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Status of Online Plan Rooms

Published on Friday, March 01, 2002 - 01:14 PM

Could regional Internet Plan rooms replace the national web-based project Management Systems?

For the systems to really work, the whole team has to be involved, responding. Trying to make our stalwart construction industry more responsive with using email on a regular basis is a major effort among the smaller trades who are busy on site producing the work.

Here is a common dilemma: When calling to request a trade contractor�s email to allow them to view drawings on line, 75% percent of the time there is a groan and a request to just send the files to the local printer. The evolution of the Internet plan room via a repro house is quickly emerging in major cities, growing much faster than the adoption of web based project management systems. There is money to be made in printing all the numerous copies of information, plans, specs, addenda and RFP�s. Repro houses savvy enough to recognize this need are enabling internet plan rooms with more and more sophistication. The trade customers of the repro houses lack the sophistication to download information so they are demanding the printers do it. The printer�s for their part are struggling with tools like plot.com and other sophisticated applications like constructjob.com to offer more than just an electronic vault. It�s true the sub contractors� are reluctant to participate, partially because some still don�t have email and the few that do, lack bandwidth to download drawings.

State Government Direction
With Sixteen States and $4 Billion in roadway projects now being let with the tools offered by bid express (www.bidx.com), States like Georgia are running 70% of all their DOT projects through the bidding system. Contractors pay a one-time $50 charge for a digital certificate and $25 per month to access online proposal forms and State bid announcements. Bid express has been offered to through State Departments the past 5 years (Internet enabled since September of1999) and intends on penetrating all the State DOT�s in the next 5 years.

The General Contractor�s Association (AGC):
ISqFt , plan room developed by Construction Systems Technologies was endorsed a year ago by the AGC, is seeing increased use by the AGC chapters in the Southeast as well as in the Midwestern states of Wisconsin and Iowa. Subscriptions to Isqft are offered through the AGC at discount (25%) to members and there was some discussion of payments being made back to the chapter to generate revenue(though this has not been verified. Members view plans to generate bids and there are integration tools for doing takeoffs (for those familiar with Buildware Pro) and F.W. Dodge Plans CD�s

What the AGC users are saying about the use of Isqft�s IPR: In a year these systems have grown to 4000 members and a dozen plan rooms, with the Carolinas and Iowa as the most intensive users. Vicki Strand of Stetson Builder�s supply in Iowa says her firm uses Isqft regularly in 8 locations, with the roofing division making the most use of doing material takeoffs. But not all users prefer the system, Paul Lawson who heads up the Texas office of Pepper says he still sees a lot of project managers preferring homebred versions of excel for estimating, with little adoption of isqft in the Houston area. Mark Tritschler, (Executive Vice President of McShane, a national design-build firm based in Rosemont, IL) agrees, �We tested internet plan rooms and have experience with estimating software but find our own custom hybrid forms of excel easier to use for tracking our projects�. With many firms the resistance by their employees to view plans online is the major obstacle. �We find our more experienced people prefer the traditional method of performing takeoffs on hard copies with digitizers and see the increased use of the online plan rooms a natural extension of the printing house to aid in the distribution process� adds Tritschler.
Local Developments
The cost of $3000 for an annual subscription of Isqft is quite high compared to what local plan rooms offer. For example, in Denver, Natalie Abashier runs an internet plan service called Constructjob.com out of Denver which offers a robust online plan room complete collaborative tools on a subscription base for $426 per user per year. In Chicago, most of the repographers offer posting of drawings for next to nothing if a general contractor purchases prints from them. Fx/Huey, DIR, Cushing Repro, Precision Blue all offer these services with FX emerging as a leader. Each printing house has approached the charging differently. Fx charges a penny per SF or on average of 50 cents per megabyte whereas Cushing charges $5 per sheet for the life of the drawing.

What FW Dodge is doing:
Near Memphis�s Fedex hub, Dodge Plan Express is trying to sell nationwide information and images of plans at the same time to the iron mountain�s of the world. �As they control the data for large clients like Home depot or Sears who do their own development, they see this as an edge to cornering the larger accounts.� Says FX Goecke
But local cost-minded builders don�t want to pay the shipping expenses.
�It still costs on average $50 for a roll to ship by Fedex from Memphis�, so it makes more sense to use local repographers adds Walsh�s Marchiori.
What does this all mean?
It�s clear the trades need help interacting online and until they are more comfortable and have greater band width, will rely heavily on local printing houses to perform the function of downloading for them. The increase in online collaboration is too compelling to ignore as most general contractors are realizing the benefits. It certainly makes sense to have the local printing houses do the clerical distribution of stuffing and sending out the bid documents to avoid the expense of internally doing this at the contractor�s office. Contractors are quickly realizing this as it makes sense to utilize internet plan rooms to distribute announcements as evidenced by the success of companies like GradeBeam in Chicago and Bid Express for State roadway projects. The subcontractors who refuse to view drawings online, are getting used to the idea of getting faxes or email notifications to their cell phone and running down to the local print house to pick up a set of prints.

-John Jurewicz is a contributing editor and is business development manager for Chicago Trades Online, a consulting firm focused on enabling subcontractors toward the move toward collaboration and e-procurement. Write him at johnj@asptip.com

How well does management support newly assigned project managers?