In the hard fought IT market, it's unusual for software providers to collaborate. But the NCCTP has encouraged members to work on a way of sharing data to benefit the construction industry.
Collaboration on construction projects is difficult partly because of the sheer amount of information to be stored. Huge amounts of paperwork are the backbone of the building process, much of it in large format and with several versions required for each part of the construction team.

It makes sense to share information, as other business sectors have found. CIRIA predicts that within a few years 40% of construction projects over £10 million will use project collaboration tools. How then, to bring all the information together? One method is through an extranet. This is a specifically designed website which can be accessed by several organisations – like a company intranet with a wider audience. Project extranets greatly enhance collaboration. Users can view most formats of CAD drawing, and other files even without the licensed software usually required. Users can also make revisions which become part of the document. Any changes can be tracked, and access to documents can be restricted to certain individuals if necessary.

The Network for Construction Collaboration Technology Providers (NCCTP) is a group of companies which provide software for project collaboration. Current members are: 4Projects; BIW Technologies; BuildOnline; Business Collaborator; Cadweb; Causeway; Sarcophagus.

Between them, these organisations are helping clients manage UK construction projects worth £35 billion. The NCCTP is managed by CIRIA. This network was launched at the end of 2003 with the aim of promoting use of online technology for collaborative working. One of the NCCTP's main aims is to increase interoperability between the systems of its member organisations. This means that the group intends to define and adopt industry-wide standards.

The first standard the group aims to agree on is a data export application. This will extract the contents of an entire construction project from any NCCTP member's database as XML and save the files so that they can be exported to another member's software. One might ask why business rivals would agree to work on what is a complex project. Why bother?

At the moment, although the systems offered by NCCTP members are similar, they are incompatible. Each extranet provider stores and accesses project data through its own relational database structure and document object model. The NCCTP describes sharing information between systems currently as 'like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole'. Clients would have to invest a great deal of time and money trying to move data from one system to another.

This lack of compatibility is viewed by these software specialists as a potential hurdle to the future success of collaboration software. It's a fair point. Building management systems have suffered because of lack of interoperability, as clients have often viewed them with suspicion – will I be stuck software I can't change? What if the provider goes out of business? How can I guarantee I have all the right software to deal with all my potential clients? All fair questions when faced with a large bill for IT investment.

So the NCCTP members have agreed an XML 'schema' – a set of words which can be used for a conversation between two digital devices. These describe the fundamental elements and properties that are common to collaborative extranets.

The advantage of the XML schema is that it uses shared language to carry out rules set by users. They are a way of defining the structure, content and semantics of the data stored in SML documents.

Each company can then export their projects as XML, and transform it into the agreed data structure using an export application. Another company can take that data and translate it for use in their system. The key advantage is that each organisation only needs to understand its own software, and how it translates onto the XML schema – rather than having knowledge of all the other software applications available.

The IT Construction Best Practice Programme supports the use of collaboration technology and project extranets. Its advice though is that whatever the technical issues, project managers need to ensure that the cultural issues are dealt with as well: "The organisation must be committed to using the extranet and be prepared for cultural change.They must be managed from the client down to ensure buy in from the whole team."

Words of advice

The IT Construction Best Practice Programme offers the following advice on project collaboration.
  • Ensure the project team has the authority to drive through the implementation. The more these systems are used, the greater the benefit.

  • Make sure the extranet is set up to suit your project and methods of working, they can be very flexible.

  • The organisation should be culturally committed to this way of working.

  • Identify the objectives and benefits your organisation wants to achieve from the implementation of project collaboration.

  • Prepare a checklist when choosing your project collaboration supplier.