The UK-based ‘extranet’ vendors trade association, the Network for Construction Collaboration Technology Providers (NCCTP), is now a membership forum within Constructing Excellence, the only UK membership organisation bringing together businesses from every part of the AEC supply chain (see press release).
The first major sign of the new arrangement has been the publication of a 20-page supplement to UK trade magazine Building today (it will also be available at Constructing Excellence members’ convention in London next week, 19 September). This latest joint marketing effort by eight different vendors (4Projects, Aconex, Asite, BIW Technologies, Business Collaborator, Cadweb, Causeway Technologies and Sarcophagus) certainly tested the abilities of competing firms to collaborate on a single project, and some have a higher profile than others (it was simply impossible to ensure equal prominence for every company) but promotion of individual members is a byproduct of a supplement that is mainly intended to get some facts about collaboration out into the UK marketplace.
In terms of content, it revisits last year’s NCCTP market research, includes a short legal perspective, looks at the some of the issues surrounding Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), discusses interoperability and standards, and answers a few other frequently asked questions. Scattered through the publication are also eight case studies, one per vendor, describing real projects where construction collaboration technologies have been deployed. The supplement should also be available online shortly.
Having been involved in moving the NCCTP to Constructing Excellence for four or five months, I am pleased and not a little relieved that the transition has finally taken effect. CIRIA was an excellent midwife when the NCCTP was born, but the baby has grown up and now wants to start talking with other collaboratively-minded organisations. Constructing Excellence is, I think, the right place to do that, and I hope members of this organisation take the opportunity to tap into the vendor experience now readily available to them.
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