A Study on an Assessment of Impact of Information and Communication Technology Application in Construction

Companies in Kochi, Kerala

Executive Summary

Information and communication Technology (ICT) plays an important role in the

economic growth and national development. Many industries have found ICT as a

major application to improve their productivity and market stability. Construction

industry is one industry, which has a great opportunity for ICT, but the level of its

adoption is not to a great extent still now. Now days, many ICT tools are available

in the market for the implementation in construction companies.

This study aims at assessing the current usage of ICT tools and applications, to

examine the factors influencing the ICT implementation and to examine the

impact of ICT integration on the construction company’s performance. Primary

data has been collected to achieve the objectives of this study. A questionnaire

was administered to 50 selected construction companies in Kochi, a city in the

Kerala state. The data is analyzed using arithmetic mean, standard deviation,

percentage and using different tabular and graphical representation.

The study revealed that the usage level of ICT tools and its application in the

surveyed construction companies are less. Even though all the companies have

computers, internet connectivity and own website the application for construction

purposes as such is less. The most important result is on the usage of Enterprise

Resource Planning (ERP). Only 4% of the companies used it and none of the

companies used Supply Chain management softwares.

The study also analyzed different factors influencing the ICT adoption in the

construction companies. The annual turnover of the companies is an important

factor that determines the level of ICT applications. The age of the companies also

influence, but its effect is less compared to the annual turnover of the companies.

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Even the level of application is less, the response to the perceived factors such as

benefits and barriers of ICT application by the companies are positive. The study

shows that Better Communication, Time saved and Improvement in Work and

Services are the benefits that enables the ICT adoption and Difficulty in

Integration, High Investment and Lack of flexibility are major barriers that

inhibits the ICT adoption in the surveyed construction companies.

72% of the companies contacted do not have an IT manager to manage the ICT

infrastructure. Most of the companies are either outsourcing or relying on their

executives with IT knowledge. 5% of the companies confirmed that they realized

a cost reduction of more than 10% because of the application of ICT.

Recommendations have been made to the construction companies for the better

and improved implementation of ICT tools and applications. The major

recommendation is to change the attitude towards the ICT by providing proper

training to the company staff.

This study is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 explains the background,

objective and scope of the study. Chapter 2 focuses on the conceptual review,

empirical evidence and contextual review of related literature. The research

methodology for the study is explained in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 explains the data

analysis and its interpretation. Chapter 5 is the concluding chapter highlighting

findings and Recommendations.

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Chapter 1 – Introduction

1.1 Introduction

Construction industry is one of the most booming industries in the world. It is a

data based and information dependent industry. Construction Industry is the

second largest sector in India after agricultural sector and has an employee size of

32 million people. The Construction industry in India is said to be highly

fragmented in nature and a number of unorganized players are working in the

industry on subcontracting basis. Sub contracting is a common phenomenon in the

Indian construction industry. The government of India has liberalized the rules for

foreign direct investment to attract overseas investment in real estate construction

in India. The current size of real estate construction in India is estimated to be $44

million. 4% of the India’s GDP is contributed by the housing sector. The

construction industry is expected to grow at a rate of 15% in the coming years.

Construction Industry has gone to a new level with the integration of Information

and Communication Technology (ICT) with its construction projects involving

large investments, tighter schedules, stringent quality standards and widely

dispersed project participants1. The application of ICT has enabled the

construction companies to achieve a smoother, easier and error free sharing of

information. The ICT has found application in all areas such as office

administration, cost evaluation, quantity evaluation etc. The ICT helped to use the

resources at a lower cost and less time.

The studies and researches have revealed that construction industry is not using

the benefits of ICT to its full potential, but with the limited adoption itself the

gains achieved is enormous. The reasons for using ICT in construction projects

are the improvement of the interaction of the business process with each other,

greater profits, service quality improvements and to gain a competitive advantage.

The main hindrance to proper information management is hefty and slow

1 Alshawi, M. and Ingirige, B., Web-enabled project management: an emerging paradigm in construction. Automation in Construction. v12. 349-364

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information management processes, culture issues and the barriers of ICT

adoption2.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Construction industry is referred to as very unique in its organization nature.

During the past two decades, the industry has been seeing a significant growth,

even though the global economic down turn has affected it. The Information

exchange and Communication between people in the construction industry of

different professional and academic background is made easier and smoother with

the use of ICT tools.

The major problem that construction companies face is the lack of ICT tools in the

construction management. The communication with the work site is a serious

concern in the construction industry. In the absence of ICT tools it becomes

difficult to handle the construction process and data transfer. Other problems

caused by the absence of ICT tools are in the resource management and handling

on the work site. By the use of manual resource management methods, time

consumption will increase and the tasks become more complicated. The ICT tools

helps in the effective human resource management on the site. So ICT facilitates

a real time information and communication exchange with the workers, offices

and project sites in the construction industry. By the adoption of ICT an

organization can reduce its costs and increase the productivity.

1.3 Purpose of the study

This study is an attempt at assessing the effectiveness of ICT application in

selected construction companies in Kochi, Kerala.

2 Gyampoh-Vidogah, R., Moreton, R. & Proverbs, D. 2003. Implementing information management in construction: establishing problems, concepts and practice. Construction Innovation, Volume 3, Number 3, pp.157- 173.

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1.4 Objectives

To assess the current application of ICT tools by selected construction

companies.

To examine the factors determining ICT application in construction

activities

To examine the effects of ICT integration on construction companies’

performance.

1.5 Research Questions

What are the current trends in the application of ICT tools?

What are the factors determining ICT applications in construction

companies?

What are the effects of ICT integration into construction activities?

1.6 Scope and Limitations

The survey is conducted within Kochi city and a similar survey in other cities in

Kerala like Trivandrum, Kozhikode and cities outside Kerala like Bangalore,

Chennai, and Kolkata may produce different results. Given the change in

technology, results may be valid only for the study period.

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CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW

The analysis of existing literature in the Indian construction industry, ICT tools

and the application is essential to bring the researcher up to date with the current

state of research and knowledge in these areas. The literature review is presented

in three parts such as a conceptual review, an analysis of empirical evidence and

the contextual review of existing literature in the areas of Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) and its applications and the construction

industry.

2.1 CONCEPTUAL REVIEW

Conceptual review analyzes construction sector and the concepts in ICT as well as

various ICT tools used.

2.1.1 Construction Sector

According to the report on European Construction Research Network3, a

construction sector is termed as a source of economic and social benefits. The

major characteristics of construction sector as defined by the report are as follows

1. Fragmentation of responsibilities, processes and resources

For every construction projects the structure of responsibilities will be

independent in term of design, site works and operations. This results in

confusion of responsibilities and ambiguity in the communication. A

construction industry is highly fragmented with large number of small

firms. So the size of the companies will negatively affect in the absorption

and utilization of new information and new technologies. Fragmentation is

also unfavorable for learning process.

2. Lack of focus on end-users

In many cases the client or users do not have a direct link with the

construction, which results in complexity. The lack of tools to

communicate with users after the initial discussions causes the user to

3 European Construction Research Network (2005), E-CORE strategy for construction RTD, Strategy report, available online at: http://www.e-core.org/strategy, Accessed date-10.11.2009.

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imagine the consequences of 2D drawings and its specifications. This will

result in the final product without the proper interest of the user. The tools

like virtual reality systems can assist in a proper communication with the

clients.

3. Lack of performance indicators

“Value for money” is the mantra for most sectors since the product and

services compete on the basis of relationship between performance and

cost. Customers should be able to distinguish between competing offers on

the basis of performance factors like delivery time, capacity, size etc.

Unfortunately construction has few such metrics; buildings and

infrastructure are commissioned on the basis generally of other indicators

(e.g. capacity) rather than by reference to their effectiveness in supporting

the activities within them.

4. Short-term, price-based competition

The contractors tender to construct a building with a design already

specified since design responsibility is separated from construction. So the

selection of successful tender is highly influenced and determined by

price. Considering the long term performance, the separation of

construction from operation provides no incentive to contractors. This

encourage to cost cutting at the expense of performance and create an

industry focused on short maximizing returns. The clients will be seeking

an optimum performance over the expected operational life of the facility,

but this is not reflected in the business process.

5. Highly regulated

A construction sector is subject to several regulations. These regulations

reflect the society’s concern that its outputs which have impact on every

one who use or do not use, which have to be operated for many years,

should be constructed to recognized standards of technical performance. In

the areas were customers are unable to make informed judgment, the

regulations set minimum standards. They can introduce new ideas by

setting new ideas by setting high standards without stating the means of

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compliance. When written in prescriptive form they may also act as

barriers to innovation. More the complex performance is required, and

more the safety risks, the regulations will become more prescriptive.

6. High labor intensity, poor image

Construction is a highly labor intensive activity. Usually the number of

labor figure is underestimated as the self employed and in-house

maintenance staffs that are huge in number are not counted. In spite of

being a labor intensive activity, construction does not offer good working

conditions with poor safety record. Construction is placed second after

mining in terms of probability of injury or death. The site conditions are

unhealthy and the facilities are poor. The project based nature of

construction leads to employment insecurity and reduces the investment in

the development of skills. The noise, disruptions and dusts which are

commonly associated with site works also add to the poor image of

construction. A different balance between on-site and off-site activities is

aroused because of the shortage of skilled labor and new recruits. The

attempts in the past to implement industrialized construction failed due to

the inflexibility and incompatibility of the systems with local variations.

7. High resource usage

Even though energy efficiency of new buildings has increased in the past

few decades, this sector still remains the highest in usage of raw materials,

energy and water. The re-usage of materials has increased like in road

construction, but it is only in small proportion of the material usage.

Construction is responsible for large waste source, including the new

materials removed from the construction sites. The extraction, processing

and transport of construction materials use large amount of energy and

impact much on the environment.

8. Local environmental impact

Construction site activities produce pollution and disturbances in its

locality. The major issues caused are noise, dust, water run-off and

gaseous emissions. The associated impact on the activities is traffic

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disruption, potential loss of business and additional costs. The adoption of

well planned operation process and technology can help to minimize these

problems even though it cannot be eliminated.

9. Slow to innovate

The traditional structures and relationships create barriers to the

acceptance of new ideas. The long operation life expected of the build

environment encourages the caution in the adoption of new technologies

and construction methods. The small size of the enterprise means that they

do not have resources to implement innovative techniques and ideas. The

price based approach rather than performance based one hinder the

investment in research to improve the final performance of the output. The

communication of new ideas generated through research and other mean is

reduced by the vast number of small companies. Interoperability among

project parties and the interaction with clients and users are still adequate.

For the information intensive nature of construction sector, better use of IT

is the key element for the sector’s future development.

10. Poor dialogue with society

Construction takes different forms from small in-house works to the

creation of Olympic facilities. Construction is always seen as a destroyer

of nature and habitats. Construction often fails to communicate with

society about its role in providing living and working environment, how it

uses new technologies to promote its ability to construct building with less

environmental impacts or to provide visions of how future buildings and

infrastructure will boost people’s lives.

2.1.2 Indian Construction Industry – Overview

According to construction industry report by Credit Analysis and research

limited4, construction is termed as an important component for the infrastructure

and industrial development of a country. Construction is the largest economic

4 Indian Construction Industry, Credit Analysis & Research Ltd. (CARE Ratings),October 2008,pages 99, Available at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=661754, Accessed date-20-11-2009

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activity after agriculture. Construction is broadly classified into three segment

such as infrastructure, industrial and real estate. Infrastructure segment refers to

the construction of roads, rails, ports etc. Industrial segment is responsible for the

construction of projects such as factories, processing plants etc. Real estate

construction is sub divided into residential and commercial constructions.

Residential constructions focus on the construction of houses and apartments.

Commercial construction includes the construction of shopping centers, hotels,

office buildings etc.

The report shows that in the financial year 2008 construction sector has

contributed about 8.5% to India’s GDP. The construction sector has offered a

major part to the economic growth rate of India. From FY 06 to FY 08 the

construction as a percentage of GDP has increased from 8.0% to 8.5%. As the

construction activity being labor intensive, it has generated employment for about

33 million people in India.

The construction industry in India is extremely fragmented. Many unorganized

companies in the industry are working on the subcontracting basis.

Subcontracting is done when the general contractors doesn’t have time or skills to

do some tasks and is a kind of outsourcing. Higher technology projects can

generate more profits for the companies than low technology projects like road

construction. Majority of projects in Construction industry are working capital

intensive. It is forecasted that about Rs. 10000 billion investments will be used in

construction industry in the next five years. Similarly there will be an inflow of Rs

1500 Billion in the construction industry on the back of the investments planned

by various manufacturing sectors. The real estate segments also create an

investment of Rs 1000 Billion over next five years. The bulging order book

position of the construction companies reflects the whole scene clearly.

The strengths of the Indian construction industry are its manpower including

manpower with high level technical and management skills, and construction

experience of every type of construction in all types of terrains and climates;

government initiatives for providing financial incentives to construction

organizations; manufacturing of varied construction materials and equipment in

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the country; agility and adaptability to the changing global construction scenario

and working with overseas organizations5.

The major weakness identified in the Indian construction industry is it is not IT

savvy sector. The surveys have shown that the technology has done little to

transform the Indian construction industry except for some larger organizations. It

is high time to recognize the true value of ICT and reengineering of the traditional

systems of working.

The major barrier with respect to ICT is that the method of formal reporting is not

practices in these organizations6.

2.1.3 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

ICT is an acronym for Information and Communication Technologies. The World

Bank’s definition7 of ICT says that:-

“Information and Communication Technology consists of hardware,

software, networks, and media for collection, storage, processing,

transmission, and presentation of information (voice, data, text,

images).”

Thus ICT refers to all technologies that facilitates the information handling

and enables the communication among human beings, electronic systems

and between them.

5 Mejie, H.S. and Punia, H.S., 2004. Strategy to Enhance the Standing of India’s Construction Industry - Review of Strengths and Weaknesses of Existing Systems and Technology, Proceedings of Construction Opportunities and Strategies for Action With Focus on Asia Pacific, Middle East and African Regions, September 2004, 2, pp.1-10.

6 Ranadive, M.S. and Gaikwad, A.A., 2006. Information Technology in the Indian Construction Industry, In Swarup, P.R. and Kumar, Proceedings of the World Conference for Design and Construction, INCITE/ITCSED 2006, New Delhi, India, November 2006, 4, pp.22-32.

7 World Bank (2002). Information and Communication Technologies: A World Bank Group Strategy. Washington, DC, USA. http://www1.oecd.org/dac/ictcd/docs/matrixdocs/WB_paper1.pdf, Accessed date-18-11-2009

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Hamelink and Cees J8 describe ICT “as those technologies that enable the

handling of information and facilitate different forms of communication among

human actors, between human beings and electronic systems, and among

electronic systems”. They subdivided these technologies into:

Capturing technologies with input devices like keyboards, mouse, image

scanners etc to collect and convert the information into digital format.

Storage technologies with devices like magnetic tapes, compact discs,

smart cards, hard disks etc to store and retrieve information

Processing technologies creating system and application software

necessary for the performance of digital ICTs

Communication technologies producing the devices and networks for the

sharing and exchange of information which includes digital broadcasting,

integrated services digital networks, digital cellular networks, local area

network (LAN), Wide area network (WAN), modems, transmission media

like fiber optics, mobile communications etc.

Display technologies to build the output devices for the display of digital

information such as computer monitors, digital television sets, set up boxes

for video on demand, voice synthesizers, virtual reality helmets etc.

2.1.4 ICT in Construction Industry

According to Alan Hore9, construction industries around the world have started

accepting application and importance of ICT. ICT improves the capability and

efficiency of the different phases in the construction. It also improves the

communication throughout the construction process. Thus an improved co-

ordination and management of information is attained throughout construction

project life cycle.

The developments in ICT helped the construction professionals to become more

action oriented. As a result the construction industry became more focused on

8 Hamelink, Cees J. (1997). New Information and Communication Technologies, Social Development and Cultural Change. UNRISD Discussion Paper No. 86, Geneva, UNRISD, ISSN:1012-6511

9 Alan Hore, 2007, Use of IT in Managing Information and Data on Construction Projects – A Perspective for the Irish Construction Industry, Information Technology in Construction Project Management, Engineers Ireland Project Management Society, pp 3-4.

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design and innovation than in manual laboring. The work became more exciting

and creative for the people10. The main use of ICT in construction industry is

office applications, computer aided design, tools software such as quota

management software, cost evaluation software, quantity calculation software,

steel quantity calculation software and communication networks. Internet based

communication is the fast growing area11.

According to Malcolm et al12 the major activities where the computerization is

reflected in the construction sector are as follows:

1) General purpose applications like word processing for letter writing,

reports and specifications

2) Accounting and financial management using spreadsheets for book

keeping and invoicing.

3) Human resource management using databases for employee’s information

and records, statistics of progress and development.

4) The storing and backing up of data and drawings in a compact secure

format by way or Archiving using various hardware components

5) Project planning using scheduling software for establishing project’s

duration and processes.

6) Surveying for land use using planning, infrastructure and natural resource

management using Global Information System (GIS).

7) Design and drafting using Computer Aided Designs (CAD) for two

dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) drawings of design and

construction details.

10 Erdogan B, Abbott C, Aouad G, Kazi A S (2009) Construction IT in 2030: a scenario planning approach, Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon), Vol No.14, Special Issue Next Generation Construction IT: Technology Foresight, Future Studies, Roadmapping, and Scenario Planning, pg. 540-555,http://www.itcon.org/2009/35, Accessed date-14-04-2010.

11 Feng, Yan Ping, CRIOCM2006: International Research Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate, Application Of Information Technology In Construction Management , ISBN: 9789623675369, Chinese Research Institute of Construction Management, 2006.

12 Malcolm Murray, Azza Arif, Angela Lai, Possibilities for ICT incorporation in a Construction Management course, 2002, p45-50, available at http://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/CIB481.pdf, Accessed date-18-11-2009.

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8) Presentation purposes using graphic and rendering capabilities for

developing models and animated walkthrough presentations.

9) Communication using email, local area network (LAN) and Wide area

network (WAN) for the sharing and exchange of data across the world

10) Marketing using World Wide Web (WWW) for the exposure and

availability to clients and the access and submission of tenders

electronically.

2.1.5 ICT Tools

Internet is the worldwide system of computer networks used for transferring and

exchanging information. For an information system, Internet is the perfect

platform. Now a day’s Internet is not just a scientific network, it is a tool for

generating business, performing e-business, e-commerce and e-tendering. Internet

is been adopted by the construction industry to help in the effective and timely

project delivery13.

Internet will serve as a communication platform which helps to attain speedy

transmission of information and saves money in the communication process with

long distance construction sites14. Thus, Internet helps to communicate

information more effectively during the construction process.

Web application is an application accessed via a web browser over a network such

as internet. Web based application helps in solving problems caused by the

geographical fragmentation. The major benefits of using a web based data base as

a central repository for the project information are 1) Reduced manual distribution

costs 2) Integration of project information 3) Simple management of access rights

4) Document storage & archiving 5) Continuous access to project information and

6) Minimal software requirement15. The effect and efficiency of the decision

making process is upgraded by the technical. The integration of the organization

13 How to Get Started in e-Business, 2000b. UK: Construct IT for Business Report. Available from: www.construct-it.org.uk (cited in Dec’2002), Accessed date-22-11-2009.

14 C M Tam, Use of the Internet to enhance construction communication: Total Information Transfer System, International Journal of Project Management Volume 17, Issue 2, April 1999, Pages 107-111

15 How to Get Started in e-Business, 2000b. UK: Construct IT for Business Report. Available from: www.construct-it.org.uk (cited in Dec’2002), Accessed date-12-12-2009.

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data base and World Wide Web (WWW) functions upgrades the effect and

efficiency of the decision making process and supports the decision makers in

conducting long distance evaluation at various project sites16. A collaborative

work environment is enabled by the project web sites. A web based four

dimensional (4D) visualization enables a collaborative construction planning and

scheduling17.

Researchers have identified twelve critical factors affecting performance of web

based project management systems as: project type, project duration, Internet

access availability, type of Internet connection, level of internal support, ability of

project managers, usage frequency of advanced features, level of support provided

by a service provider, functionality and reliability of the web based system, data

security and reliability, external integration ability of the system and the unique

characteristics of the organization using the system 18.

An Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) system in a construction

company can link together an entire organization’s operations such as accounting,

finance, human resources, manufacturing and distribution, etc and also connects

the organization with the customers and suppliers.

Supply chain software is also evolving towards Internet applications that

communicate with the Enterprise Resource Planning systems19. Internet has

helped in developing e-commerce applications for construction companies and

hence the buying and selling goods and services over internet are made possible.

16 Hsueh, S.L., Perng, Y.H., Yan, M.R. and Lee, J.R., 2007. On-line Multi-criterion Risk Assessment Model for Construction Joint Ventures in China, Automation in Construction, 16(5), pp.607-619.

17 Kang, J.H., Anderson, S.D. and Clayton, M.J., 2007. Empirical Study on the Merit of Web-based 4D Visualization in Collaborative Construction Planning and Scheduling, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 133(6), pp.447-461.

18 Nitithamyong, P. and Skibniewski, M.J., 2007. Key Success/Failure Factors and their Impacts on System Performance of Web Based Project Management Systems in Construction, ITcon, 12, pp.39-59.

19 Green, F. B., 2001. Managing the Unmanageable: Integrating the Supply Chain With New Developments in Software, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 6(5), pp.208-211.

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Video conferencing is an element of collaborative work environment. As the

construction industry is more globalized and competitive than other industry, it

needs faster interaction to enable real-time collaboration, application sharing

between the office and construction sites. Video conferencing helps to conduct

meetings and share documents live over the internet and achieve real time

collaboration20.

The basic internal computer networks such as Local area network (LAN) and its

wireless technology (W-LAN) has become more common in construction

companies. The telephony services over internet which are called as Voice over

internet protocol (VOIP) helps in the communication cheaper and faster21.

Intranets are used by the construction companies to share information, collaborate

and manage across various technical platforms and information systems, and

across structural and geographical boundaries within the organization in a user

friendly manner22. An extranet is a private network that uses Internet protocols and

the public telecommunication system to securely share part of an organization's

information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers or other

businesses.Extranets promote project collaboration, team working and e-

commerce23.

3D technologies are tools to generate three-dimensional drawings, plans and

construction outlines and to develop communication among the project

stakeholders.

3D technology is a part of digital construction process in which all the

construction project elements are created and stored in 3dimensional model24. 3D

20 Sahai, A., 2004. E-Collaboration in the Engineering Sector, Civil Engineering and Construction Review, March, pp.38-42.

21 ICT and e-business in construction industry, ICT adoption and e-business activity in 2006, Sector report No7/2006, pp 28-29.

22 Ingirige B and Sexton M (2007) Intranets in large construction organisations: exploring advancements, capabilities and barriers , ITcon Vol. 12, pg. 409-427, http://www.itcon.org/2007/27, Accessed date-02-01-2010.

23 Tayeh, A.E. and Gil, N., 2007. Using Digital Socialization to Support Geographically Dispersed AEC Project Teams, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 133(6), pp.462-473.

24 Tredal & Johnsen 2005, 3D projketering hos rådgiver, BYG-DTU 2005.

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technology provides better communication with the contractor or stakeholders and

easier evaluation of construction methods.

Virtual reality (VR) is the science of integration of man with information. It

generates a three dimensional interactive and computer environment that can be

models of real or imaginary worlds25. With the use of VR technology it is able to

review design and rehearse the construction of the facility in a 3D environment. It

increases the understanding of the design plan and improves the constructability

of the project. It also minimizes the changes and unsuccessful work that can be

noticed prior to the start of construction26.

4D model integrates 3D geometry with time as the fourth dimension. It enables

the user to graphically simulate the sequence of operation, providing a virtual and

visual understanding of the construction process27. 4D shows the status of the

construction at any time of the project and communicates schedule plans28.

Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) is the material tracking device

used in the construction industry to identify and track materials in the supply

chain with help of small electronic chips. Radio frequency identification is the

material tracking device which use small tags or electronic chips that collect data

and manage it in a portable and changeable database29.

A study is conducted on the application of an integrated Global Positioning

System (GPS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) technology to the

reduction of construction waste. The study is developed from automatic data

25 Bouchlaghem, N. M., Thorpe, A. and Liyanage, I. G. (1996). Virtual reality applications in the UK's construction industry, Construction on the Information Highway, CIB W78 Working Commission on Information Technology in Construction, Bled(Slovenia), Turk, Z. (Ed), University of Ljubljana.

26 W. Thabet, M.F Shirattudin, D. Bowman, 2002, Engineering computational technology pp: 25 -52. 

27 Prof.Ashwin Mahalingam, 4D models to the Indian construction context, accessed from http://www.ilce.in/pdf/4d-model-article2.pdf, Accessed date-05-03-2010.

28 Staub-French S and Khanzode A (2007) 3D and 4D modeling for design and construction coordination: issues and lessons learned, ITcon Vol. 12, pg. 381-407, accessed from http://www.itcon.org/2007/26, Accessed date-22-12-2009.

29 Jaselskis, E., El-Misalami, T. (2003). Implementing Radio Frequency Identification in the Construction Process. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 129(6), 680-689

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capture system such as the bar-coding system for construction material and

equipment (M&E) management onsite, whilst the integrated GPS and GIS

technology is combined to the M&E system based on the Wide Area Network

(WAN)30.

2.2 Empirical Evidence

Relevant empirical evidence from the existing researches is covered to familiarize

the reader with the current state of affairs.

2.2.1 Small and Medium Enterprises

A study conducted by Syed Shah and Mohd Kamal31 investigated the factors

influencing the adoption of ICT in small and medium enterprises in Malaysia.

Small and medium enterprises are the back bone of industrial development in

Malaysia and play a pivotal role in its economy. Most of the Malaysian businesses

and SMEs are slow in adoption of technology. A survey instrument was initiated

to get the feedback from the SMEs in Malaysia to assess the awareness,

receptivity and adoption of ICT in their business. The survey was conducted on a

sample of 180 SMEs. Majority of the companies surveyed are in whole sale and

retail business. Out of 180 companies, 159 respondents were under local

ownership which was 88.3%. The foreign ownership company constituted only

the remaining 11.7% which was only 21 companies. More than 50% (53.8%) of

the respondents surveyed were middle managers which come to 97 respondents

and executive’s came second in this study with 27.8% followed by Managers with

12.8%. Due to the least participation and lack of time, the top officials like CEO

contributed only 5.6 percent which is 10 out of 180 respondents. About 57.22% of

the respondents specified that they use computers in their company. 86 out of 180

30 Li, H., Chen, Z., Yong, L. and Kong, S.C.W., 2005. Application of Integrated GPS and GIS Technology for Reducing Construction Waste and Improving Construction Efficiency, Automation in Construction, 14(3), pp.323-331.

31 Syed Shah Alam, Mohd. Kamal Mohammad Noor, February 2009, ICT Adoption in Small and Medium Enterprises: an Empirical Evidence of Service Sectors in Malaysia, International Journal of Business and Management, available online at http://www.ccsenet.org/journal.html,Vol 4, No 2, pp.112-125, Accessed date-20-11-2009.

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respondents have indicated that they have internet connection where more than

52.28% had been using internet less than 5 years and 42.72% using internet for

more than 5 years. The results showed that most of the companies adopted

Windows XP as their operating system which was the latest OS at that time. There

were 69 out of 103 respondents using Windows XP which carried 66.99 % and 27

companies were using Windows 2000/98 as their operating system. Some of them

were using Mac OS X but it was as lower as 6.8%.

The study has showed ICT adoption as a dependent variable. The study has tested

five dependent variables such as perceived benefits of ICT, perceived cost of

adoption, ICT knowledge and skill of the employees, external pressure and the

government support.

The results in this study proved that a perceived benefit has a strong and

significant role in the ICT adoption. The adoption of ICT has given the business, a

wide range of possibilities. It helped to get access to new market opportunities and

improved the competitiveness. The immediate customer feedback is initiated and

helps the company to react fast to the changes. The respondents had agreed that

the use of Internet will be important for the future development and will generate

desired returns in terms of profit.

Perceived cost do not have direct impact in the ICT adoption. One of the reasons

is that Malaysian government is providing full financial support to the SMEs and

also SMEs will have other options for financial support for their ICT investment.

These reasons reduced the importance of perceived cost in ICT adoption.

The relation between the ICT knowledge and skill of the employees is very

important. The employee’s knowledge, skills and previous experiences will help

and influence the organization in ICT adoption. The opportunity of ICT use in

organizations increases with the knowledge and ability of the managers and

owners.

The external pressure always has critical importance. But the Malaysian SMEs are

not much involved in global business. So the external pressure from the customers

and suppliers is very less in adopting ICT.

19

The result showed that government support has a significant role in ICT adoption.

The government policies and initiatives have a direct impact and helps in

producing faster technology diffusion.

2.2.2 Ugandan firms

Information and Communication technologies play a major role in the economic

development of developing countries like Uganda. The study conducted by Joseph

& Michael (2007)32 investigated the extent of ICT usage and adoption in 101 firms

in Uganda. The study analyzed various characteristics, ICT usage, E-commerce;

Internet usage and connectivity, perception on the contribution of ICT to firms,

Government policies and barriers to the ICT adoption and use. The study reveals

the followings:

Majority of the medium sized firms were found to be foreign owned. The

large firms were locally owned or joint ventures. 33% of the foreign firms

and 8 % of the local firms were less than 10 years old and 27% of foreign

firms and 15% of local firms were between 10 and 20 years old. 70% of

the foreign owned firms, 77% of the local firms and 83% of the joint

venture firms were more than 20 years old.

All the firms surveyed had computers and internet access. When surveyed

in terms of ownership, results showed that all foreign and joint ventures

had been using computers for more than 5 years and 80% of foreign firms

and 83% of joint firms were using internet between 3 and 5 years.

The ICT access in terms of employees showed that those in administration

and finance have more access to computers and internet. Marketing &

sales employees had also similar access to computers, but their internet

access is very less. Other employees like support staffs and production had

also very less computer and internet access. The main use of computers by

the employees was for word processing, accounting, information

processing, and inventory control and storage optimization.

61% of the firms have website on the internet. Whilst 27% had their own

website hosts and 73 % of them outsourced their web hosting. Leased line

32 Joseph Ssewanyana and Michael Busler, International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 2007, Vol. 3, Issue 3, pp. 49-59.

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and wireless internet were the major type of internet connection used by

small and medium sized firms. The main use of internet was for

communication and surfing. Only 27% of the firms used internet for e-

commerce (buying and selling of goods& services over internet). The

adoption of ecommerce was higher in medium sized firms than larger

firms.

The firms were asked to respond to various policies put forward by the

Ugandan government.75% agreed that the expanded coverage of radio and

TV in the country had improved the firm’s market share.71 % agreed that

increased number of telecom operators had reduced the firms operating

costs. When asked whether the increased number of telecom operators and

ISPs had enabled firms to invest in Internet, 31% strongly agreed and 56%

agreed. Whilst 50% agreed and 28% strongly agreed on the availability of

well trained ICT personnel would encourage the firms to invest in ICT.

The major perceptions or benefits as responded by the firms were

increased savings, increased efficiency, improved service delivery, low

transaction costs and improved market performance.

The major barriers to the adoption and use of ICT were expensive

hardware and software, expensive qualified personnel, high taxes on

hardware and software and lack of security on the internet.

The study proved that level of ICT adoption and use was still not favorable

as compared to developed countries. Medium and large firms were better

in the adoption of ICT as they were owned my foreigners than smaller

firms.

2.2.3 Dairy Industry- Amul

A study was conducted by Bowonder, Raghu Prasad and Anup Kotla33 on the ICT

application in the dairy industry: the e-experience of Amul. Almost 4000 rural

locations in the dairy sector is already using computer for processing milk buying

and selling transactions in a transparent manner and daily around 500000 people

33 B. Bowonder, B R Raghu Prasad and Anup Kotla, ICT application in a dairy industry: The e-experience of Amul, International Journal of Services Technology and Management   Issue, 2005, Volume 6, Number 3-5. pp. 241 - 265

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are benefitted by ICT. Amul had installed Automatic Milk Collection Unit System

(AMCUS) in all villages’ societies to increase the clarity in the transaction

between the farmers and cooperative society. AMCUS has helped to reduce the

processing time to 10 % than before. The entire supplier information is made

accessible through this system integration.

Each farmer is provided an individual identification card. At the milk collection

centre the farmer drops the card to the machine and the data is transmitted to the

computer attached to it. An electronic fast test machine is used to weigh and test

the milk. The information about members, fat content, volume of the milk

procured and the amount payable to the member are available to the Co- operative

Society in the form of a database. The zonal offices, regional offices and the dairy

members are connected through VSAT. Thus a seamless flow of online

information is achieved. Centralized monitoring is the major benefit gained from

an ICT platform. All the sales offices and distributors are connected through

TCP/IP internet mail account for information exchange. A Global Information

System is also used by GCMMF. It has got an all India map that enable it to plot

the zone and distributor location. GIS is used for sales and distribution planning

and also for business planning and optimization of collection process. With the

success of AMCUS, Amul diversified the use of ICT into all value chain activities

to attain ‘Better management practices’. An Enterprise wide Integrated

Application System (EIAS) integrates and optimize the logistic and supply chain

activities. DISK (Dairy Information and Services Kiosk) is an initiative started by

Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad with GCMMF. It facilitates the data

analysis and decision support in improving milk collection.

The study has identified various benefits of ICT in dairy industry as follows:

Reduction in time

Human errors are minimized

Spot payment for farmers possible

Reduction in wastage

Transparency in operation

Integration of operations

22

It is a challenging task to implement and conceptualize ICT in the dairy industry.

There are many factors associated with it.

To design a customer oriented ICT platform, the start should be made from the

base line operations. The understanding of ground conditions helped Amul

creating a customer based system. The acceptance of new technology was

enhanced by the reputation of the agency. The customers were benefitted with

reduction in waiting time. The rate of diffusion of ICT will be high when the

benefits weigh higher than the costs. Amul always treated their customers

identically. It helped to build trust which enabled them to reinforce the working

relationships.

2.2.4 Secondary School Teachers in Malaysia

A study conducted by Bee Theng Lau and Chia Hua Sim34 in Malaysia explored

the extent of ICT adoption among Secondary School Teachers. A survey was

conducted among some 250 secondary school teachers of Mathematics and

Science to collect the qualitative and quantitative data. The respondents were

asked to specify the frequency of ICT usage in teaching, classroom management,

communication and personality development was investigated.

The report showed that ICT usage in teaching & instructional on daily or weekly

basis has a higher percentage with 75%. The ICT use in classroom management

activities came to 49% and in communication with 26%. The less frequent usage

of ICT was in personality development.

The use of ICT applications on daily or weekly basis showed higher percentage to

teaching courseware (73%), presentation tools (43%), internet browsing (53%),

and spreadsheets (32%). The lower rated applications were graphical visualization

tools (24%); multimedia (22%), simulation programs (14%), and online demos

(7%).

The teachers were asked to rate their competence level in basic computer

34 Bee Theng, Lau and Chia Hua, Sim. Exploring the extent of ICT adoption among Secondary school Teachers in Malaysia, International Journal of Computing and ICT Research, December 2008 Vol. 2, No. 2, pp.19-36. http://www.ijcir.org/volume2-number2/article 3.pdf, Accessed date-23-11-2009.

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applications including word processing, spreadsheets, presentation tools, e-

mailing, internet browsing, statistical tools, and teaching courseware. The teachers

responded themselves to be competent , either excellent or good in word

processing with 71 %, teaching course ware (63%), presentation tools (50%),

emailing (41%), and spreadsheets (39%), statistical tools (31%).

When asked to rate on what extent does they agree with the perceptions about

ICT adoption, the teachers responded that ICT makes them more effective in their

teaching (75%), organizing their tasks (80%), and helps to meet the needs of the

students (48%). They also agreed that with the increased use of internet and

technology, their lessons plans are getting richer (55%). These results showed the

positive perception of teachers towards ICT.

About 85% percentage of teachers specified that they like to integrate more ICT

application into their teaching. 87 % of the respondents perceived ICT as an

important tool to finish their tasks.

The major barrier for the ICT adoption as indicated by the teachers is the lack of

technical support. Then the lack of time, limited knowledge on how to make full

use of ICT, Limited understanding on how to integrate ICTs into teaching and

Lack of software or websites that support state standards

The study investigated the level of ICT use by teachers in schools, their

competency, perception and also the barriers for ICT adoption. The research

showed a positive attitude of teachers towards ICT and also the need of proper

training in the technology for teachers.

2.2.5 Businesses in Mauritius

The National Computer Board, Mauritius (2001)35 conducted a survey to assess the

35 National Computer Board Mauritius, 2002, http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/ncb/file/ictusagesurvey2001.pdf, Accessed date-05-01-2010.

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extent of ICT level in various Businesses in Mauritius. A sample of 300

establishments was taken from a population of 2132 establishments having more

than 10 employees. Of the surveyed establishments, 48% came from tertiary sector,

45.3 % from secondary sector (manufacturing & construction) and 6.7% from the

primary sector (agriculture).

All the establishments surveyed have more than 10 employees and can be

considered as large establishments. 60 % of the establishments have annual

turnover over twenty million rupees and 79.7 % of the establishments are 10 years

or more old.

Around 83.3% of the establishments have at least one computer and it suggested

the extent of adoption of technology, since the computer is the basic term in ICT.

The usage of computer by the business processes came in the range of 50% to

100%. The establishments with no computer have responded with no necessity of it

as the reason for it. But a 42% of those not having computer is planning to

computerize and 76% of them would be doing it in less than two years.

37.3 % of respondents have one to three servers for their computer network. 24.3%

have one to three PCs and 20% of them have more than 20 PCs. The use of

Notebooks, laptops and thin clients are very low. About 90.3% of the respondents

are willing to upgrade their computer.

The office tools (96%), Accounting software (44.8%), inventory/stock control

system (28.4%) and pay roll system (27.2%) are the widely used software packages

by the establishments. For the IT security establishments have used antivirus

software (96.4%) and uninterrupted power supply (UPS) with 73.6%. Whilst 90.4

% of establishments have a practice of taking backups and 60.8% of them did it

daily. 55.2% of the establishments have a back up for their server. Even as 83.6%

of the business establishments reviewed the security procedures once in a year.

43% of the establishments indicated that they have Local Area networks and 12.7

% have Wide Area Networks. At the same time as 90% of the establishments have

access to internet. The use of internet was high in sectors such as manufacturing,

wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants, transport, storage and

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communication and banking and finance. The usage of internet in education and

training sector is 63.2% and in public administration is 72.7% .The internet usage

was less in Construction (58.3%), banking (45%) and health (40%).

The main challenges faced by the e-commerce adoption are the limited size of

market (42.2%), inadequate infrastructure (31%), shortage of IT skills (26.2%) and

goods or services do not provide themselves to the transactions over the internet

(23%).

The establishments having ICT spending of greater proportions of their annual

budget are software (43.2%), consultancy (15.9%) and hardware (14.8%). All

establishments mentioned that they have a minimum of 50000 Rs of annual budget

for their ICT spending.

The proportion of ICT staff to the total number of employees turned out to be

11%. Around 46.1% of the staffs are computer literate. The survey showed that

there is a need of training for staffs in Office tools and operating systems and

staffs who is IT specialist is less than 1 %.

In terms of the benefits of ICT, 79.6% have responded that they are satisfied with

the return on IT investment and a great proportion of 88 % have indicated that the

technology have a positive impact on their organization. Whilst 68% of them have

confirmed that their turnover has increased in the range of 1-10%.

2.3 Contextual Review

The contextual review covers the existing literature on the ICT adoption in the

construction industries in various countries and the impact of the same on

company’s performance.

2.3.1 Taiwan

26

Hung-Ju Chien and Stephen Barthobe36 conducted a research to find the current

state of Information and Communication Technology usage by small and medium

Taiwanese construction companies. To accomplish the goal they conducted a

questionnaire study on 100 small and medium construction companies in Taiwan.

They divided the small and medium construction companies into two categories

such as one with turnover between TWD 0.1 -2 billion (USD 3 – 61 million) and

other below TWD 0.1 billion (USD 3 million).

The study showed that majority of the companies (72.5%) specified that their ICT

investment is less than 0.1% (TWD 1 million) of their annual turnover. 25.5%

responded that their ICT investment to be between TWD 1 million and 5 million

and only a 2% of the companies have a reasonable ICT investment between 5

million and 10 million.

The survey on the use of ICT applications revealed that accounting (76.5%) leads

the list of effective use. The other applications used are Financial Management

(56.9%), Electronic Document Management Applications (54.9%), Estimating

(49%), Project Management (47.1%) and Human Resource Management

Applications (39.2%).

The use of CAD software was found to be so common with 92.2% of the

respondents stating to use it. Even 87.5 % of the firms with turnover below TWD

0.1 billion have CAD software using in their company. The CAD software was

found to be 85.6% useful in the effectiveness in designing and drawing.

37% of construction firms with turnover between TWD 0.1 billion and TWD 2

billion and 33.3% with turnover below 0.1 billion used Virtual Reality technology.

VR technology is found to be 76 % useful in the effectiveness of marketing and

communications.

The main communication tools used by the construction companies are e-mail

(96.1%), intranet (58.8%) and video conferencing (33.3%)

36 Chien H-J, Barthorpe S (2010) The current state of information and communication technology usage by small and medium Taiwanese construction companies, ITcon Vol. 15, pg. 75-85, http://www.itcon.org/2010/5, Accessed date-08-03-2010.

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Only a 29.4% of respondents used Knowledge Management software to handle

company’s knowledge and it is considered to be 67 % of useful in the

effectiveness of knowledge management.

2.3.2 Nigeria

A survey was conducted by Adebayo A. Oladapo37 to investigate the use of ICT in

the Nigerian Construction industry. The respondents targeted were mainly

Engineers, Architects and Quantity Surveyors.

Most of the respondents (98.5%) used computers and among them desktop

computers (91.9%) was the common one. The use of Laptops was 60.6% and of

notebook computers were 17.6%. The commonly used Operating System was

Windows XP (59.6%), Windows 2000 (55.1%) and Windows 98 (47.1%).

MS word (67.6%), Word Perfect (36.8%) and MS excel (55.9%) were the word

processing and accounting software used by the companies. Among the

presentation software MS power point (59.6%) was the commonly used.

The companies used CAD software for designing and drawing purposes.

AutoCAD (73.6%) was the leading software used by the companies. WinQs used

by 41.5% is the most common Quantity Surveying Software. MS project (45.6%)

was the only project planning software used by the respondents.

66.9% of the respondents have internet communication facility in their company.

Other communication methods like intranet (19.1%) and voice mail (12.5%) were

used very less. The respondents were asked to rate the importance of various

benefits of use of ICT in construction companies on a scale of Very high to very

low. The most important benefit was the improvement in the quality of work.

The ranked benefits from very high to very low are:-

1. Improves quality of work

37 Oladapo A A (2007) An investigation into the use of ICT in the Nigerian construction industry, ITcon Vol. 12, Special Issue Construction information technology in emerging economies , pg. 261-277, http://www.itcon.org/2007/18, Accessed date-20-11-2009.

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2. Makes complex tasks easier to perform

3. Saves time

4. Improves productivity

5. Enhances public image

6. Saves cost

7. Facilitates decision making

The main barrier for the use of ICT in construction was inadequate and erratic

electric supply, since the electric supply in Nigeria was very unreliable. The other

barriers that comes next were high cost of hardware/software, lack of sufficient

jobs, fear of virus attacks and high rate of waning of hardware/software

The survey showed that even the present state is not so good, majority of the

respondents were very optimistic about the future of ICT in the Nigerian

Construction Industry.

2.3.3 Malaysia

Internet is an important tool in the ICT. The Internet came into Malaysia in the

year 1990. Since then the development in the technology with the help of internet

in Malaysia is clearly visible. The study by Lim Y M, Rashid A Z, Ang C N,

Wong C Y and Wong S L38 investigated the current level of usage of Internet, its

advantages and disadvantages in the Malaysian Construction industry.

According to the survey 94% of the respondents had internet access. Whilst 84 %

responded that Internet is an important tool for their company, while 14 % had

said that it is not important. 96% of the respondents were using Internet for

emailing purposes. 59% were using the internet for research and information

gaining purposes and 38% for marketing. For contracting, estimation, project

management and virtual meeting the respondents were only 35.6%.

When asked about the benefits of usage of Internet, 60% had said it as time saving

38 Lim Y M, Rashid A Z, Ang C N, Wong C Y and Wong S L (2002) A survey of Internet usage in the Malaysian construction industry, ITcon Vol. 7, pg. 259-269, http://www.itcon.org/2002/17, Accessed date-12-02-2010.

29

in the work. 51.4% agreed the benefit as Internet improves efficiency and 47%

responded with cost saving. For the benefits like expanding business and

reduction of employee, the respondents were 8.6% and5.7% respectively.

As mentioned by the respondents the main disadvantages of Internet are

downloading problem (59%) and virus problem (50%). About 47% responded that

the problem as connection problem or Internet traffic. Other disadvantages were

the difficulty in the extraction of data (27%), e-mail sending and receiving errors

(21%)) and security problems (21%).

24% of the firms had their own websites and 21% of those not having websites

were planning to own their websites in the near future. When asked about the

reason for setting websites, 49% responded with no reason. It showed that

majority was having website for the reason that others was having.

12% were using the website for advertising purposes, 11% for company status and

10& for information for employees. For the reasons like getting feedback from

customers, the response was 7% and for sharing information it was 5%.

The main problem for setting up websites was time consuming (52%). Other

reasons were security problem (12%) and cost (29%).

2.3.4 Canada

Hugues Rivard39 studied the current use and impact of Information technology in

the Architect, Engineering and Construction Industry in Canada (2000). Majority

of respondents were engineering firms, contractor firms and architectural firms.

The gross revenue of the companies surveyed ranged between $ 100000 and $ 100

million. The survey checked the computer availability, use, CAD tools, network &

communications and various research directions.

Almost 99% of the firms responded that they have computers and the result was

very encouraging than previous years. While in 1996 only 65% of the construction

39 Rivard H (2000) A Survey on the Impact of Information Technology in the Canadian Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry, ITcon Vol. 5, pg. 37-56, http://www.itcon.org/2000/3, Accessed date-20-02-2010.

30

industry was using computers. With the technology advancement, decrease in the

price, increase in usefulness and popularity of computers have made this result

more positive.

The average number of computers per employee was 0.8. 90% of the employees

used computers or their work and 80% have their own computer in the company

to do their work. As working on sites most of the times, contractors have less

proportion in computer availability.

Microsoft was main operating system (90%) used in the construction companies.

Among the office software, word processor (98.6%) and spreadsheet (91.5%)

were used by most of the companies. The usage of database (65.4%) and project

planning (47.4%) software was not so encouraging, but firms are planning to use

in the future.

The extent of computerization of various business processes was classified into

three categories such as highly computerized, partially computerized and not

computerized. The business processes like book keeping, invoicing and

specifications comes in the highly computerized category. Materials control and

purchasing was still done manually or without computerization, while costing,

budgeting and technical calculation were partially computerized.

The CAD software was mainly used by engineering and architectural firms and

only 26.4 % of the contracting firms used CAD. Among the firms having

computers, 76% used CAD software. AutoCAD was the leading software used by

the firms. Other CAD software used was MicroStation and Visio Technical.

Geographical Information System (GIS) is a software application meant to

analyze and store geographical information and is used in land planning,

surveying, infrastructure management etc. GIS was mainly used by engineering

firms (20%) and only 5% of architectural firms used GIS software.

Most of the drawings and design work was done by CAD software. 71% of the

firms used CAD software for 80% to 100% of their drawings. The majority of the

drawings (94%) were two dimensional and only 4% of the firms used 3

dimensional drawings.

31

64% of the firms have computers connected through LAN (Local Area Network).

75% of the engineering firms used LAN, and the use of LAN in architectural

firms was 44%. 90% of the firms have access to internet. 97% of the engineering

firms, 86% of architectural firms and 83% of contractors have internet connection.

E-mail was used by 87% of the construction companies surveyed. In terms of the

type of firms, the use of e-mail was engineering firms with 96.1%, architectural

firms (83.6%) with and contractors with (73.8%). 43% of engineering firms, 27%

of architectural firms and 27% of contractors have their own website.

The main benefit as mentioned by the firms was better quality of work. Other

important benefits were work done more quickly, better financial control, better

communications an simple and faster access to common data. The reduction in

staff, decrease in the use of paper, telecommuting and staff contentment was not

found to be major benefits by the firms.

The main obstacles for the application of IT in AEC industry were continual

demand of upgrading, high cost of investment and greater know how required by

the staff. The areas of future research as responded by the firms were the

implementation of computer integrated design and development of new tools to

assist designers.

2.3.5 Australia

The study conducted by Kajewski et al40 in the Australian construction sector

examined the current status, training trends, enablers and limitations to the use of

ICT. The major findings of the study are as follows:-

70% of the organizations have annual turnover less than $5million and

10% have their annual turnover $100 million or greater.

40

? Kajewski, S and Weippert, A and Remmers, T and McFallan, S (2004) ICT in the Australian Construction industry: Status, training and Perspectives. In Proceedings CRCCI International Conference: Clients Driving innovation, Surfers Paradise, Australia. Accessed from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/secure/00004057/01/CRCCI_2004_Conference_Paper_ICT_in_the_Australian_Construction_Industry.pdf, Accessed date-20-11-2009.

32

The amount of ICT investment varies from $500 to $1,000,000. The

frequent amount used is $2000. A correlation test is carried to test the

relation between annual investment in ICT and annual turnover ranges.

Spearman’s Rho test is the correlation statistic used. The test shows that a

positive relation exists between annual ICT investment and annual

turnover.

The most accessible and frequently used ICT technologies are Mobile

phone, Desktop computer, Scanner, Fax and Digital Camera. The other

latest technologies like Wi-Fi, Handheld, Tablet computers and Video

Conference Equipment are less accessible and less frequently used. But the

organizations with higher ICT investment use these technologies. 83 % of

the firms with annual ICT investment greater than $50,000 have access to

handheld computers and only 4% of the firms with ICT investment less

than $10,000 have access to them.

49% of the respondents have indicated that they have undergone official

training in ICT. The organizations with higher turnover ($100 million or

greater) have higher rate of official training in ICT. Over half of the

respondents specified that they get sufficient time during office hours to

undergo ICT training. But more than 60% of the respondents from the

residential construction sector have inadequate time for training. Only 10

% of the respondents indicated that their workload is reduced or adjusted

for ICT training.

The major preferred mode of ICT training by the respondents is with

professional consultants. 86% of the respondents with higher turnover

have preferred professional consultants for ICT training and 52% of those

with lower turnover preferred private training. The respondents indicated

that the consultants should have greater level of competency. The

respondents expected a greater level of competency from contractors.

The benefits and drivers that influence the ICT implementation are

measured on a scale of 7 rates from non influential to highly influential.

The benefit with higher mean rating is ‘To help gain increased efficiency’

followed by ‘to help improve overall team/company efficiency

(productivity)’ and ‘to help increase business opportunities’. The benefit

with low average mean is to ‘To help become Industry leaders in ICT

33

adoption’. The residential sub sector rated to help gain increased efficiency

(improved productivity)’ and ‘to help increase business opportunities’ as

the most influential benefit.

Among the barriers and limitations for ICT implementation, ‘ICT

investment restrictions due to budget constraints’ have the higher mean

rating of influence on the decision on ICT implementation. Other barriers

such as ‘having to use incompatible ICT hardware/software/systems’,

‘having limited or no ICT hardware/software support readily available’

and ‘the continuous & quick succession of ICT upgrade/advancement’

have also high average mean rate. The residential sub sector rated ‘the

continuous & quick succession of ICT upgrades/advancement’ and ‘ICT

investment restrictions due to budget constraints as the highly influential

barrier to ICT implementation and use.

2.3.6 Jordan

A study in 2006 by El-Mashaleh41 aimed at finding the current Information

Technology trends in construction industry in Jordan using an IT barometer

survey. The study collected data from 207 firms. The interview was carried

between June 2004 and January 2005. The following points were noted in the

study:-

34% of the firms participated are contractors. Only 10% are consulting

firms and architecture and engineering firms are 37%. The firms

participated involved in construction of buildings, roads and bridges, water

and sewage projects and electromechanical projects.

Majority of the firms has less than 5 employees. 37 % have employees

between 5 and 10. Only 1% of the firms have more than 150 employees.

When asked about the number of computers and laptops, firms responded

with a 96.8% having them. The number of desktop per employee was 0.46

and laptop per employee was 0.026. When it is calculated on the basis of

types of firms, contracting firms has less number of computer per

41 El-Mashaleh.M S (2007) Benchmarking information technology utilization in the construction industry in Jordan, ITcon Vol. 12, Special Issue Construction information technology in emerging economies , pg. 279-291, http://www.itcon.org/2007/19, Accessed date-18-12-2009.

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employee where as consulting and architectural and engineering firms has

higher number of computers per employee.

Word and excel were used by 88% of the firms and web browsers and

email were used by two third of the firms. Among the structural analysis

software, more than 30% of the firms used Prokon and Staad. Primavera

was the most used project software compared to MS Project. Only one

tenth of the firms used Photoshop software. On the basis of type of firms,

General contractors used Word, Excel, Primavera and MS project more

than others. The use of Web browsers and Email was similar in all types of

firms. Prokon and 3D max were used less by general contractors. Majority

of the firms used AutoCAD to produce design drawings.

91% of the firms have internet connectivity and 62% of them used dial-up

modem for the connectivity. Only 29% used ADSL connectivity. Only less

number of firms has website and majority is planning to own a website in

the next two years. More consulting firms own websites than others. Most

of the architectural and engineering and consulting firms do not have or do

not plan to have a website in the next two years.

Email access is provided to over half of the employees in 32% of the firms

and in 68% of the firms, email access is offered only to less than half of

their employees. 60% of the firms provide internet access to less than half

of their employees and 40% of the firms offered internet access to over

half of the employees.

82% of the firms have increased their IT investment in the past two years

and 85% of the firms are planning to increase the IT investment in the next

two years. 47% of the firms have responded on the active involvement of

their employees for IT use. The staffs in consulting firms are more

involved in IT use than in other types of firms.

More than 80% of the firms responded that the use of IT has improved the

productivity of design and project management.67% of the firms stated

that the productivity of the general administration has increased with the

use of IT.

Demand from the customers is the major motivation for using IT. Other

motivations for IT use are efficiency of technical work, means of

competition, demand from employees, and boost the image of the

35

company. All the firms specified that the document quality and speed of

work has improved by the introduction of IT.

The major benefits of IT use are better quality of work, work done more

quickly, better financial control and faster, simpler access to common data

and greater flexibility to satisfy customers. The main obstacles for the use

of IT investment costs too high and greater know how required for the

staffs.

The review has enabled the researcher to assess the coverage of literature in the

areas of ICT applications. The articles included in the contextual review clearly

indicate the benefits of ICT application in the construction sector. The present

study focuses on the impact of ICT applications on the selected construction

companies in Kochi, Kerala.

CHAPTER 3

Research Methodology

36

This chapter details the Research Methodology used in the study. The chapter also

explains the process and methods used in the collection of data and mode of

analysis. A brief outlook on the construction industry in India is also provided in

this chapter. This study is exploratory in nature.

3.1 Role of ICT application in construction sector.

Construction sector is a very fragmented industry and is very unique in its

organizational nature. It is necessary for the construction industry to improve the

current work practices. The major problem faced in the construction sector is the

lack of communication and proper data transfer. The real time information sharing

between the construction participants reduces the error and delay and hence will

improve the productivity. With the development of World Wide Web, Internet

technologies and Information and Communication Technologies, a dramatic

improvement is witnessed in its use in the field of construction. The opportunity

for ICT application in the construction industry is immense considering the

benefits gained. There are many ICT tools and techniques available for the use in

the construction sector. A major development is seen in the internal and external

communication process in the construction companies for sharing information.

The use of these tools has a major impact on the construction companies and so as

the employees. The companies will be able to reduce its operation costs and time

by the use of ICT. The use of ICT in construction sector is not as effective as

compared to other industry and it is late adaptor.

3.2 Profile of Selected Companies (Table 1)

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38

39

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3.3 Research Design and Research Approach

This study is based on primary data collection. With the aim of assessment of

impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption in the

construction companies, the survey has been carried out in the Construction

companies in Kochi, by using a questionnaire to the selected construction

companies. The questionnaire had been administered to the executives in the

construction companies who have the knowledge of ICT. Most of the questions

are close ended questions, while some of the questions are open ended questions

elicit their opinions.

The researcher has collected many websites that giving details on the construction

companies in the Kochi city. Many of the companies have their head office in

Kochi and some have their branch offices in Kochi. After identifying the

construction companies in Kochi, the sample size for the survey was selected. As

the researcher is looking for high degree of representativeness, the probability

sampling technique called “Systematic Sampling” was adopted. So every element

in the population has a known chance to be included in the sample. From the

population of 200 construction companies in Kochi, every 4th company is selected.

Thus the researcher decided the sample size to be 50 construction companies.

The respondents to complete the questionnaires were expected to have a sound

knowledge of the Information and Communication Technology applications. The

senior executives or owners of the company were not included as the respondents,

as they had no time to spend for the filling of questionnaires. The respondents are

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mainly the middle level executives who have the knowledge of all ICT

applications in the company.

A piloted study was conducted with two construction companies before the main

survey was commenced. This helped the researcher to avoid the ambiguity in the

questions and to assess the time required to complete the questionnaire. A number

of comments and suggested changes from the pilot study respondents were used to

modify the questionnaire prior to its final distribution. The research included

Quantitative approach as the data was collected through the questionnaire survey

with the respondents from the construction companies. (Refer Appendix 1 for

model questionnaire).

3.4 Mode of Analysis

The primary data collected through the questionnaires has been analyzed to realize

the objectives of the study. The responses from the questionnaires were examined

using descriptive statistics. The data collected has been analyzed using SPSS

software. The statistical analysis has become easier with the use of statistical

software like SPSS. The two dimensions, length and breadth were taken into

account in the analysis of the data. The length describes the quantitative use of the

Information and communication technology. The breadth includes the qualitative

approach about the opinion like benefits and barriers. Apart from the tabular

description, graphical representation of the data has also been used by means of

pie charts, clustered column and 3D clustered column charts.

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Chapter 4- Data Analysis and Interpretation

The primary data collected through questionnaires is analyzed and interpreted in

this chapter. The data are collected from a total of 50 construction companies in

the city of Kochi, Kerala.

4.1 Company Profile

4.1.1 Age Classification of the Companies

As many as 74% of the respondents stated that the companies have been in

existence for more than 10 years. Out of them 42% are more than 20 years old.

Only 26 % of the total surveyed companies are 10 years old or less. So the

companies would have more experience in various construction processes and

would be aware of the various developments in the Information and

Communication technologies adoption in the construction industry. With the

experience, the exposure to the industry and the techniques used will also

improve.

4.1.2 Annual Turnover

Table 2: Annual Turnover of the Companies

The annual turnover of the last financial year has been classified into five

categories - less than Rs 1 Crore, Rs 1-5 Crores, Rs 5- 15 Crores, Rs 15-50 Crores

and more than Rs 50 Crores. The annual turnover refers to the total sales turnover

in a financial year. 38% of the surveyed companies have an annual turnover

between Rs 5 Crores and Rs 15 Crores. Only 5 companies have their annual

turnover greater than Rs 50 Crores. Only 10% of the companies have their annual

turnover less than Rs 1 Crore.

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Table 3: Annual turnover on the basis of age of the companies.

For the companies with annual turnover of above Rs 50 Crores, the average age is

22 years. But for the companies with less than Rs 1 Crore the average age is only

10.8 years. The companies with Rs 15 to 50 Crores have 19.63 years, Rs 5 to 15

Crores has 17.68 years and Rs 1 to 5 Crores has 18.5 years of average age. So the

companies with high turnovers are into existence for more than 20 years. With

experience, companies can improve their efficiency using technological

development and realize reduction in production cost, increased productivity and

as a result, the annual turnover increases.

4.1.3 Number of employees

Figure 1: Number of employees in the company.

The total number of employees in each company is divided into 6 groups: (0-30),

(31-60), (61-90), (91-120), (121-150), (151 or more). (See figure 1) The total

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number includes the number of employees in office and at the project site. The

minimum number of employees is 14 and maximum of 197. 50% of the

companies have the number of employees in the range of 31-60. Only 4

companies have 150 or more number of employees.

Temporary employees in these companies are not taken into account while

calculating the number of employees.

Table 4: Work force related to the nature of the company

4 out of 6 MNCs from the survey have 151 or more number of employees in their

company. One MNC has 121-150 employees and another MNC has 31-60

employees. The reason for a MNC having 31-60 employees is because the

selected construction office is the branch office of the company. 24 out of 46

Domestic companies have 31-60 employees and 13 domestic companies have less

than 30 employees, 6 have 61-90 employees and one domestic company has 91-

120 employees. Domestic company’s workforce ranging from 30 employees and

less to 90 employees indicate the small and medium size of these construction

companies.

4.2 Respondents’ Profile

A total of 50 completed questionnaires have been collected for this study. The

questionnaires were administered to the construction companies in Kochi.

4.2.1 Designation

34% of the respondents are Architects, 20% are Engineers and other 46% fall into

the ‘Other’ category which includes Marketing Executive, human resource staff,

45

IT administrator etc. Architects have responded with more ICT applications such

as intranet, LAN, WLAN. Extranet is used by IT administrators and Marketing

Executives. Architects and Civil engineers use the handheld computers more than

other staff. Architects and Engineers are generally the major users of ICT tools in

these activities.

Figure 2: Classification of respondents by Designation

4.2.2 Work Experience

The minimum work experience for the respondent is 3 years. Figure 3 shows that

out of 50 respondents, 7 stated (14%) that they have work experience in the range

of 3 years to 5 years. 52% of the respondents have experience in the range of 6

years to 10 years and 28 % in the range of 11years to 15 years. 3 respondents state

that they have 16 or more years of experience. Over 50% stating to have 6-10

years of experience indicates their familiarity with the construction activities.

7 Architects and 6 Engineers stated to have 6-10 years experience. Only 3

Architects stated to have an experience of over 16 years. 4 Engineers stated to

have 11-15 years of experience. 4 respondents who fall in “Others” category have

3-5 years of experience and 11 respondents in “Other” category have 6-10 years

of experience. 6 respondents are having 11-15 years of experience who comes in

“Others” category, which includes Marketing Executive, human resource staff,

and IT administrator.

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Figure 3: Professional experience of respondents

4.3 Number of Computers

Computer is the basic ICT tool. Only those companies are included in the survey

with at least one computer. Computers have become common these days because

even a small company can afford it because of its low price. Table 5 presents the

number of computers used in the companies.

Table 5: Number of computers in the companies

More than 50 % of the companies have less than 10 computers. About 42% of the

companies have more than 10 computers and among them only 18% have more

than 16 computers. Even though the prices of computers are not high these days,

the number of computers used in construction companies is less. Thus it is clear

that some of these construction companies have less awareness level of the

advanced application of the computers, while few perceive that there is little use

of ICT application in their construction activities.

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Table 6: Number of computers related to type of execution of project

It is clear from Table 6 that the number of computers is 16 or more for companies

which execute the project as Architect and project managers. 6 out of 15 Architect

companies and 3 out of 4 Project Manager Companies have stated to have 16 or

more computers. 3 out of 15 Architect companies have 11-15 computers, 4 out of

15 Architect companies have 6-10 computers and 2 out of 15 Architect companies

have only 1-5 computers. 11 out of 19 Contractor company and 6 out of 12 Sub

contractor companies has only 1-5 computers. Thus the result shows that more

computers are used in Architect and Project manager companies, since their work

is done in the office which are mainly designing, estimation, quantity surveying

etc.

Desktop computers are the common type of computers used by the companies and

all the companies interviewed have desktop computers. Laptops are used by 70%

of the companies. Only 34% of the companies have hand held computers. Hand

held computers are commonly used in the construction work sites. Hand held

computers enable the people to access the data from the site itself using wireless

technology, Internet etc.

Table 7: Use of computers on the basis of designation

Others include Marketing Executive, human resource staff, and IT administrator.

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It is clear from the study that all companies responded have desktop computers in

their office. Among the 50 respondents 17 used hand held computer. It is clear

from the Table 7, 12 out of 17 Architects and 5 out of 10 Engineers use Hand held

computers. Architects and Engineers will be on the construction site more than on

the office. Of the 35 users of Laptop, 15 are Architects and 8 are Engineers. 12 out

of 35 users of Laptop fall in the ‘Other’ category, which includes Marketing

Executive, HR staff, IT administrator etc. None of the ‘Other’ respondents use

Hand Held computers because the office use of hand held computers are less.

Some of the staffs have both hand held computers and laptop.

Table 8: Average number of computers per employee versus annual turnover.

The companies with a turnover of over Rs 50 Crores have higher average number

of computers per employee with 0.24. The companies with turnover less than Rs 1

Crore have an average number of computers per employee of 0.118 only. The

companies with Rs 1 to 15 Crores have 0.136, with Rs 5 to 15 Crores has 0.208

and with Rs 15 to 50 Crores has 0.22 computers per employee in their companies.

The companies with higher turnovers are capable of investing more to buy

computers and also they are aware of the significance of extensive applications of

computer in a construction company.

4.4 ICT Usage

This section covers the current level of ICT usage in the surveyed construction

companies in Kochi.

4.4.1 Operating System Used

The major operating system available in the market is Windows XP, Windows

Vista, Windows 7 and Linux. Microsoft introduced Windows XP in 2001. The

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upgraded version, Windows Vista was introduced in 2007. The latest edition of

Microsoft Operating System in Windows 7 with more features compared to its

predecessor.

Table 9: Type of operating system used

All the surveyed companies use MS Windows XP in their office. Even after 10

years of its introduction, Windows XP is still the widely used Operating System.

Only 15 out of 50 companies are using Windows Vista, the successor to Windows

XP. The new operating system by Microsoft, Windows 7 is slowly gaining

popularity and 10 companies have installed it in their computers. The main reason

for the increased use of Windows XP is the user friendliness. The companies

which use both Windows XP and Windows Vista have installed Windows XP in

Desktop Computers and Windows Vista in their laptops. The companies find it

difficult to adapt to new and revised version and hence they will continue with the

existing versions. That is why the companies are reluctant to use the latest version

of operating system like Windows Vista and Windows 7.Only 3 out of 50

companies used Linux operating system in their office. The lack for technical

knowledge among their employees is the factor that prevents the companies from

using Linux as the operating system, even though Linux is an open and free

source Operating System.

4.4.2 Use of Internet

All the companies responded have access to internet. The availability and low cost

are the main reason for this result. This positive result is a boost for the

construction industry because they are usually very low in adoption of

technologies.

The companies were asked to state about the common types of internet connection

used such as ADSL Broadband, ISDN, cable broadband and mobile internet.

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Table 10 shows the type of internet connection used by the companies. As many

as 68% stated the use of ADSL Broadband connection for internet, as these are

economical and reliable today.

Table 10: Type of internet connection used by the companies

The speed, cost and reliability of the broadband internet are main factors for

preferring it. Cable broadband connection is used by 26% of the companies. Only

3 out of 50 companies have used ISDN connection for the internet. Even though

ISDN is an old and efficient technology for data communication, its usage has

decreased, mainly because of the increased popularity and less price of broadband

connection.

16 companies who use ADSL broadband connection are into existence for more

than 20 years. Only 3 companies with less than 5 years experience used ADSL

broadband. The expensive ISDN connection is used by 3 companies and 2 out of

them are more than 20 years old and 1 have 11-15 years experience. None of the

companies which are less than 5 years old used Cable broad brand for internet

connection. The companies with more experience tend to use more trusted

connection like ISDN, even though it is expensive.

4.4.3 Percentage of staff into Internet

Table 11: Percentage of staff having access to internet

The proportion of staff, which has access to internet, is classified into four groups

such as 0-20%, 20-40%, 40-60% and above 60%. The result shows that 28 out of

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50 companies (56%) have their staff access to the internet in the range of 0-20%.

That means more than half of the companies in the sample have less than 20%

staff access to internet. 40% of the companies have the staff access to internet in

between 20% and 40%. Only 2 companies are providing internet access to 40 to

60% of their staff in the company. These 2 companies execute the project as

Architect and Project Manager. None of the companies have their staff access to

internet above 60%. Even though all the companies in the sample are having

internet facility, its staff’s access to internet facility is less. The study shows that

the companies with annual turnover of less than Rs 15 Crores are only providing

less than 20% of staff access to internet. This reveals the low use of internet as a

communication medium. All the companies mentioned the use of internet is for

purposes like sending email, marketing, availing business information etc.

7 Architects and 9 Engineers have mentioned that 0-20% of their staff has access

to internet in their company. 12 respondents including Marketing Executive,

human resource staff, and IT administrator also revealed to have 0-20% staff

access to internet in their company. 10 Architects, 1 Engineer and 9 in “Others”

category responded that their company provides internet access to 20-40% of their

staffs. Only 2 respondents in “Others” category revealed to have 40-60% of staff

access to internet. The internet access is more to the staff like IT administrator,

Marketing Executives, Human resource staff than Architects and Engineers. Most

of the times, Architects and Engineers will be on the construction site.

4.4.4 Use of Own Websites

To the query on the use of own websites in companies 62% of the companies

confirmed that they have their company website on the internet. This large

proportion is a positive sign of the improvements in the development of ICT. 19

out of 50 (38%) companies do not have a website. The purpose of using own

website differs from one company to another. Only 4 out of 31 companies are

having own server in their company for website maintenance and data storage.

The remaining 27 companies with websites are located in other companies which

provide website services.

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4.4.5 Purpose of Having Company Website

Table 12: The purpose of having website

Multiple Responses

The respondents were asked to indicate the various purpose of using company

website. The purpose of having websites is represented in Table 12. All the

companies who have website stated that the main purpose of website to be display

of ‘Project details’ and ‘Company Information’. The project details include the

details on the already completed construction projects and also the information on

the forthcoming projects. Other major purpose of the website include collecting

‘Customer feedback’ (19 responses), ‘Online enquiry’ (11 responses) and ‘Online

recruitment’ (9 responses). The companies provide Project details and Company

Information for advertising and marketing of their products and services.

Table 13: Use of own website on the basis of annual turnover and age of

companies

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An analysis of owning a website on the basis of annual turnover revealed that all

the companies with annual turnover of Rs 15 Crores or more have their own

website on the internet. Of the 19 companies with turnover of Rs 5 Crores to 15

Crores, 15 companies have own website in the World Wide Web. None of the

companies with turnover less than Rs 5 Crores state to own a website as yet.

These companies focus on domestic residential constructions only. Thus the

companies with lesser turnovers do not see any necessity to own a website in the

internet as a technology requirement. Since owning a website is not so expensive

these days, the low usage of own website by the companies with less turnover is

not because of their turnover rates, but due to their lack of awareness or ignorance

of the relevance of the websites in construction activities such as subcontracting,

contracting, architectural and project management.

The companies with annual turnover less than Rs 5 Crores and age less than 5

years do not have their own website. The companies decide on websites only

when considerable work is accomplished. 3 companies with annual turnover of

more than 50 Crores and more than 20 years of age own a website. With

experience, companies attain additional assignment and more promotion is

required. So the use of website increases and has to be updated regularly.

4.4.6 Email

All the companies use email. Email helps to transfer the digital documents or

drawings instantly. Table 14 shows the responses of the companies on the purpose

of using email. To the query on the purpose of the using Email, 35 companies

stated to use e-mail for distributing documents within the company. 34 companies

of the surveyed companies accepted that they use email for sending formal

messages which are more business oriented. Less than 50% of the respondents use

Email for the exchange and distribution of documents and drawings with other

companies.

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Table 14: Purpose of using Email

Multiple Responses

The documents include design, drawings, bid documents etc. This reveals that the

companies are still not using the electronic method for the data exchange to a

great extent. The use of email for the purchasing purpose is very less with only

10% of the companies stated to be using it.

4.4.7 Use of Administration Software

To the query on the administration software such as word processing, spreadsheet,

database software and portable document format reader (PDF) that is used in the

company, all the companies surveyed stated to use word processing, Spread sheet

software and PDF reader. 47 out of 50 companies use data base software in their

company. More than 90% of the companies are keeping databases which include

the details of their customers, suppliers and other construction companies. Thus

the results show that these softwares have great influence in the administration

processes in the company offices.

4.4.8 Use of Communication Networks

The use of communication networks is presented in Table 15. The result shows

that 50% of the companies use Local Area Network in their office. Out of 50

companies only 12 companies used WLAN in their office. WLAN is usually used

for laptops. The intranet is used by 9 companies and only 5 companies used

Extranet.

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Table 15: Use of communication networks

Multiple Responses

Intranet also is a computer network used for the inter-organizational

communication but the results give a view that the electronic communication

between the staff, departments and work site is only to a small extent. The

extranet usage is also not showing progressive sign. Extranet are for the

communication between company office and external agencies.

The percentage of communication networks usage by the number of employees is

represented in 100% stacked column chart in figure 4.

Figure 4: Percentage of communication network usage by number of employees

All the surveyed companies with number of employees greater than 81 stated to

use LAN in their companies. The LAN usage is very less in companies with less

than 40 employees (14%). But the companies with number of employees between

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41 and 80 have 73% of LAN usage. All the companies with employees between

81 and 150 used WLAN and 75% of the companies with greater than

151employees used WLAN. Only 32% of the companies less than 80 employees

used WLAN in their office. None of the companies with less than 40 employees

used Intranet and Extranet. 23% of the companies with employees between 41 and

80 used Intranet and only 5% of the companies with same number of employees

used Extranet. All the companies with more than 151 employees used Intranet and

75% of the companies with same number of employees used Extranet in their

office. The companies with more number of employees have more number of

computers. To maintain the computers, a communication network like LAN is

inevitable. The companies with more number of employees can afford to invest in

technologies like Intranet or Extranet and also these companies have expert people

to maintain and operate these technologies.

Only companies with more than 5 Crores used LAN network in their company.

All the companies with more than Rs 50 Crores as turnover have LAN network. 6

out of 19 companies with annual turnover of 5-15 Crores and 4 out of 5

companies with more than 50 Crores of annual turnover used WLAN. Intranet and

Extranet is also used by the companies with higher turnovers. Thus it shows that

the companies with high turnover are more in the usage of these networks, since

they can afford to use these services.

4.4.9 Communication between Office and Project Site

Communication consists of the exchange of data and information of the

construction projects. The two common ways of communication are through the

physical exchange of data in CDs, DVDs and hard copies and the other method is

with the use of Internet or Intranet.

As shown in Table 16, among the 50 companies, 29 of the companies (58%) used

the physical transfer of CDs and DVDs for the communication and exchange of

data. 22% of the companies used Internet or Intranet for the communication and

20% of the companies used both methods for the communication. The higher

percentage of use of physical exchange of data shows that the companies are still

relying on that method only. Even majority of companies having Internet

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connection is not using it for their communication purpose between office and

project site.

Table 16: Communication between Office & Project site

The communication between the office and project site on the basis of annual

turnover is represented in a clustered column chart in the figure 5:

Figure 5: Communication between office & project site on the basis of annual

turnover

In the companies with turnover less than Rs 1 Crore and Rs 1-5 Crores, all the

companies are having communication between the office and project site through

the physical transfer of CDs, DVDs and hard copies. None of them used Internet

or Intranet for the communication purposes and they find these technologies as not

feasible for their transfer of data and information. More than 70% of the

companies with the annual turnover of Rs 5-15 Crores used the physical transfer

of data. The communication of this group through Internet or Intranet is only 25%.

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All the companies with turnover greater than Rs 50 Crores used both of the

methods for the communication between construction office and project site.

The communication between the office and project site on the basis of age of the

companies is represented in a clustered column chart in the figure 6:

The companies into existence for less than 5 years use the physical transfer of data

using CDs and DVDs and those companies do not use internet or intranet for the

communication between office and project site. 57% of the companies with more

than 20 years also use only physical transfer of data. Only 23% of the companies

with more than 20 years use internet or intranet and 19% of them used both the

methods. It is clear that the age of the companies is not influencing to a great

extent in choosing the method of communication between office and project site.

Figure 6: Communication between office and project site on the basis of age of

companies

4.4.10 Portable Technology

Mobile phones are common form of portable technology used. The growth in the

mobile communication field in the country has influenced much. The survey

shows that all the construction companies use mobile phones. Mobile phones are

very important in an industry like construction because the construction

information have to be exchanged all the time.

Mobile internet is a feature in mobile phones to access internet even while

moving. Only 30% of the companies are using mobile internet. The advantage of

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using mobile internet is still not found to be captured by the construction industry

according to the respondents

Radio frequency Identification Device (RFID) which is used in material

management for the tracking the products fast and accurately are very common in

industries with large inventories. Though construction industry is also an

inventory intensive industry, none of the company surveyed use RFID.

4.4.11 Enterprise Software Packages and Devices

In the construction industry scenario the opportunity for the use of technology is

eminent. With the advancement in the technology, lot of software packages and

devices are available for the construction industry. This section investigates the

usage of selected softwares and devices by the companies.

Table 17: The usage of different software packages and devices

Accounting softwares are very common in any form of business. These softwares

help to record all accounting transactions. All the companies surveyed, use

accounting software in their offices. Thus all the companies are keeping record of

their accounting transactions digitally.

Quantity Surveying & Estimation is an important stage in a construction project.

The processes included are tendering, valuation, cost estimation etc. The

introduction of softwares for this purpose helps the process to be more accurate

and easier and also reduce time spending. The result shows that 16 out of 50

companies (32%) use Quantity Surveying and Estimating software in their

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company. Thus 68% of the companies are still using the manual method of

Quantity Surveying and Estimating.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) which integrates all the business process in a

company into single system has become very popular in the last one decade. But

the survey shows that only 2 companies use ERP in their companies. One of these

companies is 35 year old and executes the projects as Architects. The other

company is into existence for 15 years and executes the project as Project

managing company. Architect and Project managing tasks are mainly done in

office and so ERP is applied in their company. The expense of purchasing and

implementing ERP can be a reason for this discouraging result.

Supply Chain Management softwares (SCM) are used for managing supplier

relations by the real time exchange of data and thereby reducing inventories. But

none of the companies surveyed use SCM softwares in their offices and so their

relation with the suppliers is so conventional and no digital exchange of

information is taking place between them, as yet.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the basis of any industry and for a

customer oriented industry like construction industry the importance is much

more. A direct contact with customers is always needed any stage and increases

customer satisfaction. Only 4 out of 50 companies have implemented CRM

system. The average age of these 4 companies are 25 years and the annual

turnover of these companies is more than Rs 50 Crores. Thus these companies

have the experience and also more investment in CRM software and its

application. It shows that the customers’ contact with the company is not being

done electronically and communication on regular basis is also not possible.

The mechanical efforts and errors in the traditional construction surveying can be

nullified using a Global Positioning System. Only 6% of the companies are using

GPS for the construction surveying processes. Thus more than 90% of the

companies are still using the traditional construction surveying methods. The use

of GIS is also not very positive as only 5 companies (10%) are using it. The use of

GIS helps the companies to reduce the delivery time as it gives visualization of

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construction progress with respect to time. 90% of the respondents does not find it

helpful for their company and are not ready to invest.

The use of software package and devices versus the annual turnover of the

companies are represented in a clustered column graph in the figure 7.

Figure 7: Enterprise Software and device usage versus annual turnover

The companies with low turnover to high turnover have the usage of accounting

package in their office for the recording of accounting transactions. Accounting

softwares are most popular and common among the software packages in the list.

About 10% of the companies with turnover of Rs 5 to 15 Crores used Quantity &

Estimating Softwares and all the companies with turnover greater than Rs 50

Crores also used it. None of the companies with lesser turnovers have the usage of

quantity and estimating softwares. The most discouraging result is that, no

companies used any of the other softwares discussed in the survey, except for

some companies with turnover greater than Rs 50 Crores using some of the

softwares. ERP, which is the back bone of organizations these days, have a very

little usage by the surveyed companies. The major factors that hinder the

application of ERP are its cost, maintenance and delayed return of investment.

The use of software package and devices versus the age of the companies are

represented in a clustered column graph in the figure 8.

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Figure 8: Enterprise software usage versus age of the companies

All the companies from all age groups use Accounting softwares in their

companies. 50% of the companies with 11-15 years of age and 20 % of the

companies with 6-10 years of age use quantity surveying and estimating software.

One company with 11 to 15 years of age use ERP, CRM and GPS in the company.

Of the companies which are 21 or more years of age, 38% stated use Quantity

Surveying and Estimating software, 5% used ERP, 14 % use CRM, 10% used

GPS and 14 % used GIS in their companies. Thus it is clear that the age of the

companies do not influence in the usage rate of these enterprise softwares.

4.4.12 Cad Usage

Computer Aided Design (CAD) softwares are indispensable tool in the

construction industry. All the construction projects are initiated by the designs and

drawings made either manually or using softwares. When surveyed on the usage

of CAD softwares in the construction companies, all the companies responded that

they are using it. Thus most of the design and drawing tasks are done using CAD

softwares.

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Table 18: Usage of CAD softwares

Multiple Responses

Regarding the usage level of the common CAD softwares available, AutoCAD is

the pre-dominant of all software brands. 84% of the companies agree that they use

AutoCAD in their companies for the design and drawing tasks. The usage of

ArchiCAD is only 20% and followed by Microstation with 10%. 20% of the

companies used both AutoCAD and ArchiCAD in their company. AutoCAD and

Microstation are both used by only 4% of the companies (See figure 9). Thus

AutoCAD is proved to be the most popular brand in the CAD softwares among

the construction companies.

Figure 9: CAD usage by the companies.

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Table 19: Usage of CAD softwares on the basis of execution of projects

13 companies who execute the project as Architects used AutoCAD software. 16

Contractors also used AutoCAD in their company. 4 Project managers and 9

Contractors also used AutoCAD software. ArchiCAD is being used by 3

Architects, 3 Project Managers, 3 Contractors and 1 Sub Contractor. Microstation

is used by 2 Architects, 2 Contractors and 1 Sub-Contractors. None of the Project

Managers used Microstation. 2 companies who execute the project as Architects

used both AutoCAD and ArchiCAD and 1 company used both AutoCAD and

Microstation. 3 companies who execute the project as Project managers used both

AutoCAD and ArchiCAD. 3 Contractors used both AutoCAD and ArchiCAD.

The pie chart in the figure 10 represents the CAD drawing representation in

different formats. The representation of the drawing and designs are done in many

ways such as in 2 Dimensional, 3 Dimensional and in 4 Dimensional formats. The

result shows that 76% of the companies still to be using the 2Dimensional format

to represent the CAD drawings and designs. Only 24% of the surveyed companies

are using 3Dimensional representation of the drawings. The notable result is that

none of the companies used 4Dimensional format of representation. The reason

could be the lack of awareness of its advantages and also the companies may be

comfortable with the existing CAD representation formats.

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Figure 10: Format of representation of CAD drawings

4.5 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application

The major areas where ICT is applied in a construction company are project

management, Estimating, Financial Management, Human Resource Management,

Electronic Data Management, Marketing and Designing.

Table 20: Different ICT applications

The important Information and Communication Technology (ICT) application

areas in the surveyed construction companies are Project Management, Financial

Management and Designing and all the surveyed companies indicated the use of

ICT in these three areas. The next important area is Marketing, with 44% of the

companies indicating the application followed by Data management with 40% of

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the companies. The other areas like Estimating (22%) and Human Resource

Management (10%) are found to have few companies using ICT tools.

The ICT application versus the annual turnover of the companies is represented in

a 3-D clustered column chart in figure 11.

Figure 11: The ICT applications versus annual turnover

As shown in the figure 11, all companies considered for the study have Project

Management, Financial management and Design as the ICT applications. In the

areas like HRM, only companies with a turnover greater than Rs 50 Crores have

the application ICT. 80% of the companies with turnover of Rs 15 to 50 Crores

have ICT application in the Data management. About 60% of the companies with

turnover less than Rs 50 Crores have ICT applied for the marketing of their

products and services.

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Figure 12: The ICT application on the basis of age of the companies.

The companies with 11-15 years of experience have more areas of ICT application

than the companies with 21 or more years of age. For the companies with 11-15

years of experience, 71% have ICT application in Estimating and 66% has

application in Marketing. Only 40% of the companies with 21 or more years of

age have ICT application in Estimating. Even though the companies with more

experience have more annual turnovers, the application of ICT is not affected

much by the age of the company. The younger companies might have adapted

themselves to the work environment and necessary technological applications, if

prior notice is given.

The companies were asked to rate the usefulness of various ICT applications

(Table 21). The mean rating is calculated on a scale of 1 to 5. The results revealed

that Project Management (4.7), Marketing (4.56), Data Management (4.44),

Financial management (4.4) and Designing (4.12) are the most useful application

areas of ICT according to the surveyed companies. The other applications like

HRM (3.98) and Estimating (3.74) is ranked last. This shows that the companies

are not observing great extent of ICT application in areas like HRM and

Estimating. The main reason could be the adaptation to the existing traditional

manual process in these areas.

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Table 21: Usefulness of ICT application

4.6 Management of ICT

Table 22: Means of ICT management

To the query on who manages the Information and Communication Technology

(ICT) infrastructure in the company, the result revealed that in 60% of the

companies, Executives with IT knowledge are managing the ICT infrastructure.

Only 9 out of 50 companies have a qualified IT manager for the job of managing

ICT infrastructure. Thus it is clear that these 9 companies have full- fledged ICT

application. 22% of the companies are outsourcing its ICT infrastructure

management duties. 60% of the companies are found to have assigned additional

task of managing ICT to their executives rather than appointing a Qualified IT

manager solely for the job. This indicates that the company chiefs perceive that

appointing an IT manager would be an additional expenditure and so they are

trying to avoid it by enabling one of its executives who have sound knowledge in

IT to do the job. The companies outsourcing the IT management to external

sources may be lacking the depth knowledge in the Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) tools and its applications.

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The management of ICT on the basis of turnover of the companies is represented

in a 3-D clustered column chart in the figure 13.

Figure 13: ICT management on the basis of annual turnover

The IT managers are appointed for the management of ICT infrastructure only in

the companies with turnover of over Rs 50 Crores. 63% of the companies with

turnover between Rs 15 Crores and 50 Crores are settling with their executives

with IT knowledge for the ICT management and the remaining 37% of the

companies are having qualified IT managers. All the companies with turnover less

than Rs 1 Crore are outsourcing the IT management. The lack of ICT application

and lack of proper technical knowledge of their employees persuade these

companies to outsource the task to other experts.

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Figure 14: ICT management on the basis of age of companies.

The number of Qualified IT managers managing the ICT infrastructure is very less

even with the companies which are well established. Only 14 % of the companies

aged 21 years or above have IT managers to manage the ICT infrastructure. The

result is better for companies having 11-15 years of age with 33% appointed IT

managers. 71% of the companies with 21 or more years of experience still rely on

the executives with IT knowledge for the ICT management, but the outsourcing of

the task is less with 14%. 66% of the companies with less than 5 years of

experience outsource the process of ICT management. The result shows that

nature of the activity and not age of the companies determines the ICT

application.

4.7 ICT Spending

Table 23: Proportion of annual turnover for ICT investment

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To the query on proportion of ICT spending by the companies, half of the

companies surveyed indicated the ICT spending in their companies is less than 2%

of the annual turnover. 30% of the companies spend 2-5% of the annual turnover

and 14% spend 6-10% of their turnover. Only 3 companies spend more than 10%

of the annual turnover for the ICT. The high cost and the fast changing

technologies may be the factors that prevent the construction companies from

extra spending on ICT.

80% of the companies confirmed that their ICT investment have increased in the

past two years and only 10 companies indicated a decrease in the ICT investment

in the past two years. When asked about the ICT investment in the future, all the

construction companies responded with a positive note that their ICT investment

will increase in the future.

3 out of 5 companies with annual turnover of more than 50 Crores spend more

than 10% of their annual turnover for ICT. All the companies with annual

turnover less than 1 Crore spend less than 2% of their turnover for the ICT. It is

clear that proportion of ICT investment increased with the increase in annual

turnover.

2 companies with more than 20 years of experience and 1 company with 11-15

years of experience have an ICT spending of more than 10% of annual turnover.

Those companies aged 5 years and less stated to spending less than 2 % of the

annual turnover on ICT. As the companies gain more experience the knowledge

on construction processes and ICT application also increases and it encourages the

company to spend more into ICT.

4.8 Cost reduction due to ICT application

Table 24: Proportion of Cost reduced due to ICT application

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To the query on the cost reduced as a result of the application of ICT in their

companies, 16% of the respondents indicated that they do not have any reduction

in the cost with application of ICT. 7 out of 8 respondents with no cost reduction

from ICT application have not used any of the ICT tools and applications like

website, intranet, extranet, quantity surveying and estimating, ERP etc. 40% of

them stated a cost reduction of about 0-2% and 24% have 2-5% of cost reduced.

Only 5 out of 50 companies have their cost reduced for more than 10%. The 2

companies who achieved cost reduction of more than 10% have used ERP in their

company. 5 out of 16 companies who used quantity survey software, 1 out of 3

who used GPS, 3 out of 5 who used GIS, 4 out of 9 who used Intranet and 2 out of

5 who used Extranet also realized a cost reduction of more than 10%. The

companies who do not use these applications responded with no cost reduction

due to ICT application. The companies who attained a cost reduction of 5-10% are

found to use GPS, GIS, Intranet, Extranet and Quantity Surveying Software in

their company. This shows that these high end ICT applications have a positive

impact on the performance of the companies using it.

4.9 Profitability

Table 25: Profitability of ICT application

The surveyed companies were asked to rate the profitability of the ICT application

in their companies.28% of the firms indicated that their ICT application will be

profitable within 12 to 24 months. Only 16% have confirmed that the ICT

application is profitable now. 2 out of 50 companies were found not to be

confident about the profitability and hence opine that it may never be profitable.

The 2 companies which mentioned ‘may be never profitable’ are the part of the 8

companies with no cost reduction. 18% of the surveyed companies said that the

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ICT application in their company will be profitable within 2 to 5 years. 5 out of 8

companies who stated to be Profitable now have achieved a cost reduction of

more than 10% by the ICT application. 15 out of 17 companies who perceive to

become Profitable in 12 months have realized the cost reduction 0-5%. 2 out of 5

companies who attained a cost reduction of 5-10% also observed to be profitable

in 12 months and 2 out of 5 companies who achieved a cost reduction of 5-10%

confirmed that they are profitable now. Thus the companies with more cost

reduction due to ICT application are more Profitable or ought to be Profitable than

the companies with less cost reduction due to ICT. ICT application enables the

companies to reduce its processing time and errors and improves the efficiency of

the company. Thus the companies will be able to reduce its costs.

4.10 Perceived Benefits of ICT Implementation

To the query on the importance of the benefits of Information & Communication

Technology (ICT) in the construction industry, a five point Likert scale has been

considered. (1=Not at all important, 2=unimportant, 3= neither Important nor

Unimportant, 4=Important, 5=Very important).

The most important benefits of the ICT implementation in construction companies

are “Better Communication” and “Time saved”. Both these benefits are ranked

high with high mean of 4.3 and 4.24 respectively. “Improvement in the quality of

work and service” is also another important benefit with mean of 4.22 and a lower

standard deviation. The low standard deviation shows that all the companies stick

to the importance of the benefits positively. “Fast Information access and sharing”

also have a high mean rating, but with a greater standard deviation. Thus for some

companies this benefit is not important and for others this benefit is very

important. So the benefit of “Attract new staffs” with a slighter less mean rating

than “Fast Information access and sharing” can be measured as more important

because of its lesser standard deviation, showing that all the companies together

rated this as important. The benefits are “Reduction in errors”, “Better Financial

control”, “Reduction in staffs” and “Increase in customer satisfaction”. Thus the

companies with higher ICT use rate the benefits as important and with lower ICT

use rate it as not important.

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Table 26: The perceived benefits of ICT adoption

The benefits on the basis of different turnover are presented in the figure 15 in a

clustered column chart. For the benefits with high mean rate such as “Better

Communication”, Time saved” and “Improvement in quality of work & service”

all the companies from all turnover groups responded evenly and the minimum

mean rate is 4. The figure clearly shows that the companies with annual turnover

of greater than Rs 50 Crores rated all the benefits as important. For the benefit

“Increase in customer Satisfaction” the average response of companies with

annual turnover of Rs 1 to 5 Crores is very less.

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Figure 15: The benefits versus annual turnover

4.11 Perceived Barriers to ICT Implementation

Table 27: The barriers to the ICT implementation

The major barriers to the ICT implementation in the construction companies as

perceived by the respondents are collected on a 5 point Likert scale. (1=Not at all

important, 2=unimportant, 3= neither Important nor Unimportant, 4=Important,

5=Very important). These are the barriers that restrain the construction companies

from large ICT investment.

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The barriers are ranked on the basis of its mean. The barrier which is ranked high

with higher mean rate is “Difficulty in integration”. The next barrier ranked next

to it is “High Investment”. Most of the companies find the process of integration

of business activities using Information and Communication technology as

difficult. The concern about its huge investment is also an important barrier for the

adoption of ICT. The other important barriers are “Lack of Flexibility” and “Need

of continuous up gradation” with high mean rate and a high standard deviation.

Thus different companies have different responses. For the barriers, “Lack of

expertise” and “High technical risks” have same mean rate, but “High Technical

risks” has very low standard deviation of 0.198. Hence all the companies together

rate this barrier as the important one. Congestion with lot of information is not an

important barrier compared to others. But some companies are worried about the

reduced security. The important result to be noted is that none of the companies

have rated these barriers with negative extreme point in the Liker scale. This

indicates that these barriers are the major reason for the companies’ poor

implementation of ICT in the construction companies.

Figure 16: The perceived barriers versus annual turnover

The response of the companies to the barriers on the basis of annual turnover is

presented in a clustered column graph in figure 16. The companies with annual

turnover less than Rs 1 Crore rated “Difficulty in Integration”, High investment

and Lack of flexibility as very important barriers and all these barriers have

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maximum mean rate. For the companies with turnover greater than Rs 50 Crores,

High Investment and Lack of expertise are the important barriers. The companies

with turnover of Rs 5 to 15 Crores, which covers major part in the surveyed

sample, rated all the barriers as important with an average mean rate of above 4.

When the companies get larger turnover and hence more investment in ICT, the

perception on the barriers becomes less important. But with lesser turnover

companies, concerns of these barriers increases, as they need more investment to

overcome these barriers.

Chapter 5

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Findings, Conclusions & Recommendations

This chapter reviews the findings and logically summarizes this study and its

findings. The conclusions were given from the study by analyzing the various

results and issues. The researcher also gives some recommendations for the better

adoption of Information and Communication Technology in Construction

companies.

5.1 Findings

The respondents to the survey were having diverse work experiences. The

minimum work experience of the respondents was 3 years. Majority of them were

having an experience of 6 to 10 years. All the companies were into existence for

more than 10 years. The minimum number of employees in the surveyed

companies was 14 and 25 companies have 30 to 60 employees. More than 60% of

the companies were having their annual turnover less than 15 Crores.

The study reveals that:

38% of the companies have less than 5 computers. Only 9 out of 50

companies were found to be using more than 16 computers in their

company. The common type of computers used was desktop computers

and 70% of the companies are having laptop. 34% of the companies used

Hand held computers and Architects and Engineers are the major users.

6 out of 15 companies and 3 out of 4 companies which execute the project

as Architects and Project managers have 16 or more computers in their

office. More computers are used in Architect and Project manager

companies, since their work is done in office. Companies with high

turnover are capable of investing more to buy computers.

Windows XP is still the popular brand of Operating System with all

companies using it. Only 20% of the companies are using the new

operating system, Windows 7. Lack of technical knowledge prevents the

companies from using Linux.

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All the companies have internet access in their office. The easy availability

and low cost has made the internet connections so common. About 68% of

companies were using Broad Band connection to access internet. Only 6 %

of the companies are using the old and secured form of connection like

ISDN.

56% of the companies confirmed that only less than 20% of their staffs

have access to internet in their companies. Only 4% of the companies were

having more than 40% staff access to the internet. The internet access is

more to staffs like IT administrator, Marketing Executives, Human

Resource staff than Architects and Engineers.

62% of the companies have their own websites in the World Wide Web.

None of the companies with annual turnover less than 5 Crores have their

own websites. All the companies with turnover greater than 15 Crores

have their own website. 14 out of 21 companies aged more than 20 years

have website. With experience, the companies attain more assignments

and so the websites have to be updated regularly for the promotion. The

major purposes of websites were for giving “Project Details” to the

customers and to publish the “Company Information”. The other important

purpose is to collect Customer Feedback.

The Local Area Network was used by 50% of the companies. Only 18% of

the companies were using Intranet and 10% with Intranet. When the

number of employees was 151 and above, the usage of LAN, WLAN,

Intranet and Extranet are very high.

All the companies were using word processing software, spreadsheet

software and PDF reader. More than 90% of the companies used database

software for keeping data of customers, suppliers and other external

agencies.

58% of the companies were using the physical exchange of CDs, DVDs,

and hard copies for the communication between office and project site. All

the companies with turnover greater than 50 Crores and companies with

turnover of 15 to 50 Crores were using physical exchange of data and also

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Internet and Intranet for the communication. Age of the companies does

not have much influence in the methods of communication between office

and project site.

No companies stated to be using RFID technology for inventory tracking.

Even though mobile phones are so common, only 30% of the companies

are accessing internet through mobiles.

All the companies avail the Email service. 70% of the companies use

Email to exchange document within the company and all companies were

using it to send Informal messages. Only 10% of the companies used this

service for purchasing.

Accounting software packages are being used by all the companies. 32%

of the companies used Quantity and Estimating software. Only 2 out of 50

companies stated to be using ERP software in their company and 8% of

the companies have CRM software. The average age of 2 companies using

ERP is 20 years. All the companies with turnover greater than 50 Crores

use Quantity Surveying and Estimating software and GIS devices.

84% of the companies use AutoCAD for design and drawing tasks. All the

companies with less than 1 Crore turnover and greater than 50 Crores are

using AutoCAD. 80% of the companies with annual turnover of 15 to 50

Crores use ArchiCAD. 13 companies who execute the project as

Architects used AutoCAD. 76% of the companies were using 2D method

for the presentation of the drawings and none of them used 4D

representation. The companies may be comfortable with the existing CAD

representation formats.

All the companies with turnover greater than 50 Crores were having a

qualified IT manager to manage the ICT infrastructure. In all the

companies with turnover less than 1 Crores, the IT management is

outsourced. 60% of the companies were using their executives with IT

knowledge for the ICT management.

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Only 6% of the companies are spending more than 10% of their annual

turnover for the ICT investment.50% of the companies are spending only

2% of their annual turnover for ICT infrastructure.

All the companies mentioned Project Management, Financial Management

and Designing as the main areas of ICT application. Only 10% of the

companies use ICT for Human Resource Management. All the companies

with turnover greater than 50 Crore have ICT application in all the

discussed areas. None of the companies with turnover less than 5 Crores

have ICT application in Estimating, Marketing, HRM and Data

Management. The respondents rated Project management (4.7), Marketing

(4.56), Data Management (4.44) and Financial management (4.4) as the

useful ICT applications.

10% of the companies realized a cost reduction of more than 10% due to

ICT application and 50% of the company reveals that they achieved a cost

reduction of less than 2%. 3 out of 5 companies who confirmed a cost

reduction of more than 10% has annual turnover of more than 50 Crores.

16 out of 19 companies who expect to become Profitable in 12 months has

realized the cost reduction of 0-5%. 3 out of 5 companies who attained a

cost reduction of 5-10% also observed to be profitable in 12 months and 2

out of 5 companies who achieved a cost reduction of 5-10% confirmed that

they are profitable now.

In a scale of 1 to 5, “Better Communication” (4.3), “Time Saved” (4.24)

and “Improvement in quality of work and service” (4.22) were rated as the

important benefits of ICT implementation in construction companies. The

rating of “Increase in customer satisfaction” (3.58) is much lower. All the

companies with annual turnover greater than 50 Crores rated all the

benefits as important (4.24).

Difficulty in integration (4.24) and High Investment (4.22) are rated as

important barriers to the ICT implementation on a scale of 1 to 5.

Congestion due to lot of information (3.66) was rated as a less important

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barrier. The companies with turnover less than 1 Crore rated all the

barriers as important (4.6).

5.2 Conclusions

The construction industry in India is a booming industry and an average annual

growth rate of 26% is expected till 2014. This study analyzes the assessment of

ICT adoption in the construction companies in Kochi. The primary data was

collected through a questionnaire from 50 companies.

The study reveals that the level of ICT application in the construction companies

in Kochi is very low. The annual turnover of the company is the major deciding

factor of ICT application in construction companies. Construction industry being a

labor intensive industry, the companies is relying on their employees than on the

technology. This reduces the level of ICT investment in the construction

companies. The most encouraging result from the study is that all the companies

are having at least 2 computers with internet facility. But the utilization of the

facility is lower because of the lack of awareness level of the advantages of the

technology. The usage of most specific technologies like Quantity Surveying and

Estimating, Global Information Systems for the construction industry by the

companies in Kochi was very negative. This was contrary to the expectations of

the researcher, because of Kochi being an IT hub in the country, the technology

usage may be more. The most shocking result is the usage of ERP, as the

companies with higher annual turnovers were also not using it to full level. Only a

few companies confirmed a better cost reduction due to ICT. The positive and

encouraging result was viewed on the opinions of the companies on the benefits of

ICT adoption in construction companies. The companies agreed that ICT enables

better communication, better time saving and improvement in the quality of work.

But still the investment in the ICT is less. The concern over cost, reliability and

need for technical knowledge are the main reasons that prevent the companies

from more investment. The researcher expects that a similar type of survey in

Construction companies in Kochi after five years will provide more positive and

encouraging result.

5.3 Recommendations

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The following recommendations are proposed on the basis of this study:

The attitude toward ICT has to be changed. Training programs on the

latest developments in the Information and Communication Technology is

necessary for all employees involved in designing and executing projects.

The construction companies can implement the technologies on a trial

basis and many firms are providing this service free of cost. They need to

buy only if they are satisfied.

An active functional website should be possessed by the organizations for

the online interaction with in the company and with external agencies. The

website should have features like online buying and selling, customer

interface, supplier interface etc.

Each organization needs an Intranet network for the communication

between office and project site. A centralized data base of all information

should be maintained.

The ICT managing task should be done by the company itself and for that

a qualified IT manager is need to be appointed. They can seek the advice

from IT consultants and experts for the proper implementation of

technology in the company.

The top management should assess the benefits of ICT application in other

construction companies. They should bring a more strategic vision on ICT

into their companies. They should be aware that the adoption of ICT will

not bring the benefits in one day and it needs time.

The senior officials must update themselves with the recent developments

in the ICT tools for construction industry by attending seminars on

technological developments, innovative ideas etc. The management should

encourage participation of officials in such seminars or conferences.

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