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Electronic document management in temporary project

organisations Construction industry experiences

Bo-Christer Björk Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki, Finland

Abstract

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to study the use of internet-based document management systems in a project-based industry (construction).

Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a number of empirical studies in which the author has been involved, conducted over a long period in Sweden and Finland.

Findings – The central problems in putting electronic document management (EDM) systems into practical use are not technical, but relate to psychological and management issues. Issues discussed in the paper include very complex metadata and folder structures, the use of parallel paper distribution even after EDM has been introduced, the difficulty of measuring the benefits of system introduction and the split of users into document uploaders and downloaders.

Originality/value – The paper provides useful advice on factors to consider for project teams planning the use of EDM systems in their projects. It summarises the results of a number of studies which have used a variety of research techniques.

Keywords Electronic document delivery, Document managment, Project work, Construction industry

Paper type Research paper

Introduction The rapid proliferation of the internet has made possible the introduction of tools which facilitate e-collaboration between geographically dispersed teams, either in single organisations or in project organisations. In the last decade e-collaboration has given rise to a research area of its own (Kock, 2004), focusing more on the organisational and behavioural than on the technical aspects of such systems.

The introduction of e-collaboration tools poses a lot of challenges in any dispersed organisation. The challenges are even more accentuated in the temporary project organisations that are typical of certain industries, such as the construction industry. Participants typically change from one project to another, and many of the individuals and organisations take part in several simultaneous projects, often using different tools and collaboration guidelines for each project.

Larger construction projects are usually one-of-a-kind projects, for which tailor-made virtual organisations are created, mostly based on choosing the lowest tender for different parts of the project. Projects usually last from one to several years

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm

The writing of this paper has been facilitated by funding from the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation – TEKES, via the project FoundIT – Taking E-collaboration Techniques into Productive Use in the Construction Industry.

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Refereed article received 15 April 2006 Approved for publication 16 June 2006

Online Information Review Vol. 30 No. 6, 2006 pp. 644-655 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1468-4527 DOI 10.1108/14684520610716144

and involve a sizeable number of companies representing different skills (architects, structural engineers, main contractors, subcontractors of a large variety, materials manufacturers and traders). A huge number of documents are produced, revised and circulated during a typical project, among these drawings, time schedules, bills of quantities, meeting minutes, etc. Over the last century the structure and layout of these documents have been standardised to some degree in most countries by industry associations. Thus, agreements for such matters need not be made for each new starting project.

Over the last half of the twentieth century, the methods for producing and disseminating these documents went through a revolution (Löwnertz, 1998). First, specialised copy shops took over the copying of documents, in particular large-sized drawings, which were then disseminated via couriers. Then the production of both text and drawings was computerised, as personal computers, word processing and computer-aided design (CAD) systems were introduced. As more and more of the documentation was originally produced in a digital form people also started to distribute the documents in digital form. In the early years this was done on physical media, such as diskettes, and later as e-mail attachments.

The latest stage has been the introduction of electronic document management (EDM) systems. These systems are also called project webs, project banks, etc. by industry practitioners (IBB, 1999). The basic idea is to store all relevant documents that are produced and used during a project on a centralised web server, from which participants upload the latest versions as they are needed. Early systems were introduced even before the world wide web, but necessitated the tedious setting up of network connections between participants and also building sites (Höög, 1996). In addition, dedicated software had to be uploaded to each computer node. Only after the web became widely used and the need for dedicated software was relaxed did the systems started to be widely used.

Scope of this paper This paper sets out to create a synthesis of earlier research concerning EDM usage in the construction sector, with particular reference to the situation in the Nordic countries. In particular, those factors will be stressed, where construction EDM usage differs from other industries. The author of this paper started doing research in this area in 1991. He has participated in several of the studies referenced in this paper, either as researcher, thesis supervisor or as a member of the steering group. These are listed below:

. The ICPDM project at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (1991-1993).

. A PhD and several MSc projects at the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (1994-2000).

. Technology and Processes for Integrated Construction Project Documentation and Management (CONDOR), the EU ESPRIT programme (1996-1998).

. ProCE project, VTT, Finland (2000-2002).

. B-Webs, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Finland (2001-2004).

. FoundIT, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Finland (2005-2008).

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He was also an active board member of one of the Finnish “dotcoms” (Raksanet) developing an EDM system during 2000-2002.

The paper first of all outlines a brief history of the introduction of EDM into the construction industry. After that there is a discussion of what researchers have learned concerning EDM usage, concentrating in particular on a number features where this industry might differ from other application areas.

Development of the supply of EDM systems Typically the EDM systems used in the construction industry have been developed by third parties and are sold as ASP-services, rather than as licences. This has partly to do with the structure of the industry. If one of the participants in the project is to set up and maintain the system, the logical choice would be the developer or construction client, since that organisation is in a contractual position to dictate the choice of system and is also likely to benefit the most in the long run from the system. However, this has not happened to a great extent, at least not in Finland and Sweden, and has provided a market for third parties.

Early system providers have been copying shops, which saw this as a logical step in increasing the range of services they provide, and slightly later “dotcoms” which in the overheated climate of 1998-2000 were able to get a lot of venture capital for setting up systems and portals (Becerik, 2004). Major CAD vendors have also developed systems, which have been well integrated with their own CAD systems. Around the millennium shift, many companies had ambitious plans to build integrated systems encompassing several technologies (basic document management, shared calendars, e-mail functionality, scheduling applications, e-procurement), but these plans have often not materialised because of the waning of development resources. Also, companies have found out that the central challenges in the introduction of these systems are behavioural rather than technical, and thus the focus has lately been on getting market acceptance for less comprehensive systems. Researchers in areas other than construction have also noted the importance of the organisational implementation issues of integrated e-collaboration systems (Munkvold and Zigurs, 2005).

Since an EDM service is based on the web and usage can be tracked down to the smallest details, there are several options for pricing such services (Björk, 2003):

. flat fee for a for a whole project;

. monthly fee for the whole project;

. fee for each participating company;

. fee for each individual who has access rights;

. charging for the amount of web space required document storage;

. charging for each individual transaction (upload, download);

. sales of the software licence rather than the service;

. financing the service through advertisement; and

. bundling the service (for free) with some other service which is the provider’s main product.

These mechanisms have been used alone or in combinations. The prices charged often have relatively little to do with the marginal costs of producing the service, but rather,

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correspond with the service provider’s attempt to extract the maximum price from each potential user. These pricing structures have been inspired by pricing schemes for sales of software and mobile telephone services in particular. Current market trends, at least in Finland and Sweden, seem to be towards the simplicity of flat overall fees. Flat overall fees or monthly fees for the whole project are easy to budget for the customers and also to invoice, and do not cause artificial limits on use once the decision has been made to start using a system in a project, particularly if the construction client pays for the service and makes it available for free to all participants.

There have been cases where complex fee structures, when each additional user or upload is charged, have caused unnecessary restraints on using the system, which is counter-productive from the viewpoint of efficient document management. A leading Swedish EDM system at one stage (2000) necessitated the installation of special plug-in software for each client. In addition each individual user needed a special device that was inserted into the diskette station to check that the user was a paying client. The pricing algorithm was extremely complex and involved a basic set-up fee, fees for each company joining, as well as fees for each individual joining. This meant that it was very difficult for customers to estimate the usage costs beforehand.

Because of the competition and the fact that many of the companies that started to sell EDM services to the construction sector saw this only as an add-on service to their main business, the level of pricing has been relatively low from the start. The standard to compare with is the overall construction cost. When the share of copying companies in the overall cost is typically estimated to be 0.3-0.4 per cent, the prices for EDM services are currently equal to or lower than 0.1 per cent (Bäckblom and Björk, 2002).

The competition and low margins have also led to consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. Thus both in Finland (Buildercom) and Sweden (Byggnet) one provider is currently the clear market leader, which also is in the interest of the end users who prefer de facto standards to market segmentation.

Current usage of EDM in construction EDM systems are nowadays becoming very commonplace in construction projects, at least in all bigger projects. A number of studies conducted by researchers in different countries have provided snapshots of the situation from which general trends can be deduced.

The IT barometer study was conducted twice in Sweden in 1998 and 2000. The earlier study was also conducted with smaller samples in Denmark and Finland (Howard et al., 1998). The study was a very comprehensive study of the use of different IT-technologies by different types of companies involved in the construction sector. In the 2000 study, use of EDM systems was not yet very widespread in Sweden (Samuelsson, 2002). Only 25 per cent of respondents worked at workplaces where an EDM system had been used at all. The distribution was very skewed towards larger companies since the proportion was 75 per cent in companies with more than 200 employees and very low for small companies.

In a study by Bäckblom and Björk (2002) in Finland one of the aims was to get a reliable picture of the overall use of EDM systems in construction projects. The basis was the leading commercial database of ongoing construction projects (a commercial product, for instance, to which material vendors subscribe). From this a stratified sample of 100 projects has been identified, representing projects of different sizes in a

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balanced way. Information was gathered via telephone interviews for 98 of these projects, which means that the results quite reliably represent industry practice in general. The main result was that EDM systems were used in 50 per cent of the biggest projects (. 100 Mill FIM), 30 per cent in middle sized projects (between 50 and 100 Mill FIM) and not at all in smaller projects.

According to a study conducted by Issa et al. (2003), 50 per cent of the bigger contracting firms in the USA used project collaboration technologies (the sample was drawn from the 400 biggest contractors). This says only that they used them for at least some projects, and not overall.

The most recent data available are from a case study of the single largest construction project in Finland in which an EDM system was used. In a web survey of system users one question concerned their prior experience of EDM systems (Hjelt, 2006). Roughly half of the 167 respondents were first-time EDM users, 36 per cent had used EDM in one to four projects and 10 per cent possessed more extensive EDM experience (more than five projects).

Although these studies are rather different in scope and methodology they provide an overall picture of constantly increasing usage. The current situation, at least in the Scandinavian countries, is one in which the use of an EDM system is the rule rather than the exception in big projects, whereas usage is much less spread in smaller projects.

Key research issues Although there has been a lot of reported research concerning e-collaboration in construction in general, research concerning in particular EDM systems has mainly been reported after 2000 (with the exception of some of the early work in which this author had been involved in his earlier affiliations at VTT and KTH). The topic has not been seen as trendy by the research community in construction IT, where much more resources have been directed towards the study of object-oriented representation of building (so-called product models) as integration platforms (Amor et al., 2002). Many researchers have seen EDM as a down-to-earth transitory stage on the way to tighter integration via shared models, rather than the sharing of documents. The EU-funded CONDOR project was an attempt to build a bridge between these two worlds (Rezgui et al. 1997).

While some researchers have focused on the technical features of construction EDM systems and their correspondence with user requirements (Hartvig, 2000, Luedke et al. 2001) others have looked more at the organisational and behavioural aspects of taking systems into use. O’Brien (2000) for instance emphasises that system end-users cannot be treated as an homogeneous group, but rather must be stratified into groups depending on initial attitude and IT skills. This is in line with the general literature on IT adoption (Venkatesh et al., 2003).

Mohammed and Stewart (2003) studied user perceptions of the use of and EDM system in a case project using a questionnaire. The results indicated a high level of satisfaction with the system itself, but a much lower level of satisfaction with user training and support. Alshawi and Ingirige (2003) in a broad survey of research and cases studies concluded that for successful adoption equal consideration should be given to technology, processes and people. Nitithamyong and Skibniewski (2004) studied the factors determining success or failure of web-based construction

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management systems, particularly using ASP-service providers. They are thus covering not only document management, but also other e-collaboration tools. They note that over 200 ASPs offering systems for this market have emerged. Of the barriers to introduction they discuss the lack of reliable data on the economic impacts of introducing such systems. Björk (2003) reviews the major research questions and also calls for more empirical research using techniques combining web-log analysis with more qualitative methods.

In the following the discussion will be focused on four particular issues: the role of metadata and folder structures, parallel use of paper, difficulties in measuring benefits, and the uneven distribution of uploaders and downloaders.

The role of metadata and folder structures One aspect, in which EDM systems for construction projects differ from similar systems for other types of organisations, is the need to structure the access to the documents according to the structure of the artefact under planning and production. Other manufacturing industries are comparable in this respect (cars, airplanes, complex products of any kind). A modern building is a very complex entity where project participants may require very specific documentation which might be classified according to multiple criteria - phase of the design, location in the building, design aspect (architecture, structural, building services), revision status, type of document (drawing, written specification), issuing party, etc. (see Figure 1). This also means that the metadata structures needed to organise the overall document set can become very

Figure 1. A conceptual schema of

the metadata according to which construction

documentation can be classified

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complex, whether they are organised in the form of single hierarchical tree or as a database with metadata fields.

What is characteristic of construction projects is thus a very complex folder structure with often relatively few documents on the lowest level “leaf” nodes in the tree. As an example, consider the single hierarchical folder structure used in the Kamppi construction project in Finland (see Figure 2). The system contained up to 17,000 documents stored in a total of 1,680 different folders, on up to seven different levels in the tree structure. There were 334 users from 90 different companies uploading and downloading these documents.

The problems with the metadata structures were highlighted in the recent Kamppi study (Hjelt, 2006). Although around two-thirds of the respondents found the folder structure “. . . well designed, making it easy to find the right folder despite the extensive amount of information” there were numerous free-format comments concerning the complexity of the folder structure and stating that it was difficult to find the needed documents.

One factor which has facilitated the introduction of such complex metadata structures is the fact that the construction industry had already tackled such issues before computerisation began. Design offices have had paper drawing archives organised around the same fundamental principles for decades.

Parallel use of paper – to be on the safe side It is paradoxical, that the volume of paper copies distributed has not been significantly reduced in projects using EDM systems, which has always been a main sales argument for the EDM system. The main reason is that the procedures for the paper distribution have been facilitated by electronic uploads and automated distribution lists. Also, many

Figure 2. Screenshot of the EDM system used in the Kamppi project

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participants want the paper copies just in case something goes wrong with the EDM system. Thus the management of document is still running using two parallel systems.

It is also noteworthy that the copying shops were among the first active developers of EDM systems, since they saw them as electronic front ends to their copying operations. It is much cheaper for them if a customer uploads a CAD-document to be copied and physically distributed via an EDM system integrated with their copy production. Thus most successful systems have easy to use pipelines to copy shops built into the systems, which makes their use almost a default choice.

In the case study done by Hjelt (2006), project users complained about the fact that partly contradictory information was floating around in the project. Users were worried about the fact that the automatic hardcopy distribution often lagged several days behind the contents of the EDM. One user pointed out that during phases of intense design work, the paper copies available on the construction site could be lagging behind by several revisions. With new revisions coming out daily during the construction phase, even a one day delivery delay could cause problems on the site, and the four to five day delays mentioned by A1 could be disastrous:

During one day the size of a store could change from 500 square metres to 400 or 700 square metres. [. . .] If you have 2-3 day old drawings in circulation, a separating wall could be built and immediately torn down. At one end, people would be erecting the wall, at the other end they’d be tearing it down.

Running such parallel systems, just-in-case, is of course in direct contradiction with the non-redundancy aims or EDM systems and adds confusion and overall costs.

Difficulties in measuring benefits When EDM systems are implemented within single organisations measuring the cost savings and other benefits, is a realistic task, particularly if the system replaces an internal mail and paper archiving system, meaning that the benefit of the system is primarily in saving employees’ time. In construction projects the measuring of costs and benefits is complicated by two factors: first, the costs of introducing the systems and the benefits accruing from its use are not evenly spread out over the companies involved in the project; second, a substantial part of the benefits will not come from direct savings (i.e. lower paper copying costs) but rather through the avoidance of costly construction mistakes due to inexact or missing information. As Becerik (2004) points out in her analysis of the spread of EDM systems in the USA, one of the major factors that have slowed down their introduction is the lack of robust case studies demonstrating the benefits to be achieved.

The most rigorous study of costs and benefits has been conducted by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (Sulankivi, 2004). The PROCE study included interviews with participants from four case studies from Finland, Sweden, the UK and the USA, in which a framework for the evaluation of benefits was tested.

In the framework, benefits were classified into three major categories: quantifiable benefits which can be measured in monetary terms, quantifiable benefits which cannot be translated to monetary terms, and qualitative benefits. An example of the first kind is provided by decreased costs for the production of paper copies (in particular services of copying firms). An example of this last kind is the effect of more accurate information on design quality. The overall findings were that the direct monetary

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savings were rather low compared to overall project cost (only 0.08 per cent), but that they exceeded the direct service charges of the EDM system provider.

Andresen et al. (2003) have also studied the benefits of the introduction of EDM in two projects in Denmark. They used a rather similar framework to the Finnish PROCE Study but the results were rather disappointing in terms of the comparison of direct cost and benefits measurable in monetary terms.

What further complicates the issue is that in the case studies so far reported, the EDM usage has been the first or one of the first experiences with such systems for the companies and individuals involved. It would be more appropriate to measure the systems in regular production use, at a later stage in the learning curve.

On a more positive note one must note the positive overall user satisfaction reported by Hjelt (2006). This was measured in several questions, but in particular the response to the question “My attitude towards EDM has changed for the better due to this project” reflected this (see Figure 3).

Consequences of uneven distribution of uploaders and downloaders Closely related to the question of measuring the benefits at the company level is the question of how the efforts of uploading documents and the benefits of downloading are distributed and how this affects incentives and attitudes for using the systems. In construction projects it is typical that certain parties are net deliverers of information to others (i.e. architects) and others are net recipients (i.e. subcontractors).

The best methodology for studying this issue is to use the web log data to group users into different categories based on usage profile. Ruohtula (2003) studied how the usage was spread over participants, and found a highly skewed distribution, but did not distinguish between uploads and downloads. Hjelt (2006) grouped users into three categories. Pure downloaders only downloaded documents, mixed users downloaded between 50-99 per cent and heavy uploaders contributed more documents than they retrieved. These were quite unevenly distributed across the different participating organisations (Figure 4).

This information was then used to cross-tabulate with the answers to certain questions. The analysis revealed for instance that heavy uploaders were somewhat more satisfied (mean score 2.92 on a scale 1-4) with the folder structure than pure

Figure 3. Answers to the question “My attitude towards EDM has changed to more positive during the project”

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downloaders (2.77). Again, this gives further weight to the presumption that the degree of involvement in the information process affects the way end-users experience EDM.

All in all it seems that despite the fact that certain parties act more as donors than recipients of information, they do not find this situation problematic. This can be explained by a number of factors:

. Designers, in particular architects, traditionally have this role, and EDM is just a new channel.

. Uploaders get more and regular exposure to the system, and learn it better than pure downloaders who often use it very sporadically.

. The system might in fact make life easier for the uploaders who need to worry less about distribution of their documents.

Conclusions One central issue in construction EDM is how to structure the metadata, which tends to be very complex. In this respect the industry’s long tradition in documentation standards of many kinds has helped, in providing the basic framework of implementing the EDM systems.

One consequence of this way of working, swapping partners all the time, is that either the EDM market will move towards one national de facto standard system, which will help the learning process, or otherwise, systems have to be easy to learn through self-instruction. With current rapid turnover of personnel and low revenue margins of EDM vendors, there are limited possibilities for comprehensive user training. Consequently systems need to be quite easy to learn.

There is still very little robust empirical evidence that the use of EDM systems in construction projects would result in savings of around 5 per cent-10 per cent of total project cost, which were promised by vendors in the early days. This may, however, have more to do with the difficulties of measuring a large component of the benefits and also with the fact that the industry is still just learning to use this technology, than with a real failure to deliver benefits. In this respect a comparison could be made with the difficulties of measuring the productivity benefits of IT-investments in general, which was reported in the late 1980s, the so-called IT-paradox (for a discussion see Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 1998).

On the other hand, user-satisfaction after hands-on experience with the systems is widespread, and just as in the case of CAD systems some years earlier, experienced

Figure 4. Distribution of

downloaders/uploaders in the user population

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users would find it very difficult to go back to earlier more primitive methods of document delivery and retrieval.

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