Bidcom launches joint venture in the UK

Citation

(2001), "Bidcom launches joint venture in the UK", Facilities, Vol. 19 No. 3/4. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2001.06919cab.008

Bidcom launches joint venture in the UK

Bidcom launches joint venture in the UK

Keywords: Business processes, Construction industry, Internet

KPMG Consulting, Wares Group, Carillion, EC Harris and Bidcom Inc. are set to deliver Internet project management and business process including procurement services to the construction and building industry.

Bidcom Inc., a leading US engineering, building and property e-business services provider, announced it has linked with a four of the UK's leading professional services and construction companies, which include KPMG Consulting, Wares Group, Carillion and EC Harris. This partnership will start by launching Bidcom's Web-based collaboration service, ProjectFirst, in order to help customers save time, cut costs and improve communication and accountability across a portfolio of construction projects.

Bidcom delivers end-to-end Web-based business processes for the entire industry. This includes hosting business-critical applications over the Web, which allows companies to collaborate on projects, without having the associated costs of owning, managing, and supporting the applications along with the necessary supporting infrastructure.

Bidcom's pioneering collaboration technology allows a single point of access for managing multiple documents, drawings and programmes. All information pertaining to the users' role will be delivered to their computer. Dynamically generated "today" pages give users a real-time status of projects, detect where any potential bottlenecks will be and identify business information that needs to be reviewed and approved before work can continue.

The service, which will be provided by Bidcom Limited, is available to UK customers immediately from http://www.uk. bidcom.com/.

Bidcom's technology addresses the main issues raised by Rethinking Construction, the landmark 1998 report compiled by the Construction Task Force at the request of UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

Richard Clare, Chairman of EC Harris (a leading international capital project and facilities consultancy), said:

The Bidcom product enables us further to sharpen our effectiveness in reducing investment risk and delivering better value projects and facilities for our clients. The benefits to our clients and participants in the industry will be obvious for all to see.

Sir Neville Simms, chairman and chief executive of Carillion, the UK's leading construction to services group with an annual turnover of nearly £2 billion, says:

Carillion prides itself in being at the forefront of a rapidly changing industry. We are pleased to be working with Bidcom, not only in applying their current project-management module, ProjectFirst, but also in developing the definitive full life-cycle e-commerce application the construction industry badly needs.

Kent Allen, senior e-commerce analyst with the US based research company, Aberdeen Group, commented:

The building industry has massive market potential, and the Internet-based technologies can save up to 30 per cent on the costs associated with any given project.

The strategic partnership of these companies with Bidcom's technology and the value it can deliver to the UK market, will ensure that Bidcom can integrate with existing back-end systems and scale to meet the needs of UK customers.

About Bidcom

Bidcom, Inc., a leading engineering, building and property e-business services provider, headquartered in San Fancisco, California, helps companies manage risk, improve profitability and complete building projects on time. Bidcom's suite of e-business services is delivered through a comprehensive, integrated e-business environment that allows building industry professionals to communicate and collaborate, manage business processes, conduct e-commerce and access valuable industry content.

Bidcom's easy-to-use services support all participants throughout the complete lifecycle of multiple building projects, including: owners and real estate developers; architects and design professionals; general contractors and sub-contractors; and facilities managers. Founded in 1997 to help create predictability and drive customer profitability, Bidcom has quickly emerged as an Internet strategy for the building and real estate industries. A $3.9 trillion dollar market, the building industry is the world's largest industry.

Bidcom Limited's base will be in Rugby. For more information on Bidcom visit either www.bidcom.com or www.uk.bidcom.com

For further information please contact: Richard Parkinson, Citigate Technology. Tel: +44 (0)20 7282 1052; E-mail: richard.parkinson@citigatetechnology.com