Of the audience surveyed at two seminars in Manchester and London by software provider Ramesys 43% said they had no budget for e-business and 56% had placed no trade over the internet to date. Of those surveyed at a Construction Products Association seminar in London, only 26% thought their customers were ready to use e-commerce.
It seems that things aren't going to improve much over the next few years either. 69% at the Ramesys seminars expected less than half their trade to take place through e-commerce over the next three years.
But the results also showed that the industry is convinced of the benefits of e-business. More than half at the Ramesys seminars thought construction was ready for e-trading and that it would bring savings through improved efficiency.
And those at the CPA seminar showed a grasp of the technology involved to make e-business happen. 46% were either already using or preparing to use the XML in the next 12 months to trade electronically.
Other results provide a clue to what is standing in the way of construction embracing e-business. 63% at the CPA seminar thought it was important for software suppliers to work together to create standards, something that has yet to be achieved on a large scale. And 63% also thought that the biggest obstacle to e-commerce was that their customers were not ready for it. At the Ramesys seminars, lack of management understanding of the benefits came out top as the biggest obstacle, at 46%.
John Connaughton, project manager of the IT best practice programme said the results showed the industry was biding its time to get involved in e-business. "People are waiting for others to invest in it and make the mistakes before putting money in themselves."
But he said the benefits were not clear-cut as yet. "The demonstrable benefits are not really there yet. The systems aren't up to speed. Everyone talks about construction being a great opportunity for e-business because it is fragmented and there are many transactions in any one project, but it's not as simple as that.
"The dotcom companies looked at construction very crudely and thought they could make some money out of online trading. But that portrays a lack of understanding of the complex commercial relationships that exist, such as special discounts between merchants and contractors for example.
"Slowly the benefits seem to be catching on, but there is a long road to travel yet."
Source
Construction Manager