e-Business in Construction

With a number of disparate, often geographically distributed, organisations involved in the delivery of construction projects, there has been considerable interest in e-business tools within the construction industry. These tools open up a range of possibilities for the industry to rethink existing processes and working methods, so their use is increasingly common. Nevertheless, there has been little definitive guidance for practitioners, researchers and students on the major issues in electronic business from a construction perspective.By bringing together 16 contributions from research and industry covering theory, technological issues, practical implementation and legal matters, and illustrated with a number of case studies, e-Business in Construction fills that gap. Starting with the theoretical aspects of e-commerce and moving on to consider the specifics of the construction context, it includes a mechanism for the assessment of the e-readiness of construction sector organisations. The middle part of the book focuses on the role of various technologies in e-business, with examples included as appropriate. This is followed by a discussion of practical, legal and trust issues. The potential of next generation of information and communication technologies is also addressed.With a fine blend of theoretical and practical aspects of e-commerce in construction, and well illustrated with a number of industrial case studies, e-Business in Construction will find an appreciative audience of construction practitioners, researchers and students at all levels.The Editors Chimay J. Anumba BSc, PhD, DSc, Dr.h.c., PGCE, CEng, FICE, FIStructE, FCIOB, FASCE was until recently Professor of Construction Engineering & Informatics at Loughborough University, UK. He is currently Professor of Architectural Engineering and Head of the Department of Architectural Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University, USAKirti Ruikar BArch, MSc, EngD is a Lecturer in Architectural Engineering at Loughborough University.Also Available Knowledge Management in Construction Chimay J. Anumba, Charles Egbu & Patricia Carrillo 978 1 4051 2972 5Construction Innovation and Process Improvement Akintola Akintoye 978 1 4051 5648 6Cover illustrations courtesy of Getty ImagesCover design by Sandra Heath

Chimay J. Anumba BSc, PhD, DSc, Dr.h.c., PGCE, CEng, FICE, FIStructE, FCIOB, FASCE was until recently Professor of Construction Engineering & Informatics at Loughborough University, UK. He is currently Professor of Architectural Engineering and Head of the Department of Architectural Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University, USA

Kirti Ruikar BArch, MSc, EngD is a Lecturer in Architectural Engineering at Loughborough University.

Contributors	p. xi
Foreword	p. xvii
Acknowledgements	p. xix
Abbreviations	p. xxi
Introduction	p. 1
Context	p. 1
Structure of the book	p. 2
References	p. 4
Fundamentals of e-Business	p. 6
Introduction	p. 6
e-Business and e-commerce definitions	p. 6
Taxonomy for e-business	p. 7
The four faces of e-business	p. 10
e-Business models	p. 11
e-Business in construction	p. 14
Summary and conclusions	p. 20
References	p. 21
e-Business: The Construction Context	p. 23
Introduction	p. 23
e-Business and the construction business processes	p. 25
e-Business applications and end-user construction companies	p. 32
Summary	p. 40
References	p. 40
Organizational Readiness for e-Business	p. 42
Introduction	p. 42
Methodology for e-readiness	p. 44
Review of readiness assessment models	p. 45
Verify end-user e-readiness using a diagnostic tool	p. 47
Verdict: System architecture and operation	p. 53
End-user case study	p. 56
Conclusions and future work	p. 60
Acknowledgements	p. 61
Notes	p. 61
References	p. 61
Integrated Multi-Disciplinary e-Business Infrastructure Framework	p. 65
Introduction	p. 65
Integrated construction e-business infrastructure framework	p. 66
The importance of e-construction infrastructure	p. 67
Summary and status of e-construction challenges	p. 69
Conclusions	p. 77
Note	p. 77
References	p. 78
The Role of Extranets in Construction e-Business	p. 81
Introduction	p. 81
Defining construction collaboration technologies	p. 81
Uptake of construction collaboration technologies	p. 83
Benefits of construction collaboration technologies	p. 86
Human aspects of collaboration	p. 91
Moving beyond collaboration	p. 99
Conclusions	p. 101
References	p. 102
Agent-Based Systems: The Competitive Advantage for AEC-Specific e-Business	p. 104
Introduction	p. 104
The current context	p. 104
Understanding agent-based systems	p. 106
A roadmap of agent-based systems in e-business	p. 107
APRON: An agent-based prototype system for AEC-specific e-business	p. 109
APRON's conceptual design	p. 114
The implemented APRON architecture	p. 116
Discussion and conclusions	p. 117
References	p. 120
The Role of e-Hubs in e-Commerce	p. 123
Introduction	p. 123
e-Hub concept	p. 124
e-Hubs' services	p. 125
Engineering e-Hub	p. 132
Engineering services	p. 140
Problems and challenges	p. 144
Conclusions	p. 145
Acknowledgements	p. 147
References	p. 147
Web Services and aecXML-Based e-Business System for Construction Products Procurement	p. 149
Introduction	p. 149
The need for e-procurement of construction products	p. 149
Existing e-business systems for construction products procurement	p. 151
Limitations of existing e-business systems	p. 153
The E-Union concept	p. 154
Standardization of construction products information	p. 155
The Web Services model of interoperable construction products catalogues	p. 157
The E-Union Web Services prototypical implementation	p. 160
Conclusions	p. 164
References	p. 164
Using Next Generation Web Technologies in Construction e-Business	p. 167
Introduction	p. 167
The construction context	p. 168
The need for the Semantic Web	p. 169
The Semantic Web	p. 172
Evolution of the Semantic Web in the construction sector	p. 178
Semantic Web-based construction e-business	p. 181
Summary	p. 191
References	p. 192
Trust in e-Commerce	p. 195
Introduction	p. 195
Trust and trust building	p. 196
Trust building in e-commerce	p. 199
Conclusions	p. 208
References	p. 209
Legal Issues in Construction e-Business	p. 211
Introduction	p. 211
Types of legal risks in construction e-business	p. 212
Contract formation, validity and errors	p. 212
Jurisdiction	p. 213
Privacy	p. 214
Authentication, attribution and non-repudiation	p. 215
Agency	p. 216
Conclusions	p. 218
References	p. 219
Knowledge Management for Improved Construction e-Business Performance	p. 222
Introduction	p. 222
Knowledge management in context	p. 223
Exploiting opportunities in the fast-changing environment of e-business: A knowledge management perspective?	p. 224
Organizational challenges in using the internet to commercialize knowledge assets	p. 226
Knowledge assets employed by construction organizations in e-business initiatives	p. 229
Organizational readiness to launch a knowledge-business (k-business)	p. 230
Conclusions and recommendations	p. 233
References	p. 233
e-Commerce in Construction: Industrial Case Study	p. 235
Introduction	p. 235
Background	p. 235
A historic perspective	p. 236
e-Commerce implementation: Practical issues and benefits	p. 239
The first adopters	p. 241
Implementation issues: Case study examples	p. 242
Specific case study examples	p. 245
Summary	p. 247
References	p. 247
Assessment of e-Business Implementation in the US Construction Industry	p. 248
Introduction	p. 248
US construction industry	p. 249
e-Business assessment survey findings	p. 254
Conclusions	p. 264
References	p. 264
Concluding Notes	p. 266
Introduction	p. 266
Summary	p. 266
Benefits of e-business in construction	p. 267
Considerations in construction e-business implementation	p. 268
Future directions	p. 270
Index	p. 273
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e-Business in Construction

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