Web

anaging and communicating information regarding industrial construction projects to maintain accountability has long been a challenge for company owners. By providing fast access to centralized project information, Internet collaboration platforms are gradually gaining acceptance as a way to increase efficiencies, improve communications and curtail cost overruns.

        Constructware (www.constructware.com), an Alpharetta, Ga.-based developer of Web-based project management and collaboration systems for the construction industry, became the first application service provider (ASP) in the field in 1997. The company has released several enhancements to the service since then, allowing for centralized reporting by all parties involved in each step of a project.

        Constructware recently unveiled a new graphics-based Dashboard toolset to its ASP service.

        Dashboard makes available more than 60 standard reports, and Constructware plans to continually add functionality. The tool set automatically delivers summary information to each user’s desktop based on the report criteria the user selects. Available reports include costs, schedule and project risk indicators.

        “The difficulty has been how to get exactly the data you want so you’re not wasting time,” says Steve Setzer, Constructware marketing director. Setzer says Internet-based systems allow for more customization. In terms of site selection, he says the company will be looking at adding to the system functions applicable to facility maintenance if demand warrants it.

Abbott Laboratories uses Constructware’s ASP services to manage projects around the globe, including this research facility being built in Worcester, Mass.

        Constructware officials believe Web-based systems will be the standard for project management within the next five to 10 years, supplanting client-server technologies they say do not efficiently manage multiple job sites.

        Pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories started using Constructware on a trial basis during the summer of 2002. The results were good, and now the company uses it to manage approximately 15 current projects around the globe, ranging from $5-million jobs to a huge project with an investment of more than $300 million.

        “We use it from the beginning of a project to the end of it,” says Jon Dutcher, Abbott’s manager of project management. “We put design reviews online and transfer all drawings online to distribute for review by all involved. We’re very happy with it. It allowed us to get on a system very quickly and jump right on the Internet. It’s a fairly intuitive system that doesn’t require a lot of up-front capital or training.”

        Harold Helland, Abbott’s manager of project engineering, says 12 people representing various Abbott divisions were in on the software selection process, which involved three software companies giving hands-on product demonstrations.

        “Everyone was able to learn this system the easiest,” Helland says. “We were able to learn [Constructware] the fastest. That’s the big reason we went to it. It’s the least disruptive to us.”

        Dutcher says that while Abbott is pleased with the results, he hopes the software company will eventually offer a more integrated system that, for example, would allow for integration between project management and financial systems.

The Norwood Company, a specialist in distribution center construction, is building this 760,000-sq.-ft. (70,604-sq.-m.) facility in Winslow Township, N.J., for A.C. Moore. It also includes Moore’s corporate headquarters.

        “That would be the holy grail,” Dutcher says. “While it would be great, it will be expensive to get there.”

        Adds Helland, “We’re trying to work with Constructware to develop a shortened version of a cost module to use for projecting costs on projects.”

        The Norwood Co., a West Chester, Pa., construction firm specializing in distribution centers, is another Constructware client.

        “We use it for any sizeable project,” says Tom Meagher, Norwood senior vice president. “Obviously, we do a full spectrum of projects. For the very tiny, it’s not practical, but for all other projects, yes.”

        Meagher says a typical project might involve an architect in New York City and a site engineer at the project’s chosen location.

        “It just aids in all the communications among these geographically diverse people,” Meagher says. “Our clients like its ability to sort and find information.”

        Meagher says the software also can be used as a general tool in some site selection situations, mainly for communications between the involved parties who can use it to record comments on specific sites.

        “We get involved in the I-81 distribution corridor,” he says. “On every project we are looking at several locations along that corridor. It aids in narrowing the process. We can say, ‘Here are the top 10 sites, then here are the top five and then three.’ It’s all part of the selection process.”