ICT Tools for Collaborative Working

The desire and demand for high quality and quick delivery of construction projects requires the participation of different teams making effective communication a challenge. Accordingly, there has been the need for effective utilisation of ICT tools (e.g. CSCW) for effective collaboration to facilitate communication. The main goal of these tools is to support people working together who may be separated by time or space to complete collaborative work and improve individual and collective efficiency (Chen et al., 2010). These tools facilitate project participants to work collaboratively from isolated locations and they have huge benefits to construction projects (Anumba and Ruikar, 2008). This is emphasised by Forbes and Ahmed (2011) that communication tools (such as Email, the most common), overcome the barriers of time and distance by helping design and construction organisations to coordinate their activities with greater effectiveness and efficiency. They are often referred to by many different names by different

29 authors such as virtual workspace systems, collaboration environments, web-based systems, computer-mediated tendering systems, construction project extranets amongst others (Wilkinson, 2005; Erdogan et al., 2008; Yeomans et al., 2005; Ruikar et al., 2005). Project extranets make use of a central shared storage drive and are increasingly being used and relied upon widely by construction teams for information exchange and collaboration (Wilkinson, 2005; Yeomans et al., 2005; Moses et al., 2008). They facilitate the access of project documents but are temporary repositories for the duration of projects and they do not also adequately provide process management (i.e., coordination of information flow between humans and systems and across lifecycle phases of a building). They are document-centric rather than data/information-centric (Chassiakos and Sakellaropoulos, 2008). This means they help to manage the documents themselves rather than the information they contain. Wilkinson (2005), explains that "all the drawings and other documents that have been published to the system are immediately retrievable, along with complete audit trails detailing who published them, when, and to whom they were issued, when they were opened, and by whom, and what comments may have been made relating to each document.” Similar observation was made by Ozkaya and Akin (2006) that efforts in requirements management resulted in document oriented applications, which focus on the management of the documents rather than the information management approach.

The introduction of Email has been a significant factor in facilitating collaboration between different teams because of its use in communicating and distributing information. It is a preferred tool by many people but it has problems and difficulties associated with its use as an information management tool. These problems include information overload and difficulties associated with the filing and the finding of information and also in prioritising mail (Whittaker and Sidner, 1996). Earlier collaborative working technologies were tailored for use on desktop computers but handheld or laptop computers are now standard in construction and trends show the increasing utilisation of mobile devices in collaborative working environments

30 (Forbes and Ahmed, 2011; Aziz et al., 2004). Mobile devices are essential to construction teams and the construction process as they make project information remotely available on construction site whilst development progresses (Elvin, 2007).

There are many different collaborative working tools used by construction projects. Some of these tools are commercially developed by software vendors but quite a number are developed in-house. Work by Wilkinson (2005) and Sun and Howard (2004) recognise some of those collaborative tools and discuss their development and use within the AEC industry. Combe (2006) also identifies Account4.com (an e-business which is set up to help automate a firm’s business process within the professional services and IT sectors); MatrixOne (tools that facilitate the sharing of product ideas and designs amongst the supply chain for global businesses) and CoVia, a platform for document management, project planning and personalised interactions solutions. Forbes and Ahmed (2011) identify other software such as Webster for Primavera^® and MS Project for Net^® which enable dispersed construction project teams to work collaboratively together sharing pictures (including drawings), documents, and real-time videos as an effective single team.

Construction companies continue to look for means to implement projects within time and budget and to improve productivity. Collaborative tools can assist construction companies including small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) ones, to replace expensive private networks with cheaper ones based on the internet. These tools can help improve the business financial performance of companies tremendously through savings in travel costs, combined with the savings of employee down time while travelling which are required by face to face meetings. The tools (such as collaborative e-commerce) do not only contribute in shortening the duration of a transaction but also reduce formerly possible expenditure (Chen et al., 2010). The tools provide collaboration platforms where information can be passed quickly and efficiently between organisations (Combe, 2006). None of the involved parties

31 (e.g. in meetings) are required to spend more than the length of a normal meeting away from their company or their primary job functions. Gallaher et al. (2004) argue that improved efficiency is a key benefit of collaboration tools because employees, teams and other stakeholders have access to project information remotely thus permitting time and cost savings. Companies are also in the position to compete for business across long distances because of their technological ability to regularly meet with their customers as well as enable them collaborate on production projects without having to incur the expense and lost working time of travel to their locations.