Incompatible software delays development of e-commerce

Industry leaders see software standards as increasingly the biggest barrier to the development of e-commerce. That is the finding of the Construction Products Association and Construction Industry Computing Association's second annual survey into e-construction.

Although the culture of the industry was identified as the biggest constraint on development, with 90% of respondents seeing it as a problem, incompatibility of software leapt from nowhere last year to nearly 60% in this survey.

Jean Emblin, external affairs director at the CPA, said there was a growing realisation that incompatibility was a huge problem for the industry. "I wasn't surprised by the high number of people who recognise this as a problem. In all the hype last year, no one realised how difficult it would be to make use of the internet without standards for exchanging information. We have had a lot of interest from our members in this area."

Brian Zelly, UK chairman of the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI), the organisation developing worldwide software standards, welcomed the survey's findings. "This shows the message we are trying to promote about the need for standards is getting through. We've been saying there is a problem for some time, but it's only as people start using electronic project management more and more that they realise for themselves the extent of the situation."

The government is also taking the issue of construction software standards seriously. The DETR is to back the International Alliance for Interoperability's development of software standards (see opposite) and the Office of Government Commerce announced in April that it was to decide on one electronic project management system for all government construction projects.