Back in September, Meridian Systems, a project management solutions provider, and Horizontal LLC, known for building information modeling (BIM) services, announced a joint partnership to integrate both platforms. 

By combining BIM with construction project management tools, all groups within a project, from the architect to the subcontractors, have access to information like never before, both companies said.

“In the past, there used to be islands of information here and there with no central location for everyone to access,” Jordan Brandt, a partner at Horizontal LLC, said in an interview with ConstructionSoftwareReview.com.  “But now, we’ve developed a way to leverage all the information contained within a BIM model so that everyone has instant access to the same information.”

It took about a year for Meridian and Horizontal to integrate the spatial and design data from BIM with the operational business data from the project management software. The integrated software harnesses the Horizontal Glue Server, which is a Web-based portal that acts as a central hub and allows information to pass seamlessly between the BIM models and Meridian’s Prolog and Proliance tools. When used properly, the results can lead to a reduction of costs and schedules in the planning, building and operating of capital projects and facilities.

For example, when something is added to a BIM model, such as a request for information or material quantities, it can be pushed to Proliance and Prolog in order to populate data fields. So, basically, when the BIM model is changed, all of the associated costs and related information can be tracked using Proliance or Prologue. 

“There are a lot of synergies between BIM and infrastructure lifestyle management,” Sue Watkins, director of marketing at Meridian System, said. “We see this as a disruptive change to the way that things have been traditionally done.”

So far, both Watkins and Brandt have said that they’ve heard nothing but positive responses from users. “Those who have used both software offerings have said that there has been a gap,” Brandt said. “From those who I’ve talked to, they are happy that we’ve bridged that gap.”

For more information on the benefits of both tools, check out Meridian’s white paper entitled, BIM and Project Management: Advancing Integrated Project Delivery on Capital Building Programs.

When it comes to teaching and learning, nothing beats a good ol’ book, even in 2008.

It is with that in mind that we have begun offering book excerpts to readers of ConstructionSoftwareReview.com. When we introduced you to Building Information Modeling in back in September, we pointed you to our excerpt from McGraw-Hill Professional’s aptly titled Building Information Modeling.

Now we are happy to offer two sets of excerpts for construction project management professionals; these come to us from Paul E. Harris, an Australian author and consultant who’s a certified cost engineer through AACE International and an approved trainer on the PRINCE2 project management method.

Our Primavera software book excerpts are aimed at users of P6, P3 and SureTrak. Each excerpt includes two or more chapters and demonstrates to readers practical tasks such as using Group & Sort parameters and Layout functions in Primavera P6, defining activity codes in Primavera P3 and using global and activity calendars in Primavera SureTrak.

Meanwhile, our four Microsoft Project software book excerpts each offer a different take on using MS Project for construction project management. There’s a user guide for planning and scheduling, there’s a list of “tricks and traps” that the author describes as “the casual user’s survival guide,” and there are tomes devoted to making MS Project comply with PRINCE2 and PMBOK project management principles.

Are there any books out there that have helped you understand the (software) tools that you use every day? If so, we’d love to hear about them — and then try to provide excerpts for you the reader.

Bentley Systems has released V8i, a “software portfolio for infrastructure professionals” that aims to make it easier for engineers, architects, contractors and project owner/operators to share information as they collectively design, build, operate and maintain things.

In a conference call last week, Bentley CEO Greg Bentley said the release comes at a key time, as sustainability initiatives face a global bottleneck and aging infrastructures increasingly pose a risk to the public. An “intelligent infrastructure cycle,” in which participants benefit from interoperable software tools, increases the return on investment since “information reuse [is] a rule and not an exception,” Bentley said. “All of us who create infrastructure…we can keep adding value as information is reused. Information modeling is the key.”

V8i’s core capabilities can be stated as the five things that the “I” in its name stands for, said Bentley senior vice president Bhupinder Singh. These capabilities are the following:

• Intuitive design modeling, with conceptual tools for solids and surfaces and the new Luxology rendering engine;
• Interactive dynamic views, with a simplified process for creating 3D models;
• Intrinsic geo-coordination, which offers the ability to locate files in Bentley’s ProjectWise or in Google Earth;
• “Incredible” project performance, which is aided by integration with Microsoft SharePoint; and
• Interoperability, as the software can use documents from file formats such as PDF, DGN, DWG and ISO 15926. (Additional information about this functionality is available in Bentley’s Interoperability Platform White Paper.)

The V8i home page includes links to the product’s core capabilities and to user testimonials (both in print and in video).

Maxwell Systems has released an updated version of American Contractor, its construction business management software product. Version 8.0 introduces three main feature sets, Maxwell said in a statement:

• One, the user interface has been revamped to mimic Microsoft Outlook. This gives users the ability to do things such as open multiple records at the same time.
• Two, users can now sort lists by dragging and dropping column headers. There’s also a Find feature for lists and a new set of list filters, Maxwell said.
• Three, construction estimating documents such as RFIs and transmittals are now available for proposals.

You can learn more about American Contractor 8.0 over at the Maxwell Systems website.  

Forrester Research has weighed in on Oracle’s purchase of Primavera. In a blog entry, Margo Visitacion and Ray Wang note, not surprisingly, that it’s a sensible deal:

Primavera has long dominated the enterprise/capital project and program management space, from the planning and scheduling perspective, while Oracle is the leading project financials vendor….[T]he combination of the two offerings will provide one of the most viable offerings in the PBS [project-based solutions] market.

The Primavera acquisition brings Oracle into project-based businesses such as the AEC industry. That, combined with Oracle’s “deep roots in the IT enterprise,” both in terms of financial software and in terms of middleware, brings about an offering known as enterprise PPM, which the analysts say “will make it difficult for other PPM [project portfolio management] vendors to crack into enterprise deals.”

And that, in turn, could prompt other vendors of project-based solutions, including Deltek and Meridian Systems, to consider a move into asset, program and/or project portfolio management, Visitacion and Wang add. (If that is the case, then the construction software consolidation we halfheartedly foretold a little less than two months ago very well may give way to larger-scale, industry-wide software consolidation.)

Of course, little will matter if the Oracle-Primavera deal doesn’t live up to expectations. It should work, but the Forrester analysts point to two real challenges for the firms. One, they need to make sure that Oracle and Primavera applications integrate without overwhelming end users with lengthy processes. Two, Oracle needs to come up with a solution that will make SMBs happy — otherwise, Visitacion and Wang surmise, those SMBs will stick to less expensive Web-based or general purpose project management software. (Blogger Dylan Wan, reflecting on the deal, puts in a plug for Web-based project analytics as well.)

The Oracle-Primavera deal should be finalized by the end of the year. Once that happens, things will start to get interesting. Watch this space.

Have you ever wanted to pick the brain of John Walker? (The founder of Autodesk, not the scotch guy, that is.) Well, you may never get the opportunity, but Kean Walmsley’s interview with him on Through the Interface might be the next best thing.

Walmsley admits that it took weeks to transcribe his four-hour conversation with Walker — one that covered a variety of topics, from the history of Autodesk to the decision to use LISP as the programming language. Walmsley was also gracious enough to break down the 18,000-word transcript into the following four sections:

• Part 1: Autodesk’s early history — This section covers the genesis of AutoDesk. Apparently, it started with a handful of mainframe programmers who ended up moonlighting on a few side projects.  Eventually, with a little luck, these projects gained a massive following in the early 1980s. Suddenly, the small startup company grew into a software behemoth.

• Part 2: AutoCAD’s architecture & APIs — In this part, Walker explains how LISP and AutoLISP became the muscle behind AutoCAD. They also discuss some of the add-ons and features that were deployed over time, as the program gained more notoriety.

• Part 3: Autodesk’s eco-system and strategy — In this next segment, Walmsley and Walker talk about Autodesk’s business model and how outside influences helped the company gain market share.

• Part 4: Past and future opportunities — Finally, the two discuss Autodesk’s acquisitions of other companies, failed product launches and the future of the firm.

So, if you’ve been searching for an exhaustive take on Autodesk and the origins of CAD, look no further. Walmsley offers a raw, barely-edited interview with a developer who changed the construction industry. If you can handle the length, this piece will provide a lot of insight into the past, present and future of CAD software.

(Note: A special thanks to Shaan Hurley from Between the Lines, who pointed out this four-part series to us.)

Today Oracle and Primavera executives held a conference call to talk about what brought Oracle to acquire Primavera. In a phrase, it’s enterprise project portfolio management.

Oracle, according to company president Charles Phillips, saw value in Primavera as a global firm whose PPM software addresses both mission-critical and industry-specific processes.

For Primavera, the appeal is the melding of its PPM software and Oracle’s ERP software into what Primavera CEO Joel Koppelman is calling “enterprise PPM.” This, he noted, helps customers couple financial information with “what if” analysis — an “accurate look backward” and a “robust look forward,” as he put it.

For both Phillips and Koppelman, the deal just made sense. Plenty of Primavera customers, including Suffolk Construction and Sikorsky Aircraft, already use Oracle’s databases and middleware. In addition, the scale of Oracle’s resources, from infrastructure to research and development, will help Primavera accelerate innovation, Koppelman noted. Phillips, meanwhile, said Primavera stands to reap the benefits of Oracle’s experience in developing enterprise software functionality such as database management and security.

Also of note from the call:

• Primavera aims to keep working with its worldwide reseller channel to reach out to SMBs, ISVs and system integrators, Koppelman said.
• Primavera will continue to integrate with Microsoft Project, SharePoint and SQL Server, as well as SAP’s NetWeaver, he said.
• Oracle plans to offer lifetime support for Primavera software and to beef up integration with its eBusiness, JD Edwards and PeopleSoft offerings, Koppelman noted.

As stated before, the deal is expected to close before the end of this year. Between now and then, the Primavera Annual Conference convenes in Las Vegas. We expect the agenda to be full of sessions about the transition from Primavera to Oracle.

Primavera Systems has been acquired by Oracle, the two companies announced Friday. According to sister site SearchOracle.com (the source of the above link), the deal will close before the end of the year. Primavera’s software will be called Oracle Enterprise PPM, and it will be its own global business unit within Oracle.

Oracle, an industry leader in enterprise resource planning and data management software, wanted Primavera for its project management software. According to an Oracle-Primavera FAQ, Primavera software is used by all five branches of the U.S. military, 75% of U.S. government agencies and more than 90% of the world’s top engineering firms.

“[We expect] to provide the first comprehensive enterprise project portfolio management [PPM] solution that helps companies allocate the best resources, reduce costs, meet delivery dates and ultimately make better decisions, all by using real-time data,” Oracle said in a statement.

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, and until the deal closes the two companies will remain separate entities. That, according to the FAQ, means that Primavera customers should still call that company for customer support and can still buy software from Primavera if they so choose.

Given that, it’s difficult, at the moment, to address one of the first questions that emerges whenever a company announces a major acquisition — Does this deal make sense?

Brian Sommer, author of ZDNet’s Software & Services Safari blog, writes in his Oracle + Primavera post that the deal should be a good one, provided that Oracle can avoid doing three things — killing off any the Primavera product lines, jacking up product or service prices or forcing Primavera customers through an expensive upgrade or integration. If not, Sommer says, Primavera competitors will definitely see an opening.

One such competitor, CMiC, already seems to be chomping at the bit. In a statement entitled Primavera Purchase Will Not Change Oracle’s Falling Fortunes in Construction, Bassem Hamdy, vice president of solutions, suggests that Primavera software will see a diluted “product vision” as a result of the acquisition. Hamdy also doesn’t think Oracle will be able to successfully integrate Primavera software with Oracle ERP software.

We will certainly keep you posted as additional news and analysis emerged — starting tomorrow, with a joint press conference featuring executives from both Oracle and Primavera.

Seven years ago, the International Institute for Learning released UPMM, an enterprise-level project and knowledge management suite. Short for Unified Project Management Methodology, UPMM is fully aligned with the PMBOK Guide methodology, a project management standard, and provides templates, examples and guidelines for putting together a thorough project and knowledge management process. (Our sister site WhatIs.com defines knowledge management as the process by which a company “gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes its knowledge in terms of resources, documents, and people skills,” for what it’s worth.)

Last month, the New York-based IIL released new Standard and Professional editions of UPMM, bringing the product to smaller teams.

“We had some individuals and small groups who wanted to purchase [UPMM] but lacked the resources to install it on a server,” Sasha Law, UPMM product manager, noted in a chat with ConstructionSoftwareReview.com. So, Law continued, the IIL made the product more accessible — the new editions are hosted on the IIL website — and less expensive.

As a UPMM demo shows, the application’s user interface uses a graphical flow chart to divide each process into a stage. The number of stages is contingent upon whether a user has deemed it a small, medium or large project.

Within each stage is a common interface that includes Microsoft Word- and Excel-based templates, related project management knowledge resources such as white papers, and links to applicable tools required to complete that stage. (It is here that UPMM can link to construction scheduling tools such as Primavera and Microsoft Project management software. All UPMM editions provide an interface with MS Project, Law said.)

According to the aforementioned WhatIs.com definition, “A knowledge management plan involves a survey of corporate goals and a close examination of the tools, both traditional and technical, [which] are required for addressing the needs of the company. The challenge is to select or build software that fits the context of the overall plan and encourage employees to share information.”

The hosted UPMM Standard Edition could be a good fit for small contractors that need help defining the precise steps in construction project management; the ties to the PMBOK Guide and to the IIL itself mean that users are going to get an established knowledge management methodology.

A recent article on Software Advice, Tailwinds for Web-Based Construction Management Systems, got us thinking about, well, web-based construction management systems — namely, that a lot of contractors may not know much about the topic and may know even less about some of the techie buzzwords that define the topic.

For starters, you may be wondering, what exactly is Web-based project management software? Basically, it allows users to access various programs, from accounting to auditing, through a Web browser. Therefore, you don’t require any software installed on your machine, all you need is an Internet connection. Key sellers of Web-based construction project management software include HeadsUp Technologies, EADOC and Procore.

As you learn more about Web-based systems, you may see and hear some unfamiliar jargon. Here’s a short list of technical terms that are thrown around a lot:

• Web 2.0 - This phrase refers to next-generation Internet technology, such as blogs, wikis, RSS and social bookmarking, that encourage a greater input from the Web community. In a perfect world, this would make the Internet a true marketplace for ideas. However, skeptics point out that these forums allow casual users the ability to alter content - which, in turn, erodes the credibility of some information.

• SaaS - Otherwise known as Software as a Service, SaaS is the software model in which programs are hosted by a vendor on a network or server, and can be accessed by users through an Internet connection. This is in stark contrast to the traditional model, where software has to be installed on a personal computer.

• RIA - A Rich Internet Application (RIA) is aWeb application that has all the functionality of a full-fledged desktop program. These programs don’t require installation, but they also can be used offline.This is because they function within a “sandbox,” or a closed system on your computer which allows a limited access to your machine’s resources. While this is one of great advantages of using a RIA, it comes at the expense of slower performance and rather lengthy script download times.

• Ajax - Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a method of building interactive applications for Web pages that update in real time. Instead of waiting for a new page to pop up after an action is taken, Ajax allows a page to update automatically without having to load again. Google Maps is an excellent example of an application that utilizes Ajax.

While this is hardly an exhaustive list of technical terms that you may encounter, it should provide you with a solid knowledge foundation to build off of. Even a rudimentary understanding of these terms will help you determine whether the various, aforementioned Web-based project management software tools will fit the present and future needs of your firm.