CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — These days it’s hard to find a product, or even a methodology, that isn’t touted as a solution that saves time and boosts productivity. Finding tangible evidence of such claims, on the other hand, sometimes seems like an unproductive waste of time.

That’s why research projects such as Leveraging Technology to Improve Construction Productivity, an effort jointly sponsored by FIATECH and the Construction Industry Institute, are so valuable. In this two-year study, Carlos Caldas looked at how automated materials tracking affected productivity at two large job sites — a 565-megawatt coal plant in Rockdale, Texas and a 550-megawatt gas plant in Toronto.

Caldas, an assistant professor of construction engineering and project management at the University of Texas at Austin, offered a summary of his study at the 2008 FIATECH Member’s Meeting. In a nutshell, the news was promising.

At the Texas plant, Bechtel was building two identical boilers, each with its own 25-acre lay-down yard. The crew building Boiler A manually collected 400 particular steel components from the lay-down yard. The Boiler B crew used RFID tagging, a GPS device and other localization technology to create maps indicating where to find the 400 steel components.

Over three months (August to October 2007), the average time spent locating steel components for Boiler A was roughly 36 minutes 48 seconds; moreover, nearly 10% of those components were not immediately found, Caldas said. For Boiler B, the average time was roughly 4 minutes 36 seconds, and only about 0.5% of components were not immediately found, he said. With more than half an hour saved per component, the total time savings for all 400 components would be nearly 215 hours.

At the Toronto plant, meanwhile, Caldas’ team tracked 224 pipe spools, 22 safety valves and 100 globe valves. The crew looking for these components manually could not immediately locate three pipe spools; two workers spent five hours searching for them, to no avail, and the contractor, SNC Lavalin, had to spend $5,000 to replace them, Caldas said. The crew using an automated process lost no components and was so efficient that the crew size was reduced from 18 to 12, he said.

In his FIATECH talk, Caldas cited CII research that had looked at the last 25 years of the construction industry and had determined that implementing technology could boost a contractor’s productivity between 0.2% and 1.5% annually, depending on the type of construction. (This compared to, among other advancements, a 1.5% annual productivity boost for additional power, say from bigger backhoes, or a 0.5% annual productivity boost for more advanced modules in concrete.) 

What, then, can we conclude from Caldas’ study? Clearly, locating parts quickly boosts productivity and, thus, lowers costs. And while there is a start-up cost associated with automated materials tracking — about $5,000 for an RFID reader and about $15 for RFID tags, plus the cost of a GPS device, Caldas said — there is going to be a start-up cost for buying a bigger backhoe or investing in new concrete modules, too. Technology, whether in the form of new software, digitizer devices or RFID tagging, should play a prominent part in your productivity plan — and your business plan.

(Editor’s note: This is the fifth in an occasional series on the ways that the construction industry can benefit from technology implementations. Previous posts in this series focused on digital photography, video conferencing, integrated systems and not getting left behind.)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — If you want to learn about Web standards, you can do a lot worse than to seek the advice of the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C. Ralph Swick, the group’s technology and society domain leader, addressed the 2008 FIATECH Member’s Meeting earlier this week, letting FIATECH’s member EPC firms, facility owners, and equipment and software vendors know what the W3C is up to these days and what it means for their capital projects.

Swick said a lot of the W3C’s work focuses on the idea that the Internet has evolved from a web of documents to a web of data. Here, then, we see the evolution from Web 2.0 – collaboration through blogs, social networking sites and the like — to Web 3.0, or the “semantic Web,” where data sets are linked and third parties have the ability to recognize relationships among those data sets. Web 3.0 is also poised to be ubiquitous, accessible not just from mobile devices but from everyday electronic objects, Swick said.

“Sounds cool,” you are probably saying, “but what does it all mean?” Several things, in fact.

As the mobile Web expands, the same information that project managers, engineers and other stakeholders are used to seeing on computer screens should be available on mobile devices — provided that the mobile Web initiative progresses to the point that software developers can use a single code base for desktop- and device-based browsers. Just think of the field management possibilities.

The semantic Web should make it a lot easier to share information — project plans, for example, or construction schedules — with large groups of stakeholders. Think of how easily one can post a link, photo or video for all his or her Facebook friends to see. Shouldn’t it be as easy to collaborate for business as for pleasure?

The ubiquitous Web, which stands to connects everyday objects to the Internet, has quite a bit of potential. Wouldn’t it be nice to monitor your plant’s temperature gauges from your desk, away from the heat? And how easy would material gathering be if you could combine RFID and GPS?

These are certainly exciting prospects. Clearly, though, it will take time for such technologies to first emerge and then be refined to the point that they can be used both effectively and on a scale that will benefit SMBs.

In the meantime, EPC firms, owners and vendors need to figure out what they need and how they can get it. To that end the W3C is hosting a workshop on the semantic Web in the energy industry later this year. The workshop is initially focusing on the oil and gas industries but will expand its reach in later phases. That which emerges from this workshop will be watched with much interest.

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.

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.

We’ve written extensively in this space on the different ways to evaluate construction software. Well, Dann E. Kroeger of HeadsUp Technologies, in the Top 5 Most Common Mistakes to Avoid When Selecting Software, provides another set of criteria to consider when assessing new software options.

Without spoiling the whole story for you, here’s a quick run-down of his list of mistakes and how to avoid making them:

1. Failing to define specific needs - He suggests writing a comprehensive list of software needs, then narrowing it down to five.  From there, match your company’s needs with the strengths of the vendor.
2. Failing to prioritize needs - Rank your software needs in some kind of order.  Kroeger suggests a list with columns ranging from “most important” to “least important.”
3. Evaluating too many vendors - He advises that you should start out with three vendors. If they don’t  fulfill 80% of your needs, start searching for more.
4. Straying from core needs during evaluation - Don’t be seduced by fancy graphics during a presentation. After you identify your firm’s glaring needs, Kroeger suggests that you have a vendor demonstrate how their construction software will address them.
5. Failing to check references - Make a few phone calls to existing users before you make any commitments.

Of course, Kroeger provides more insight within his article. Nevertheless, the core message remains the same: Make sure the software you decide to go with fulfills your construction firm’s needs. It’s a big investment when you consider time, cost and training; so it’s important that you feel absolutely comfortable with your decision.

Earlier this year Sage Software bought Tekton Group, a prominent construction software vendor in the British Isles. Last month John Marchant, the group’s head of product management, told ContractJournal.com that more consolidation in the construction IT market is likely:

The construction software mid-market is fragmented, with no one dominant player….There are still more than 20 little houses writing financial systems for construction groups, each of them writing their own version of the purchase ledger, and VAT [value added tax] changes, all working away to stay up to date.

Marchant’s comment refers specifically to Ireland and the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, it got us thinking — how widespread is the construction software consolidation trend, and what does it mean for contractors?

Some may argue that it is already happening in full force. For starters, Tekton is just the latest of Sage’s acquisitions — it acquired Timberline Office and Master Builder in 2003 and 2006, respectively. Plenty of other vendors, including AspenTech, Autodesk, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, eTEK and Primavera, have expanded through acquisition.

However, one must also keep in mind just how fragmented is the construction software industry. Consider the following:

• In the latest CFMA Technology Survey, the leading software tool for estimating, and the second most popular tool for job cost accounting and project management, was “other.”
• According to the same survey, the product with the greatest market share, Timberline, has less than one-third of the job cost accounting software market and about one-sixth of the construction project management software market, where its biggest rivals are “other” and “none.”
• Two of the most popular software applications used by construction professionals, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project, offer no construction-specific modules.
• All told, ConstructionSoftwareReview.com lists roughly 80 construction software vendors — and we know we’re missing a few.

Part of the reason for this fragmentation is the relative youth of the construction software industry, which has a long way to go before it resembles, say, the mature enterprise data management market that is dominated by behemoths SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. Part of the reason, too, is regionalization — a small vendor that prides itself on customer service and ease of use can very easily rule its own backyard, where it knows the needs of its customers better than a global conglomerate.

Of course, no one can know for sure whether this fragmentation will endure or whether industry consolidation will continue apace. It’s hard to know if the company who makes the construction software you are using now will grow, get acquired or go out of business five years from now, or even two years from now.

As a contractor, the key to insulating yourself from this uncertainty is to stay in constant contact with the reps at your software vendor. Ask the reps not just about the software but about the company overall. If a company regularly updates its software, releases brand new products and attracts new customers, it’s a good sign that the product you use will survive if the construction software market sees a wave of consolidation. If your vendor does so while opening new offices, expanding into new markets and pleasing investors, it’s a very good sign. 

Take it from someone who’s had his fair share of summer jobs — new hire training comes with the territory.  It seems like a no-brainer, right?  Once you start a new job, you have to learn what to do, get acclimated with environment and be taught “The [insert any company’s name] Way.”

Well, apparently this doesn’t apply to the construction industry over in Great Britain. According to Neil Gerrard at ConstructionJournal.com, a 2007 government study shows that one-third of British construction firms do not train their employees.

The government entity that conducted this study, The Learning and Skills Council, also found that 40% of the industry’s vacancies were due to a lack of on-the-job training, meaning that jobs went unfilled because no qualified candidate could be found.  Paul Holme, director of skills for employers at the Learning and Skills Council, insists that employers must use government-sponsored programs in order to fix this problem:

Our latest research shows that [the] Train to Gain [program] is helping to unlock staff potential through recommending and delivering relevant, job-specific training. I urge more organisations to follow suit and get involved and see the benefits of investing in training for the long-term.

In the end, his statement strikes at the overarching lesson from this study:  In the long run, the benefits from a competent workforce will be well worth the short-term headaches associated with training them. Keep that in mind the next time your bosses balk at the notion of paying for a training seminar on the construction software that you use.

We divide construction software tools into three main functions — estimating, job costing and project management. However, sometimes we find information that doesn’t fall into those categories but nonetheless warrants a mention, for it demonstrates a simple use of technology that makes life as a contractor easier. Here we present one such example.

We recently found an article called Take Photos During Construction To Document Hidden Utilities. The article was on a blog called Helpful Advice for Home Construction Improvement and focused on how photos are a handy way to keep track of the pipes and wires running inside our walls. Ordinarily, we read blogs like that to see what’s going on in the construction industry but don’t link to them. This post, though, got us thinking.

Pictures, as the saying goes, are worth a thousand words. Photos taken at regular intervals can illustrate a job’s progress in a way that poster-sized schedules cannot. They can also save lots of trouble, as anyone who’s punctured a pipe while hammering into a wall can sadly attest. Finally, they can be good for marketing — a website or portfolio with photos of projects you’ve done certainly looks better than a page of text.

Any contractor, then, would benefit from a digital photo album. Taking photos is easy — digital cameras are inexpensive and, heck, there’s probably one on your phone. (Shameless plug alert: If you need help finding one, sister site DigitalCameraReview.com might be a good start.) Managing photos is easy, too — once you sync your camera up to your computer, your photos will end up on your hard drive (in the My Pictures folder in Windows XP and in the Windows Photo Gallery in Windows Vista). From there, you can create folders and organize your photos as you wish.

The next, step, of course, is to get the photos off your computer and into the hands of your team. Free photo-sharing websites like Flickr might work, but only if you don’t care if everyone else in the free world gets to see the shots, too. A (much) better option is to save the photos into your construction project management software. Many such software packages allow users to add attachments — relevant forms, reports and, yes, photos. If you’re not sure if your software can do this, call your customer service rep and ask about it.

Admittedly, incorporating photos into everyday construction project management will come with a bit of an initial learning curve. You’ll have to determine what aspects of a project are best served by photographic evidence, how many photos to take, how often to take them, how many to attach to project management software documents and so on. If, however, you draw on your own experience and common sense, then it shouldn’t take long to figure out how to use photos to your advantage for the purposes of project management and marketing.

In addition to his responsibilities as the CEO of Foundation Software, Fred Ode finds some time to do a little blogging on Construction Business News and Views by Fred.  His latest post features a rather lengthy Q&A session with Laurence C. (Larry) True, managing director of DR Construction Consultants LLC.

For the most part, the two discuss how construction software has progressed over the past 40 years. During this, True explains that the process has been more of an evolution than a revolution: 

There are a lot more standardized software applications out there and a lot less custom work is being done. In other words, vendors have moved more toward software that is flexible and offers some leverage with set up options, and relates more to what the contractors will get out of it.    

Another interesting topic they touch upon is how construction software can change the roles and responsibilities of employees within a firm. In some instances, the implementation may actually cause some employees’ workloads to increase.

True provides a common scenario that occurs in which AP clerks may be asked to add a few more steps to their typical routine. He says it’s important for managers to explain to such employees that, “although it may be ten minutes more work at the front end, what they don’t realize is that they are saving about an hour of work at the other end of this process.”

In the end, if you’re interested in the computerization of the construction industry or how the software consultation process works, be sure to check this post out. If not, it’s still fascinating to see two construction software heavyweights talk about the direction of the industry.