Techtopia

IT news

Power from the heart
UK research and development company Innos has been selected by self-powered systems developer Perpetuum to help develop a device that produces power from movement. This could be used for applications including powering heart pacemakers, sensors and vehicle tracking systems. The device is matchbox-sized and can power a sensor, microprocessor or radio link. The idea behind the collaboration is to develop a microgenerator embedded in silicon that would be small and cheap to produce.

Take it to the WiMAX
Nokia has just announced that it is to collaborate with Intel to speed up the development and adoption of WiMAX technology. Anyone who has just unwrapped their latest Wi-Fi gizmo will probably be depressed to learn that WiMAX is a new wireless broadband standard 802.16. It promises to deliver data at a blistering 75 Mbps up to a distance of 30 miles from a single transmitter. Wi-Fi typically has a coverage of only a few metres. WiMAX has emerged as the frontrunner in a raft of wireless technologies because of the endorsement of chip maker Intel, and Nokia is among the other players following suit. Wi-Fi purchasers can relax as experts say it will be a couple of years before WiMAX starts to compete, and that the two technologies are happy to exist side by side. For example, WiMAX could be used to deliver wireless broadband to a building, and Wi-Fi used for the wireless network within.

Smart move
The International Alliance of Interoperability has rebranded itself BuildingSMART. The organisation is an international effort to develop and promote the use of IFCs, or “industry foundation classes”. These are standards that enable people to import and export intelligent objects between a wide range of IFC-compatible CAD programs.

BuildingSMART said it had made the move to celebrate its 10th anniversary and to mark a new phase in the life of the organisation. It said it had spent the past decade focusing on the technology behind the initiative, but this was so robust that the organisation’s job was now to promote the benefits of interoperability, and the new name refected that. The announcement was made at an anniversary event in Oslo, Norway, where the use of IFCs is particularly advanced.

Standards bearer
The AEC CAD Standard committee has announced two new standards to help designers reliably swap CAD information. These are the Standard for Model File Naming v1.1 and the Standard for Drawing Management v1.0. The first standard is intended to help identify CAD files quickly and accurately. The second is for the management of incoming and outgoing information plus storage of CAD files to ensure data is reused efficiently and accurately. The standards are available as guides and can be downloaded from www.aec-uk.org

Top ten tips on successful information management

Storing and retrieving documents while promoting an open and transparent working environment should be at the top of the construction agenda. However, with increasing compliance issues and IT storage concerns, companies are left flummoxed as to what they should keep and what they should destroy.

Colin Foster, the UK managing director of Hummingbird, a global provider of integrated management systems, identifies how best practice and technology can assist in the battle to manage information.

1 - To keep or not to keep?
In an increasingly litigious society it could be damaging to keep records for any longer than you absolutely have to, but the problem is deciding what to store and what to destroy. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Does information need to be retained for legal or compliance reasons?

• Should it be stored electronically?

• What happens if it isn’t stored electronically?

• Is it possible to search and retrieve information within the legally defined deadlines?

• Is the information up-to-date?

• Who needs access to this information?

2 - Freedom of Information Act
The Freedom of Information Act was introduced on 1 January 2005 and gives individuals or companies the right to request information held by public organisations. These bodies must deliver this information within 20 days.

Construction companies need to be aware that if they work on behalf of a public sector organisation, they are required to retain and provide information on demand in exactly the same way as the public bodies themselves.

3 - Health and safety
Construction companies need to develop strategies that enable them to meet the government’s ever-changing health and safety compliance targets. For instance, the Health and Safety Executive requires the number of working days lost from injury and ill health for every 100,000 workers to be reduced 30% by 2010, and the number of cases of work-related ill health to be cut 20% in the same period.

Construction companies must be able to demonstrate at any given time the processes and procedures that are in place to reach these targets, and all project staff need to be aware of them.

4 - Information management policy
The process of storing and retrieving documents can be simplified with a comprehensive, company-wide information management policy. This ensures that the entire organisation knows exactly what should be kept and how, as well as what should be deleted.

5 - Top level commitment
Company directors and commissioners need to work with the operational units and the human resources, finance, IT and records managers to define the information management policy and enforce it across the organisation.

6 - Enforcing policy
Responsibility for adhering to these policies should then be devolved to the individual business units. This will ensure that policies are enforced consistently and in line with day-to-day business activities.

7 - Marrying hard and soft-copy information
Emails are increasingly important, but how do you reconcile them with hard-copy documents such as plans, contracts and invoices? Ensuring both hard and soft-copy documents are stored effectively and remain retrievable is an issue all construction companies need to address.

8 - Create a collaborative environment
Collaboration technology is a way of improving business processes by bringing disparate workgroups and external parties together, enabling them to use the same information and resources. IT research group Gartner stated that “by 2005, enterprises will be collaborative in nature or they won’t exist at all”. Those construction companies that aren’t already reaping the benefits of collaboration are now on borrowed time and need to act quickly.

9 - Using technology to manage information
Content management solutions offer intelligent support for information in line with company policies. Recognising the role that this technology can play will not only allow companies to manage information in accordance with compliance demands, but it will also improve efficiency throughout the organisation, thereby allowing it to deliver improved projects and service to customers.

10 - Keep a sense of perspective
Compliance with regulations is important, but so is perspective. The core responsibilities of every organisation must be kept at the top of the agenda but, at the same time, compliance and regulatory demands must be taken seriously. Putting in place the appropriate systems and processes will ensure that the IT network is not clogged up with useless information, help prepare the organisation for the inevitable exponential increase in data volumes in the future and ensure that it is safe from litigation.

SOFTWARE

Instant switchboard
Hosted telephony provider YAC has launched a complete communications solution for construction sites called Site-In-A-Box. The idea is to get a new site live within hours of starting work rather than having to wait for telephone wires to be installed by BT. Calls are routed through a single number and callers are greeted by an interactive voice recognition menu that allows them to be put through to the right person’s mobile phone. Sites can also be issued with a number for faxes; faxes sent to the number are automatically converted to emails, which are then forwarded to an email address. There is also a conferencing facility, which enables site managers to hold audio conferences with several people. There is no hardware or software to be installed on site as the whole system is web-based. Once a telephone line has been put in, the service can be used to redirect voice calls to the new number so calls from the original number aren’t lost.
YAC
www.yac.com

Question time
Teletrack Developments has developed technology that lets companies automatically collect feedback from large groups. Teletrack says it is ideal for anyone responsible for collecting data for key performance indicators or progress reports. Users create a questionnaire online or by calling Teletrack’s recording studio. This pre-recorded questionnaire is then sent out to the respondents, who can answer the questions by pressing the relevant buttons on a phone, or via a web-enabled device such as a PDA or PC. If people don’t reply, automated reminders can be sent out. The results can then be presented to managers using the web-based interface or downloaded into a data management system.
Teletrack Developments
www.teletrack.biz

Outlook on the move
Mobile computing specialist Sproqit Technologies has launched software to enable users to access their Outlook email remotely using a PDA, smartphone or notebook. Called Personal Edition, it can be installed onto a PC and removes the need for expensive corporate software. It enables users to remotely access their emails and attachments and get information from a corporate network in real time.
Sproqit Technologies
www.sproqit.com

Site visits from the comfort of your desk
A 3D map of England and Wales called Photoscape 3D has been launched by a collaboration of four companies that specialise in aerial images, terrain data and software. It is aimed at engineers, developers and land consultants and enables them to “visit” anywhere in the UK. They can see the lie of the land by “flying” around at will and can check out vegetation, site access and ground elevation. An area can be accessed by entering a grid reference, a GPS co-ordinate or using a built-in gazetteer. Computer game-type controls enable the user to choose the height, speed and direction of their flight.
Photoscape 3D
www.photoscape3d.com