QSs back web portals

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QSs who use web portals on projects are the biggest cheerleaders for the digital method of delivering projects, according to a new survey

The survey, claimed to be the biggest of its kind, found that 62% of the 32 QSs questioned were loyal or strongly loyal to using extranets. It questioned 272 UK-based staff from both main and subcontractors, designers, project managers, QSs and clients. Of those different groups questioned, 59% of clients were loyal to extranets while just 39% of sub-contractors were committed to the method (see graph).

Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the steering group that commissioned the study for the Network for Construction Collaboration Technology Providers (NCCTP), described the results as a “strong commitment to a technology that only really emerged five or six years ago”.

“We clearly need to convert some of the ‘satisfied but uncommitted’ group so that future use of the system increasingly becomes an automatic decision,” he added.

The survey also found that:

• Extranets improved document control by lessening the chance of losing documents and making information more secure.

We clearly need to convert some of the ‘satisfied but uncommitted’ group
Paul Wilkinson, NCCTP market research steering group

• Nearly three-quarters of clients were more likely to award contracts to firms experienced in using collaboration technologies, and over two-thirds said they would insist on using such systems on all future projects

• The potential barriers to using the technology included a difficulty to get everyone to use them, time-consuming processes in the programmes and the amount of training used. Only a minority (14%) of those quizzed expressed reservations about the systems being too transparent.

The survey contrasts with a gloomier assessment of the e-tendering process from the RICS, revealed in QS News last month. The survey found that only 7% of QSs were sending and receiving documents purely electronically and that the vast majority (64%) that were using digital communications were using email rather than a web portal.

The NCCTP is an umbrella body of IT firms such as BIW, Asite, Cadweb, Causeway Technologies and Sarcophagus. The survey was carried out by IT market research firm Benchmark Research.

The full 44-page report, Proving Collaboration Pays, can be downloaded from www.ncctp.net