Understanding on the key words in this paper is important in order to develop a better vision at the end. Innovation is defined as a change in the thought process for doing something, or the useful application of new inventions or discoveries. It may refer to incremental emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations (Wikipedia, 2010). Meanwhile, management is defined by Wikipedia (2010) as the acts of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives efficiently and effectively. It comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources. Finally, Information Technology (IT) is defined as “the use of electronic machines and programs for the processing, storage, transfer and presentation of information” (Bjork, 1999).
Based on the three definitions, what can be concluded in order to understand the objective of this coursework is the vision of adopting innovation, which also known as changes in the planning, organizing, and controlling (management) of the information within the construction industry including contractor, client, consultant and construction related company.
The innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) in current situation have resulting in many advantages. As written by Rivard (2000), the purpose of Information Technology (IT) is to facilitate the exchange and management of information and has a lot of potentials for the information process component of the construction industry. He also suggested the two most important areas of future research are the implementation of computer-integrated design and construction as well as the development of new tools to support concurrent design and to assist designers in the conceptual stages.
Current condition, in my point of view which is referring to the small and medium construction company in Malaysia, is the utilization of Information Technology (IT) is minimal comparing with the bigger company. This is due to cost at the beginning in adopting innovation and management in Information Technology (IT), knowledge and exposure towards such useful tools. This is some of the barrier for middle and small construction company to adopt such technology. This is also agreed by Rivard, (2000), saying that the adopting a new technology always involves significant investments.
Nevertheless, most of the small and medium construction company in Malaysia over look on the wide range of benefits that they may get from the adoption of innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) in their company. As listed down by Rivard, (2000) the advent of Information Technology (IT) has been both beneficial and detrimental. Based on his research conducted on the year 2000 in Canada on “The impact of information technology on the Canadian architecture, engineering and construction industry” it is found that, Information Technology (IT) has raised productivity in most business processes and particularly in general administration, design and project management. The main benefits achieved by the use of Information Technology (IT) is an increase in the quality of documents, an increase in the speed of work, a better financial control, better communications, simpler and faster access to common data as well as a decrease in the number of mistakes in documentation.
Conversely, the benefits of Information Technology (IT) come at a cost since the complexity of work, the administrative needs, the proportion of new operations and the costs of doing business have all increased. Furthermore, the continual demand for upgrading hardware and software, the high investment costs and the greater know-how required from the staff are perceived as important obstacles to a greater use of Information Technology (IT).
A hope in the nearest time is meant to be for small and medium class Construction Company where they will notice the wide range of benefits that they may get from the adoption of innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) in their company. It cost a lot at the beginning but innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) really helps them in increasing their competitive advantages value by increasing the competencies with other company, lead in achieving operation effectiveness by promoting time saving, fast Information delivery, higher accuracy such as in calculation, estimation and drawing preparation, large data storage by introducing digital and paperless data storage and promoting efficient working space. Other than that, it also give advantages on certain area in cost and money saving by reducing human resources input such as in delivery and information sharing and reduce space allocation especially in Project Filing System and Fast Data Sharing.
To conclude, innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) have successfully being implemented in developed construction company and construction industry, nonetheless, exposure towards small and medium company is still lacking. In order to help them to gain benefits in the adoption of Information Technology (IT) in their company, education and knowledge should be shared by player in the industry in order to help them to taste the benefits that they may obtain.
Information Technology (IT) service provider also may take a role by providing low cost services in order to help them to take a right step to manage their information effectively. By support from players within and out of the industry, both will get wider benefits in the future. A positive competitive environment will be build, more profit will me make as well as effectiveness in operating the business in the construction industry. This is the vision of me towards the innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) in the construction Industry.
Prepared By:
Noor Sahidah Binti Samsudin
2009310803
M.Sc in Integrated Construction Project Management
References:
H. Rivard, (2000), “A survey on the impact of information technology on the Canadian architecture, engineering and construction industry” ITcon Vol. 5 pg. 37 – 56, Concordia University, Canada
Bjork B.-C. (1999). Information Technology in construction: domain definition and research issues, International Journal of Computer Integrated Design and Construction, SETO, London, May 1999, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 3-16.
www.wikipedia.com
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