Specifying on the net

It's no wonder an on-line database of downloadable product information is such an exciting prospect. In larger practices, entire libraries of trade literature could be thrown out and the space used far more profitably.

Of course, for all this to happen an on-line database would need to possess a great many qualities. It would need to be fast, accurate and extensive, regularly updated, and compatible with design and specification computer packages. Preferably it would also be free to use, and supported by other on-line services, like tendering, cost estimation and ordering.

These straightforward criteria belie the immense amount of work and investment needed to produce such a service. And it is these financial and logistical barriers, rather than technical issues, which have held back development.

All that may be about to change. Enter Causeway Technologies stage left, and multi-disciplinary consultant Arup stage right. This double-act has teamed up to develop an on-line product specification service called Specnet.

This aptly named Internet service is designed to enable architects, engineers, surveyors and contractors to get product information from a single database.

The Specnet prototype
The first place to go is the Specnet homepage, http://specnet.net/ sndoc/snhome. html. This takes you to an opening menu for the prototype product selector and some useful background information on Specnet.

Clicking on the product selector gives you four product search options: by manufacturer, by Uniclass classification, by general word search, and by a supplier's product code (assuming you know it).

Note that the services product list is rather sparse at present, and at the time of writing only three services companies are on Specnet: Hamworthy, Beeston and Armstrong. These manufacturers' product ranges can be accessed quickly by keying in a name in the appropriate dialog box.

A more typical open search would involve keying in the required component in the open text search box, such as 'boilers'. This takes you to another screen which lists the different types of boilers on Specnet – which is fairly short right now as only standard commercial boilers are listed.

Clicking on the highlighted text takes you to a specification spreadsheet – devised by practising engineers at Arup – where the performance, constructional and dimensional characteristics of the required boiler can be chosen.

This is where Specnet really starts to show its potential: note that as you set the parameters of your required boiler, Specnet automatically narrows the field to those boilers on its database that fit the bill. For example, a 300-400 W range boiler will throw up 23 products; but opting for, say, an atmospheric burner in that performance range immediately limits you to five products.

Of course, once the Specnet database reaches a critical mass, you'll still see hundreds of choices even when all the fields are filled. Inevitably some of the options will need to be refined further (such as power output), but note that Specnet already has a dialogue box to filter those suppliers operating under a "green statement".

Once Specnet has defined what it means to be green (and assuming that matches any corporate requirement in a designer's brief), then that in itself could be a useful filter.

Once those fields have been filled in, you can view the product selection. This screen shows thumbnails of the products and their classification.

Clicking on the product takes you to a new screen with some extremely useful options, such as full datasheets (great as the basis of a job specification) cad drawings, and an order form with e-mail link.

Specnet isn't using object orientation, but the datasheet can still be used as metadata attached to a standard drawing element or icon, say in Microstation. Causeway says that its ultimate aim is to provide full object-orientated products – the basis of 3D project models.

Who pays?
Not the user. At least, not right now. Instead, product manufacturers will pay to have their products listed and categorised on Specnet.

The precise deal depends on the size of manufacturer, and the number of products that need to be coded and categorised. The cost to manufacturers is £2500 per category.

A category is defined a a particular product range. Boilers for example, are broken down into categories. Modular boilers is one category, while condensing boilers is another.

As you can imagine, compounding £2500 for each category would make the total fee uncompetitive against more traditional product databases, such as published directories. Hence the cost is negotiable for those manufacturers with hundreds of different product lines.

Specnet is only one of a suite of Link-branded programs being developed by Causeway Technologies, which is selling itself strongly as a market leader in on-line construction products.

Among these are ProjectLink, "a 100% web-based document, process and knowledge management centre", and TradesmanLink, which is a promising e-database of self-employed tradesmen and other building professionals.

Arup has also helped Causeway develop Integration, an extranet service which enables project teams to communicate, exchange documents and manage their projects in a more integrated manner.

Benefits and bugs
As a response to the concept of on-line design, the proto-Specnet is very elegant. In practice, there are one or two mountains still to climb.

The biggest is the paucity of standard product data. Not enough manufacturers have organised their data in a common format, and as a consequence Specnet only has a few suppliers on its books.

One of the problems with extensive databases, on-line or otherwise, is that the user can still be faced with hundreds of options rather than just the select few which arise from client or designer preference. Specnet will be offered to design practices to run on a local intranet, which would enable the program to be populated only with preferred products and suppliers.

On 11 December 2000, Arup, Causeway and e-commerce application company Open Text, entered into a commercial partnership. From February 2001, Causeway Technologies will be developing web technologies and providing tools and concepts on a licence basis to individual users as well as commercial companies.

As Faber's Nick Barnard commented, the lack of common data will be solved as soon as suppliers find they are missing out on contracts. "Enough people have to ask for it before suppliers start providing common data" he said. "We are not there yet, but hopefully the day is not far off.