“VISION ABOUT THE INNOVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF IT IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY”

SITI SYARIAZULFA BT KAMARUDDIN

2009991899

ICP873 INTERGRATED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

“VISION ABOUT THE INNOVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF IT IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY”

The success of the construction industry is increased predicated on technology driven investments in information technology (IT) and this is expected to be more familiar so in the future. Governments all around the world have embraced information, communication and technology (ICT), specifically the Internet, as a means to streamline public sector processes, while providing citizens with easy access to government services as well as making their operations more efficient and transparent. These increased information flows between the public and private sector help to establish an environment of trust and reliability between citizens and elected officials in many parts of the world. Through world wide use of information technology, the government expects to create an efficient administration by providing better and faster service to the people, thus bringing a distinctive change from traditional practice. Generally, Information Technology (IT) plays an important role in the sustained growth of a business. IT is defined broadly as “technologies dedicated to information storage, processing, and communications” by Ang (1997), that is, a combination of hardware, software, telecommunications and office equipment to transform raw data into useful information.

Nowday e-tendering are one of IT innovation in Malaysia construction industry. It is project that Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) collaborated with JKR on e-tendering for government project. This is government effort to develop tender process by using internet and web as medium intermediate. Government is being optimized use of information technology (IT) to improve efficiency and effectiveness in tender process. Government expected when the system is place it will improve communication among all parties involved and it will enhance productivity for us and tenderer since the government can cut the cost and time could reduced during analysis on tenders made with the existence of centralized data base and last but not lease it will give more efficient, reliable, and secured service through structured and coordinated method.

This is traditional process of tendering starts when the owner of the tender published the notification of tender through print media such as newspapers within a period of time. Then the contractor will respond to the tender advertisement by purchasing the documentation filling the requirements and submitting before the closing date.

In contrast, electronic tendering (e-tendering) has evolved over the past decade from a dial up modem-to-modem computer access to a more elaborate Internet based tendering system. In today’s terms, electronic tendering may be defined on a broad spectrum from a simple Internet based system that displays only a brief description of the commodity being procured to a more sophisticated Internet system that provides contractors with the ability to download and pay for complete tender documents (specifications included) in electronic form, all without any paper being produced-paperless and benefit to lower the cost to the organizations. Among the e-tendering system features is the pricing module, which is used by the renderer and sub-contractors to receive and price electronic bill of quantities (BQs) being produced.

The tendering process in the construction sector is characterized by the involvement of large number of actors, and requires a substantial investment of time and effort often with a limited success ration. The contracting authority prepares tender documents, evaluates bids and assigns the contract to the winner of the tender. This role is also performed by any other actor who wishes to purchase services pr products for the implementation of their work within a project. Managing the tendering process in an electronic manner consists of supporting electronically, partially or in total, the execution of the activities. From the contracting authority points of view, it is important to develop a module providing the ability to upload tender notices and tender documents, making them directly available to interested parties and eliminating lead times.

As a part of government’s initiative to enhance and simplify tender management, Ministry of Works has taken bold step in implementing Electronic Tender Management Syterm using NeTi for its projects. It involves 2 alternatives; online tender and application through CD ROM. As at March 2009 a total of 3 projects were tendered on line while more than 500 projects have used CD ROM as part of tender documents. As part of its effort to improve its delivery process, PWD will further utilize NeTI for future projects.

They have a lot of benefit of using e-tendering in construction industry are it will reduce tender cycle time it also fast and accurate pre-qualification and evaluation which is e-tendering are enables the automatic rejection of suppliers that fail to meet the tender specification, therefore using e-tendering can get faster response to questions and points of clarification during the tender period, it can reduce in the labour intensive tasks of receipt, recording and distribution of tender submissions, e-tendering also will reduce of the paper trail on tendering exercises, reducing costs to both councils and suppliers, another benefit of e-tendering it will improved audit trail increasing integrity and transparency of the tendering process, using e-tendering can improved quality of tender specification and supplier response.

Use of IT is prevalent at lower level however top management of construction organizations should have strong commitment to develop strategic management of IT in their business processes at all level. The hardware, software and their applications should be utilized to enhance both core and supporting activities to gain competitive advantage in today highly global business environment. The firm’s management should give greater attention to IT support and training, by making sure that there is sufficient trained staff for the implementation of IT, and making greater effort in training staff on the correct and efficient use of IT in the organization. I fill that government and public agencies should consider policies that encourage the use of IT in the construction industry thus making this industry sector more competitive, and encourage industry to make greater use of information system.

From this my vision toward the innovation and management of IT in the construction industry is government and all user of IT should use IT in widely. If new ICTs and applications are to take hold in the construction industry, there must be a sufficient number of people skilled to use them. The electronic tender management system will further improve delivery system apart from ensuring transparent tender procurement process. It will also boast utilization of ICT in the construction industry. It is therefore vital to make new technologies more widely accessible by providing appropriate training to potential users, especially SMEs. E-learning programmes comprising training on ICT use and vocational training should assist in raising the skills level within the sector.