. It is relatively new to the market, with not many users, but it is not a software geek's idea for making money from AEC; it is a real tool.

RSA just added submittal tracking as an additional feature.

Our take: Sounds like a good product to try in an organization that has shied away from comprehensive automation; the risk/benefit ratio seems very favorable. But I'd ask about the future, and integration with more pieces of the project-management picture.

2. THE LIST

Total companies: 261 (see who's on The List at http://www.extranetnews.com/).

ADDED: Construction Communicator

3. TIDBITS

· HARVARD CDI: On November 5 through 7, 2003, CDI is hosting its annual conference for the AEC/RE industry. http://www.cdi.gsd.harvard.edu/conference2003

· 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.

4. QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

--John Adams

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