Managing e-commerce in construction: Revolution or e-business as usual?

This paper examines how the adoption of e-commerce will influence the processes of dissemination, communication and management of information in the AEC industry. We argue that e-commerce will render redundant the business models that currently support these processes, and propose templates for the business models of the future. Effective information flow is fundamental to the process of realizing a construction project and within this project information pool, manufacturers' product information forms a core component. It provides designers with technical information to support decision making during design, the data necessary to communicate specification requirements to contractors and finally a means by which contractors can source the materials required to construct the project. We examine the current business model and motivations for each actor in this sector before going on to discuss the areas where e-commerce can most effectively be adopted. We propose a three generation model for e-business and conclude by describing the changes to the underlying business models that we believe are necessary to support effective e-commerce in the future.