eTools for Managing Construction Projects in India

Coming of Age with New Age Solutions

Anil Sawhney

Kamal K Mukherjee

Professor, Department of Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
New Delhi, India
asawhney@civil.iitd.ac.in

Doctoral Candidate, Department of Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
New Delhi, India
kamalkmukherjee@gmail.com

Abstract India is growing at a fast pace. A direct result of this

growth is the tremendous requirements for efficient delivery of
physical infrastructure. Therefore the Indian construction sector is
poised to play a crucial role in this growth. Much is dependent on the
capacity of the sector to efficiently deliver large and complex
construction projects. One of the many ways being contemplated to
enhance our preparedness towards meeting these challenges is
appropriate use of Information and Communication technologies
(ICT) in the construction sector. However, beset with fragmentation,
SME-predominance, manpower constraints and other factors peculiar
to the sector itself, the construction sector has been a slow adopter of
technology as a means to achieving business objectives. There is
increasing realisation, though, that the sector could be at the cusp of
far-reaching changes in this area that will bring wholesome benefits
to all stakeholders in the sector. This paper argues for a whole-ofsector approach towards adopting ICT and emphasises that an eTools
approach will bring uniform benefits flowing out of better
management of time, cost and value to stakeholders. Among other
things, timely project completion, reduced risk of errors and project
rework, better overall client satisfaction and informed decision
making will accrue from improved communication and information
flow that results from the adoption and use of ICT. Moreover,
advancements in technology have also made it possible for
technology to be available with those in the sector who could not
earlier afford it making the vision of information available anywhere
and anytime now possible.
Index TermsICT, project management, construction, eTools,
SME.

I. INTRODUCTION
By 2030 Indian cities are likely to account for about 70% of
the national GDP and drive a fourfold increase in per capita
incomes; they would also contribute to about 85% of the total
tax revenue to the government and benefit nearly 200 million
rural people living in close proximity to urban agglomerations
of India [1]. It is also expected that urban India, currently home
to about 340 million people (about 30% of the population) will
have close to 600 million people (or about 40%) in 2030 [1].
However, if infrastructure fails to keep pace and service
delivery is less than optimal in urban India, there is a risk of
quality of life in urban India deteriorating and investments
being crowded out. India, therefore, needs a concerted
approach to addressing the challenges of urbanization. The
construction industry is a critical lever for this transformation
to be brought about. Contributing about 6-9% of the countrys

GDP, the sector has shown an annual growth of 8-10% in

recent times [2].
By some estimates India is estimated to spend about USD 1
trillion over the next 5 years (2012-2017) on constructing the
nations physical infrastructure which translates to over USD
150-200 million worth of construction projects during 20122017 [3]. Duly, the Planning Commission of India has
recognised the construction industry as an organised sector and
has introduced a separate chapter for the sector in the Five Year
Plans for the country.
The Indian construction industry predominantly comprises
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that are proprietary
/individualistic in nature accounting for up to 90% of the total
construction work in the country [4]. The sector is highly
heterogeneous comprising unorganized enterprises to modern
and more organized enterprises. These organizations had their
origins as start-up ventures by entrepreneurial individuals and
have, over a period of time, grown in size.
However, the Indian construction industry is riddled with
fragmentation and suffers from capacity constraints, low
productivity, limited mechanization and lack of professionally
qualified employees. Inconsistent performance with projects
failing regularly on measures of cost, time and quality is a
something for which there is strong evidence [2]. Given the
constraints that face the sector, concerns are being raised about
delivery capacity of the construction sector to successfully
commission work of this volume. The Planning Commission
identifies the need to adopt efficient technologies and modern
management techniques to bolster output [3].
II. ICT AND THE CHANGING FACE OF THE
CONSTRUCTION SECTOR
Peculiarities of the construction sector present obstacles to
the introduction and diffusion of technological change [5].
These include:
Site-specificity of production (leading to a perceived
unsuitability of products to different sites making
prototyping difficult);
Complexity due to the temporary combination of
parties (participating organisations may be loath to
invest in technologies whose relevance may not extend
beyond the project at hand or across organisational
boundaries);

Geographical separation of design and construction

(variability due to external conditions such as the
weather and internal changes in layout besides factors
of connectivity and difficulty in coordination); and
Growing degree of specialisation in production and use
of subcontractors (implying an increasing presence of
SMEs unlikely to be armed with adequate financial
muscle to invest in technologies).
In comparison to manufacturing, the construction sector
limitations often prevent the flow of processes being as smooth
as in manufacturing [5]. Researchers, though, have argued for
the relevance of new production philosophies unfolding in
manufacturing and the role of IT in the context of these
philosophies [5]. These new methods require production
activities in construction to be analysed as processes as against
being dealt with as functions, controlled for such concepts as
minimal variability and cycle-time, with continuous attention to
reducing waste, the efficiency of which is periodically
improved by implementing new technologies. It is this process
based view of construction process improvement which is seen
as the basis for a new ICT agenda for the sector [5].
III. THE CASE FOR ICT
As has been mentioned above, deviations of time, cost,
scope and quality from planned performance and timely
decision making for responding to problems and disputes
constitute the most common problems being faced in the sector
today [4]. Communication problems among the team members
are often a cause for project delays, expensive reworking and
building defects; with traditional tools of communication,
project managers often lose the ability of timely change
management [4]. Use of ICT provides opportunities for real
time access of information to all and improves coordination
and collaboration between project team members [4].
At all stages of a building project, information is generated,
stored and communicated by all the supply chain members. To
have effective communication, all members should follow the
accepted methods of communication or communication
protocols. Also, at any time, each construction organization is
involved in more than one project and is a part of more than
one supply chain. This unique nature of the construction
industry necessitates that the communication protocols are
adopted by the industry as a whole and do not remain project
specific.
There are strong change drivers in the construction sector
from a number of sources including clients, contractors and the
manufacturers of materials and components. Technological
innovations in construction include new materials;
prefabrication of modular components; industrialisation of
buildings; onsite mechanisation; improved building services;
and application of EDI, CAD, and CIM. These changes in
technologies have an impact on the construction process itself,
creating needs for new skills and management practices [5].
The case for ICTs is further abetted by developments in
ICT including, among others, ubiquity of networks; increasing
prevalence of web-based applications and services available
over multiple devices; convergence of voice, text and video

services over IP-based networks; increasing miniaturisation of

ICT devices; and democratisation of ICT leading to an
explosion of volumes making possible unprecedented
economies of scale. Cloud computing and services being
provided by external agencies are contributing a great deal
towards co-opting those who would never have considered
owning or managing ICT facilities on their own, for example
SME players in the construction sector.
IV. LITERATURE REVIEW
There is abundant literature that outline the peculiarities and
specificities of the construction sector, latest developments in
the sector that attempt to address problems in the sector often
with the aid of ICTs, relative slackness of the sector in
comparison to others on adoption of ICT in sectoral activities,
and the all-round multi-dimensional interventions required in
order that ICTs are optimally used for sectoral progress.
Coverage, however, is scarce on a whole-of-industry ICT
landscape that cuts across boundaries of organisations,
functions, and stakeholders that gives the big picture for
potential ICT usage in the sector. Table 1 brings out some
findings from literature reviewed for this paper.
TABLE I. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS FROM SELECT LITERATURE REVIEWED FOR
THE PAPER

Name of the
Publication

Emerging
ICT Trends
in
Construction
Project
Teams:
A
Delphi
Survey [6]

Study of ICT
adoption for
building
project
management
in the Indian
construction
industry [7]

Main Findings
Highlights the perception that some firms, typically
trade subcontractors who view their competitive
advantage as being derived from their trade skills to
provide timely, cost competitive and quality services,
do not experience any form of competitive advantage
through use of ICT as a collaborative communication
tool.
Importantly, the extent of ICT enabled collaboration
is dictated by the technological capacity of the least
capable project team member
In a competitive project-based industry some firms
view staff development as a net cost since staff
members frequently change employers
Fragmentation is a barrier to closer alignment
between
trading
partners,
and
systems
incompatibility is a symptom of this- therefore,
organisations desirous of driving higher levels of
ICT
integration
across
temporary project
organisations must demonstrate their commitment to
the development of harmonised pan-industry
standards and documentation conducive to use in
ICT-mediated project environments [6].
Highlights the advantages an increased ICT usage
would bring to the sector in the increasingly complex
project management structures of the construction
sector
Brings out the SME-predominance of the Indian
construction sector and the principal barriers they
face in the adoption of ICT
Reveals that the rate of ICT adoption in the sector
over the last 5 years or so has been significant and
that the increase in internal ICT usage (within the
organisation) is considerably more that external
(with outside agencies)
Brings out a set of drivers that have accounted for
the increase in ICT usage in the sector, main among
them being increased requirement of clients for
updated requirements of information on project and

Name of the
Publication

Main Findings

ICT
for
Collaborativ
e working in
Project
Management
[8]

Mobile ICT
support for
construction
process
improvement
[9]

by insistence on the use of ICT by larger

organisations
Highlights the issues that need to be addressed at
industry, organisation and people levels in order that
ICT usage is accelerated [7]
Discusses trends in IT application for collaborative
project management and the IT governance issues
that underpin successful implementation of IT
projects.
Evolution of the construction supply chain
management
from
two-person
contractual
relationship management and interaction models to
multi-layer
inter-organizational
contractual
relationships, business transactions and interactions
in product design, manufacture and supply. This
evolution has resulted in a shift from a single focus
on production efficiency to enlarged customer-driven
collaborative
working
and
partnership
synchronization approaches in order to ensure
efficient project delivery.
Highlights increasing recognition of the need to
address various problem areas in construction
processes such as quality control, extra costs due to
material wastages, and reduced speed of
construction. also focuses on the rapid advancements
in ICT such as the convergence between voice and
data communications offer solutions for improved
collaborative working in various sectors
Points out that Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) technology has great potential to support and
facilitate the production and distribution of
construction products, including precast components;
empower more collaboration in supply chain
management, and improve project delivery on time,
quality, and within budget resulting in a more
satisfied client [8]
Emphasises development of affordable mobile
technologies such as handheld computers,
SmartPhones and Tablet PCs with latest
communications infrastructure (3G, WLAN and
GPRS) to provide last mile connection to the pointof activity.
Also talks of improvements through ICT in
construction by way of reduction in construction
time, capital cost of construction, defects, accidents,
predictability, waste, productivity and in operation
and maintenance costs.
Highlights the work of FIATECH, which seeks to
accelerate deployment of emerging and new
technologies in capital projects industry through
stages such as
Intelligent and Automated
Construction Job Site and the Integrated
Automated Procurement and Supply Network
Highlights that ad-hoc development of isolated,
function driven, mobile solutions for the construction
industry risks the creation of a new archipelago;
numerous small islands of solutions that do not
feedback or link to existing back-end systems [9].

V. CONSTRUCTION ICT ROADMAP TOWARDS THE

EU 6TH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME
ROADCON, a strategic roadmap project on "New Methods
of Work and Electronic Commerce" towards the 6th
Framework Programme envisions a futuristic ICT-enabled
scenario with the following elements [10]:

ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS that learn from their own use

and user behaviour, adapt to new situations without
manual configuration, maintenance and support.
AMBIENT ACCESS anytime, anywhere regardless of
physical location: office, construction site, home etc.
COLLABORATIVE VIRTUAL TEAMS combine
distributed competences via global collaboration
environments that support cultural, linguistic, social
and legal transparency across organizational,
geographical and time boundaries as if they were colocated.
DIGITAL SITE connects mobile workers, intelligent
products and site machinery to location and context
aware real-time information and services.
FLEXIBLE
INTEROPERABILITY
between
heterogeneous ICT systems for seamless interaction
between all stakeholders.
ICT SKILLS & AWARENESS are promoted by
systematic technology transfer, training, eLearning and
built-in learning support in ICT tools.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING on industry-wide sharing
of previous experiences, best practices and knowledge
within and, increasingly, between organisations.
LEGAL AND CONTRACTUAL GOVERNANCE
supports ICT as the main means of contract preparation
and enactment, inter-company communication and
conflict resolution.
MODEL BASED ICT for system integration at high
sematic level, context awareness, automation,
simulation, user specific views and visualisation based
on computer interpretable data.
PERFORMANCE
DRIVEN
process
ensures
conformity to customers needs and emphasises enduser satisfaction and value.
SMART BUILDINGS AND PRODUCTS for
interactive workspaces, location & context aware
services, ambient control and self-reporting.
TOTAL LIFE CYCLE supported by ICT services for
whole life decision making by users, owners and the
society.
Construction projects are unique undertakings wherein
stakeholders participate in different steps of the project
lifecycle and generate data and information that needs to be
shared with other stakeholders concurrently and in downstream
steps. Understanding the nature of the lifecycle and the
information needs of this lifecycle are of paramount importance
to enhancing the use of ICTs to achieve project outcomes. In
this context, Rondinelli emphasizes an integrated project
cycle and suggests, from an information-flow perspective, 10
steps that a well-planned project must go through [11]. This
information life cycle, when mapped with the actual project life
cycle or work flow of the project, gives a complicate mesh of
interactions which forms the basis of ICT framework. The
following could be conceptualised as the different stages of the
project covering the 10 different steps mentioned above,
referred to as Sub-Stages in Figure 3 below.

VI. ICT DEFICIT AREAS OF INDIAN CONSTRUCTION

SECTOR
In the backdrop of what has been discussed in the foregoing
sections, the Indian construction sector today can be considered
to be primarily grappling with the following deficit areas:
COLLABORATION DEFICIT, implying thereby that
there is no pervasive collaborative platform on which
stakeholders can positively engage during the project
delivery process. This would, for example, account for
lack of expert inputs at early planning stages of the
project lifecycle leading potentially to identification of
less than the best solutions in the first place, lack of
collaboration among stakeholders during the project
execution stages, leading to sub-optimal use of
resources, wastage and idling of manpower,
machinery, equipment etc., and shortfalls in
collaboration during the project dissemination and sale
stages, leading to identification of inappropriate
entities to purchase for the end-user and relative
unawareness on the part of the end-user of the latest
projects and rules of usage governing them.
Participatory design of tools and services, development
of scenarios, information handling powered by
agreements on vocabularies and concepts within and
between stakeholders and advances such as semantic
web, today make it possible that ICT must not only be
regarded as a tool that one has to learn to use but also
as an integral part of the organisation and sectoral
Knowledge Management (KM) system [12]. KM
systems will go a long way to ensure that knowledge
does not depart with individuals leaving the
organisation but is entrenched in the system as
collective institutional memory.
STANDARDISATION DEFICIT, implying thereby
that standardised (or even codified) processes are not
followed across stakeholder agencies resulting in endusers grappling with different work processes across
different agencies. Standardisation of work processes
across agencies will enable easy apple-to-apple
comparisons to the benefit of contractors, subcontractors, owners and end-users alike.
SERVICE DELIVERY DEFICIT, meaning that the
service delivery practices prevalent in the sector are not
customer-centric which makes for stakeholder
dissatisfaction. Typical examples include, for example,
resolution of post-occupancy issues, a lack of alerts
and reminders for payment milestones, quality checks
before handoff of work in process to downstream
entities, easy recharge options on toll-cards etc. Tenets
of customer service need to be defined; service
delivery parameters must be spelt out and adhered to
during the execution stages.
EFFICIENCY DEFICIT, implying thereby that the
processes being followed by the principal agencies (for
example, contractors, sub-contractors etc.) need to be
re-engineered; in the current state the processes, even

in the non-standardised way, do not utilise time and

resources in the best manner possible which makes for
higher costs being passed on to the end-user ultimately.
Comprehensive business process re-engineering (BPR)
exercises will not only bring about higher internal
efficiencies inside the stakeholder organisations, but, if
followed uniformly across organisations, will also
engender requisite standardisation of processes and
practices.
AUTOMATION DEFICIT, implying that there is
abundance of sub-optimized processes that have been
defined using archaic paper-based approaches.
Computerisation of work processes (even shorn of the
standardisation and re-engineering imperatives) by
itself may lead to shortening of project cycle times to
the eventual advantage of the end-user in particular and
all stakeholders in general. Lowering of costs will be
an immediate outcome which will ultimately translate
to more projects being accomplished in the same
budget.
DECISION SUPPORT DEFICIT, implying thereby
that the necessary information that needs to be
available to the top managers to enable decision
making is not readily available. Suitably processed
historical data to suit the requirements of project
planning, statistical analyses tools that enable trend
analysis of infrastructure uptake demand forecast
techniques must be essential elements of decisionsupport to enable the best decisions to be taken. Georeferenced data using GIS techniques will particularly
enable planners and land owners alike to address
teething issues.
TRANSPARENCY DEFICIT, implying thereby that
information related to the sector is not readily and
conveniently available to sector practitioners. Singlewindow access to information through the usage of
thematic portals is a possible answer to this.
Transparency norms being followed also leave much to
be desired, particularly on procurement and contract
management practices. ICT-based options like eProcurement technologies today are available to
adequately address this issue. Also, provided BPR
exercises are taken up precedent to the adoption of
technology, accountability of timely decisions, or lack
thereof, can also be pinned down on identifiable
players in the project cycle.
DEMOCRATISATION DEFICIT, implying thereby
there are high levels of inequality in so far as adoption
of technology is concerned, occasioned primarily by
access to resources, financial or otherwise. The fact
that the industry is SME-dominant accentuates this
divide even more. Today, cloud-based offerings and
open source technologies are available that can help
bridge these divides to a large extent. Standardisation,
though may be a pre-requisite for this, particularly so if
cloud-based offerings are to be exploited.

TABLE II. TABLE 1UTILITY OF ICT SOLUTIONS FOR STAKEHOLDERS

Stakeholders/ Solution
Genre

Portal

Web 2.0

Bespoke/

Project

Mobile

Mgmt

CRM

ERP

GIS

BIM/CAD

BI/DW

Owners
Planners
Designers
Contractors
End-Users
COLOUR LEGENDS
HIGH UTILITY

MEDIUM UTILITY

VII. PROPOSED ICT FRAMEWORK FOR THE INDIAN

CONSTRUCTION SECTOR
Given the above background the Indian construction sector
needs to carefully charter a roadmap for the effective use of
ICT to enhance operational efficiencies of all the participating
entities. A carefully drawn out national sectoral plan is needed
to move the industry to the next level in its output capacity and
eradicate some of the known constraints. Objectives to be met
by such an ICT framework for the industry include the
following:
to bring about optimal levels of collaboration among
sector stakeholders on common ICT-enabled platforms
to enable decision making at all stages of project
lifecycle to the benefit of end-users;
to enable standardisation of work processes across
stakeholder agencies to enable comparison of projects
across stakeholder entities;
to maximise service delivery to the end-user through
easy information availability (right information at the
right time to the right people), timely intimation of
alerts and reminders to those who need and generally
through definition of service delivery norms and
Seamlessly Integrated Portal for the Construction Industry
(Most Preferred Point of Reference for information and services related to this industry)

Web-Based Collaborative tools to bring about Multi-stakeholder

participation and collaboration in construction industry processes

BESPOKE AND MOBILE PLATFORM SOLUTIONS DEVELOPED IN

LINE WITH STANDARISED REQUIREMENTS
MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PROJECT
MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS
CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT

ERP, E-PROCUREMENT
AND OTHER SOLUTIONS
FOR INTERNAL
STAKEHOLDERS

RFID/GPS and
GIS-based
Components

BIM/ CAD AND

OTHER
ENGINEERING
SOLUTIONS

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE/ DATA WAREHOUSE AND STATISTICAL

ANALYSES SOLUTIONS

SEAMLESSLY INTEGRATED DATABASE

(SPATIALLY AND TEMPORALLY)

Fig 1 Conceptual Model of ICT in the Construction Sector

LOW UTILITY

adherence to the same;

to bring about higher levels of efficiency through
revisiting processes followed by stakeholder agencies,
re-engineering and codifying such processes as well as
undertake adequate capacity building interventions for
staff to ensure availability of skills to implement such
redefined work processes;
to undertake computerisation of re-defined work
processes in an overall effort to enable easy entry,
storage, retrieval, processing and access of data to
stakeholders on a "need-to-know" basis;
to ensure through availability of data and data analysis
tools that required information is available to
stakeholders in general and planners in particular to
support informed decision making; and
to make information as widely and easily available as
is possible on convenient platforms of use and access
in an overall effort to maximise transparency in the
sector.

A. Conceptualising the ICT Landscape

Figure 1 illustrates the main components of the ICT/e-Tools
landscape that could be appropriately deployed for the Indian
construction sector. Table II brings out the utility of the above
genres of solution to the different stakeholder groups.
B. Stakeholder Exchange of Information and Services with
ICT
The ICT engine would be available to the stakeholders either in
open access mode or on a need-to-know basis. Figure 2
brings out the typical exchange of information and services
between the different stakeholder groups. Figure 3 summarises
salient aspects of the ICT landscape discussed.
VIII. BENEFITS FROM THE ADOPTION OF ICT
The overall benefits resulting from the adoption of ICTs
could ultimately result from advantages flowing out of higher
operational efficiencies through better management of time,
cost and value to stakeholders [13]. Specifically, benefits
include
effective
collaboration
and
communication
management; timely project completion; multi-locational realtime availability of project information and greater
management control; reduced risk of errors an project rework;

effective contract management; reduced hard copy storage of

files and documents; better overall client satisfaction; an
increase in the quality of documents and speed of work; better
financial control and communications, and simpler and faster
access to common data as well as a decrease in documentation
errors. Richer information to aid decision making, improved
communication, closer relationships, improved information
flow, greater management control and getting geographically
dispersed groups to work together are also a few benefits that
accrue from the use of ICTs [7], [14]. These depend upon the

availability of shared project information, analysis tools to

analyze the information, a collaborative infrastructure to handle
the flow of information, a multi-device access to information
and a system that ensures the persistence of the underlying
information among the participants.
However, although the average annual growth rate of ICT
investment in the construction industry is increasing every
year, the construction industry has been relatively slow in
adopting ICT and often available and easily accessible
technology is not being utilized to the full extent [4], [13].

Fig 2 Stakeholders' Requirements of ICT tools in the Construction Sector

Postevaluation and
Follow-Up

Dissemination
and Transition
to Normal

Termination
and Control of
Project

Project
Dissemination
and Follow-Up
Supervision,
Coordination &
Control

Activation and
Organisation of
Project

Selection,
Negotiation
and Approval

Project
Appraisal and
Feasibility

Formulation &
Design of
Project

Identification
and Definition
of Objectives

STAGES

Project
Execution and
Monitoring

Owners

Owners

Planners

Planners

Planners

Architects/ Engrs

Architects/ Engrs

Architects/ Engrs

Contractors

Contractors

Contractors

End-Users

End-Users

End-Users

Transparency (procurement)
Inefficient procurement and
other processes
Incomplete information
availability (right info at right
time to right people)
Cost overrun, idling of
resources (manpower,
equipments, material),
wastage, underutilization
Sequential working

Largely unaware
stakeholders (stumble
upon project info)
Little transparency in
procurement
Inconvenient payment
mechanisms
No customer-centric
service delivery
Non-availability of
benchmarking data

Geo-enabled

Alerts and Reminders to

stakeholders on updated
project data on channels of
convenience
Transparent eProcurement
Systems
Database-statistical analyses
Remote data entry options
Project Management Solutions
Group coordination technology
Project Progress Tracking

Use platforms of
convenience and data
repositories to disseminate
data (portal, group SMS)
Payment and other alerts
and reminders at different
times of the project
Transparent information
and procurement systems
Electronic payment
Visualisation technologies

GIS-enabled decision
support systems
Business Intelligence/
Data Warehouse Options
Scenario Analysis Tools
Building Information
Modelling/ ComputerAided Design Systems
Project Management
Solutions
Web 2.0 tools

Alerts and reminders on

channels of convenience
eProcurement Systems
Online Ordering systems and
search tools (sub-contractors)
Remote data entry solutions
Project Management Solutions
Web-based collaborative tools
with mobile editions
ERP systems interfacing with
other systems

Domain-specific Portal and

mobile based solutions
Alerts and reminders on
channels of convenience
Search Tools to customer
eProcurement systems
E-Payment/m-Payment
systems
Project Management
Solutions
CRM/CAD/GIS systems

Early involvement of
stakeholders
Ploughing back historical
data
Land ownership rights
respected
Standardised designs for
easy comparison
Objective definition of
targets to track

Interoperability across
platforms for convenient data
exchange
Better resource use(manpower,
equipments, machinery)
Better time management and
cost control
Higher levels of collaboration,
transparency
Tracking of project progress on
pre-defined parameters on
standardised applications

Customer choice by way of

selection and channels of
communication
Savings in time and money
for the end-user
Better follow-up in terms of
payment linked to project
stages etc
Possible to undertake
multi-dimensional analyses
Better information
availability to stakeholders

ICT ENTRY

CHALLENGES

Land Use Data not readily

available
Latest design and budget
changes need to be
available
What if tools required for
scenario planning
Stakeholder coordination
Knowledge sharing
Lack of modeling options
Formal review process

ICT TOOLS

Owners

BENEFITS

STAKEHOLDERS SUB-STAGES

Project
Preparation and
Planning

databases
seamlessly integrated to
support decision-making
Trend on historical data
Multi-dimensional
analysis of data
Web-based platforms to
invite stakeholder views
and suggestions
Design and Modeling tools
Workflow solutions

Much of the building information

is still exchanged by Much
Figure 3eTools for Different Stages of the Construction Lifecycle- A Snapshot

Much of the building information is still exchanged by

conventional human communication and hard copy drawings
and documents, leading to errors in drawings and documents,
since such a communication is not real time communication. In
a survey conducted in a leading construction organization, it
was found that 30% of all the questions that came from the
construction site managers to the designers were related to the
inconsistencies in drawings from the architectural, structural,
and mechanical designers [4]. Construction companies often
find it difficult to justify ICT investments and many managers
view ICT investments as a process of consumption rather than
capital expenditure [13].
IX. CONCLUSION
In conclusion it can be said that the above represents a
generic framework for an ICT landscape applicable to an
already fragmented industry with fast emerging islands of
specialisation. The different categories of the solution
landscape could be further decomposed and customized into
sub-categories and modules in a conceptual rack that is based
on pre-agreed industry-wide standards to bring about complete
interoperability between solution components. Users, including
in the SME sector, would then need to make a choice of the
modules from the rack depending upon their suitability for their
operations. The SME-predominance of the industry would
require that, regardless of the financial and manpower expertise
capability of the stakeholders such solutions be available to
them. Cloud-based services and open source alternatives today
make it possible that these solutions be developed at the least
cost and be made available to those who need it more
affordably than has been the case before. Solution
conceptualisation efforts will now need to consider the fact that
data can be sent from one point to another combining text,
numbers, images, drawings video and sound, and a
combination and transmission of these as multimedia can
completely transform the industry even as it reduces the need
for co-workers to be located in the same venue [14].
Understanding of the modern day ICT devices, including the
computer and mobile phones, and the power of internet
technology will be seminal to the role and importance of ICT in
the construction industry. Strategic roadmaps that involve all
stakeholders need to be developed and implemented in order
that the above take place.
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