Project-management software can be clunky, but the latest release of Cadweb looks to be less of a bone-shaker and might be worth taking for a spin, writes Charlie Jacoby
Anyone driving the latest Rover, Jaguar or Lexus could be forgiven for wondering why people bothered with early automobiles. Compared with the horse, the prevalent method of transport in those days, the first cars were slow, unreliable and expensive.
Now similar questions are being asked about the Model T Ford’s modern technology equivalent – a project management tool called Cadweb. In a world where people e-mail, post letters to, telephone, and even meet and talk to each other, the software leaves many property professionals scratching their heads and wondering whether they should be bothered with it.
Mike Cuthbert, a partner in Drivers Jonas’ project management team, is one of the software’s detractors. “At Drivers Jonas, we have worked with a number of so-called web-based project management solutions: i-scraper and Cadweb, particularly,” he says.
“In all cases we have experienced problems – mainly with the procedures surrounding drawing comments, and when attempting to create an interactive forum for design teams.”
Until recently, Cadweb’s success rate was low. The only project where it was deployed and regularly referred to as successful is Bluewater Park. There are, however, plenty who now love the package. It is the market best-seller, after all.
One of Cadweb’s fans is Land Securities, which is undertaking a £28m refurbishment of Portman House on London’s Oxford Street, W1. The eight-storey 1950s retail and office block is being demolished and reconstructed above second-floor level.
Electronic system
LandSec is using Cadweb for issuing, storing and recording the movement of drawings and other documents on the project. The developer says it chose Cadweb because the package provides a secure electronic system that gives a complete, legally admissible audit trail, together with total reliability.
All the project’s contract drawings – produced by architect Sheppard Robson, structural engineer Mouchel and building services engineer Jaros Baum & Bolles – are issued through Cadweb.
More than 26,000 project documents have gone through the system so far. By the end of the project the total will be more than 50,000. If these documents were sent out by mail, the cost of postage would be about £20,000.
Cadweb costs equate to around 10p per megabyte per month for storage space on Cadweb’s servers. So in total, a typical £25m construction or engineering project would generate around 75,000 files, taking up 90 gigabytes of space on the servers, at a cost of £9,000 – far lower than conventional postage. And project members can search, download, and view the information as often as they wish.
The project co-ordinator at Portman House’s main contractor, HBG Construction, receives all the design information from the architect and engineer on the Cadweb system, and then disseminates by the same means to subcontractors and site staff as appropriate. He says the main advantages are the system’s simplicity, the time savings and the audit trail.
Structural engineer Mouchel says Cadweb frees it from needing to issue full-size drawings – a procedure that normally slows the whole process.
The audit trail (see p133) is also particularly useful, as consultants can see which drawings have been issued and by whom. There can be no question as to whether other parties have received them because their movements are audited by the system. Furthermore, the members of the project team always have up-to-date drawings.
Cadweb’s highest-profile scheme to date is the second phase of the Prudential’s 210,000m2 (2.3m sq ft) GreenPark at Reading in Berkshire. Prudential evaluated document-sharing and web-based systems on two previous phases. The key factor at the end of the test was Cadweb’s relatively basic system. “It replicates what we are already doing on paper,” says design engineer Martin Feakes.
Procurement strategies
But he points out that add-ons are an option – a route that might be useful for a development such as GreenPark. “It could be built up with extra modules to fit GreenPark’s needs,” he says. “The business park is different from the single-building projects for which these systems are often designed as one-offs. Procurement strategies for each plot differ, from design-and-build, construction management to two-stage tenders.”
Cadweb has now recorded the issue of 133,000 drawings and contract documents at GreenPark.
But problems remain, and one of the biggest is data transfer. Cadweb may be an elephant among software packages, but the UK’s telephone system means it is an elephant that is trying to suck water through a straw. On the GreenPark projects alone, the system is transferring information at the rate of 1.3Gb per day.
Speed is an issue
Drivers Jonas’s Cuthbert says the problems of Cadweb’s and other similar software packages relate to the time taken to achieve tasks that can be done faster by conventional means such as e-mail and post. “Certainly our clients see no benefit from adopting these systems on their projects,” he says.
However, Cuthbert has an axe to grind, as Drivers Jonas is developing its own approach – at least until broadband becomes universal – focusing on the client rather than the design team.
“We are developing our own project information system, linked to our interactive website www.groundbreaker.net,” he says. “This system will give our clients, and their stakeholders, ready access to project information in an easy-to-use and simple format.”
Meanwhile, Cadweb is facing up to its problems and, in fact, its latest version attempts to address the concerns that Groundbreaker claims it can solve.
When preparing the new release, Cadweb’s developers focused on speed of data transfer, simplicity of use and ultimate reliability.
They say that Cadweb.net now uses internet technologies to deliver a secure, fast and reliable web application. The new release keeps Cadweb up to speed with the latest web languages such as XML.
The programme has been “de-cluttered”, too. Cadweb managing director Chris Newman says: “The key to saving time is giving users instant access to what they need – without clutter. The new user interface has been developed to minimise the number of clicks and typing required to achieve any task.”
Digital fingerprinting guarantees that files sent through the system will be exactly the same when their recipients collect them.
According to Cadweb’s figures, the chance of mixing up two files is smaller than winning the UK National Lottery every week for a year.
The program’s operating speed has also been improved. The new technology enables project participants to send more files at once, and in the background, while users continue working on other tasks.
It seems that Cadweb may have moved on from its “Model T” days and be revving up. And for those who want a lift, the system can carry plenty of passengers.
Cadweb has the capacity to manage an unlimited number of projects on its servers. At present, building and civil engineering projects in the UK are using Cadweb fore-project information management to a total construction value of £1.4bn, with future orders set to bring the total to £2bn.
By the time all these projects have run to completion, the system will have dealt with between 800 and 1,200 individualproject-users and 54m separate drawing and document files.
|
Audit trail Perhaps Cadweb’s most prized element is that it creates an audit trail that stands up in court. Electronic documents may not be accepted in court if lawyers are not convinced the e-project management system they are based on is watertight. The simplest way to shift the weight of evidence in your favour is by using a system that complies with the British Standard BS7799. Cadweb operations director Alec Smith says: “The British legal system has accepted in principle that electronic documents have the same legitimacy as paper documents. But can the system you are using to manage those documents stand up to close scrutiny – in court if necessary?” The two important documents relating to the legal aspects of e-project management are a Code of Practice, PD0008, and a British Standard, BS7799. PD0008 does not guarantee legal admissibility, but it does define current best practice. It covers system planning, implementation and the procedures for using the system. It also focuses on the importance of setting up authorised procedures and being able to demonstrate in court that these procedures have been followed. It does not automatically follow that documents held on systems that do not conform to all the procedures in the Code are not legally acceptable, but it would be harder to prove it in court. Using an e-project management system that complies with BS7799 will shift the weight of evidence in your favour, and it will be up to the lawyers on the other side to prove some fault on your part. BS7799 sets out the procedures needed to set up a fully secure e-project management system. It is externally audited in the same way as quality and environmental policies, so its validity is independently guaranteed. One requirement of BS7799 is that a rigorous audit trail is created every time a document is either sent or received. This guarantees that documents cannot be tampered with, that what you send is what is received, and that every document is reliably logged. Cadweb claims to be the only e-project management system that fully complies with BS7799. |
