A strategic approach to the implementation of information technologies in small and medium-sized architecture, engineering and construction enterprises

It is widely recognised that collaboration in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector increases productivity, improves quality, competitiveness and profitability. This poses the problem of what are the most appropriate collaboration methods available to accommodate unique work settings and virtual organisation like modus operandi. With Building Information Modelling (BIM) being imposed by the government on AEC projects by 2016, the development of new technology for collaboration purposes is one solution to this problem. Unfortunately information technologies have failed in productivity growth despite previous government's attempts, most famously, with the 2004 Latham and 2008 Egan reports. In fact, companies frequently fail in achieving the full profitability from their implementations. However, the government sees BIM as a way to drive efficiency during the economic downturn. BIM is not about a specific technology, but ensuring the whole-sector adoption is fundamental. Many high-profile clients and contractors are reviewing what are the technologies utilised and how efficient are they for collaborative working between large companies and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)? In fact, many SMEs within the sector would like to be implementing BIM not only for the business productivity, but also to not get left behind. It is, however, commonly observed that SMEs have fewer chances to set it right and so thev need uuidance. Debate over whether or not to use CO - CT BIM has become almost irrelevant. Instead, the question raised is how collaborative technologies promote collaborative working between large companies and SMEs in the AEC sector to increase productivity and improve quality to meet the high collaboration demands? Against this background, several approaches from the literature were reviewed. This led to identifying the key elements to focus on during the collaborative technologies implementation to enhance successful collaboration. A qualitative study of fourteen cases was developed in order to map the current practice of the collaborative technologies implementations and their success level in the AEC sector. The case studies revealed a number of factors affecting the success of collaborative technologies implementations. These factors were affecting the collaboration at the organisation level. This also led to further investigation of the factors affecting the collaboration at the end-user level. The quantitative study of a survey returned by sixty four respondents was guided by the list of elements proposed by the review developed from the literature. The results suggested that the success of collaborative technologies depends on 23 variables. To assess the level of importance of the explored variables, a study of factor analysis was initiated. This allowed the large number of variables to be distilled into a small number of related factors. There appear to be five major groupings of factors. The first grouping contains seven Individual variables. Second in importance is the grouping of five Organisational variables. The third grouping consists of three Legal variables. The fourth grouping includes three Socio-cultural variables. The fifth grouping is formed of four Project variables. This research concluded that, collaborative technologies are effective methods to support collaboration within the AEC and meet the demands of the sector, when strategically implemented, underlined by a set of factors, which are interpreted to describe the data derived from the qualitative and quantitative approaches, in a parsimonious but more meaningful number of concepts than the originally developed variables. Recommendation emerged from these findings are used to suggest a path for SMEs to implement BIM into AEC. so that they are better prepared for the future ways of working.