Integrated electronic commerce model for the construction industry

The construction industry has been relentlessly searching for technology solutions to enhance its productivity and efficiency. This paper presents an investigation that was conducted to obtain an overview of the current situation of electronic commerce applications using Internet and web-based technologies for the construction industry. A conceptual model named Integrated Electronic Commerce Model for the construction industry is proposed in this paper. Based on this model, construction project scheduling process and its related business activities at the industry and enterprise levels are analyzed to compare the interaction and integration of construction processes, in the electronic commerce environment versus those in the traditional environment.