WEB-BASED PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS IN

CONSTRUCTION
Muhamad Abduh1 and Biemo W. Soemardi1
1

Department of Civil Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung,

Bandung 40132, INDONESIA

ABSTRACT
Despite an explosive growth in virtually all areas of industry and commerce, the Web technologies
have only begun to make inroads into the construction industry practice. Although information
exchange protocols in construction firms and on construction project sites make it difficult to take
advantage of most ready-made solutions applicable in other industries, there is a significant potential
of large benefits from the correctly developed and applied Web-based solutions for construction firms
and construction project site offices. Construction industry can take advantage of the Web technologies
to support relevant information services, communication between project participants, engineering and
management computing. Variety of options available to construction companies to enter the Internet
era and research in academia on exploring the use of Internet technology for construction processes
and related commercial products are described. Two efforts by the authors are discussed as examples
of exploration by academia in Indonesia to show significant potential of Internet technology for
supporting construction activities, especially in managing construction projects. This discussion
explored the utilization of Web technology for providing media for construction procurement process,
as well as multimedia for project planning and control system.

KEYWORDS
Internet, procurement, project control, project management, web-based applications

INTRODUCTION
The construction industry faces many challenged in the beginning of the 21st century, as the forces to
change and to incorporate new advanced technologies into the construction process increase to gain a
new competitive edge in the market. One strategy that has been used in the construction industry for
many years is to adopt and tailor new technology that originated in other industries into relevant
construction processes, where immediate benefits can be realized. One significant area is information
technology (IT).

In the mean time, the construction industry suffers from fragmentation, for the many different types of
businesses comprising typical construction project. In a large project, the project organization is
complex and has many phases. A project team consists of many parties with different professional and
technical disciplines, expertise, resources and business interests. The project life cycle is divided into
separate phases, i.e., feasibility study, design, procurement, construction, operation, maintenance, and
eventual retrofit or demolition. This management environment is widely believed to be a significant
impediment to successful implementation of IT. Problems of implementation of IT in construction are
in essence organization and technology integration problems, involving the exchange of information
and knowledge among different parties to a project. Pudicombe (1997) suggested ways to achieve
organizational integration by the use of contractual and social/psychological approaches, and to
achieve technological integration by the use of integrated computer technology. Regardless of the
approaches used in accommodating integration in construction, based on prior experience,
communication technology for transferring information plays an important role (Miyatake and Kangari
1993, Anumba 1997).
This paper presents the state of the art in communication tools for the construction industry aimed at
achieving technological and organizational integration. Internet technology shows significant potential
for achieving these purposes, particularly through universal and ever-evolving Web technologies.
Construction industry can take advantage of the Web technologies to support relevant information
services, communication between project participants, engineering and management computing.
Variety of options available to construction companies to enter the Internet era also described.
Research in academia on exploring the use of Internet technology for construction processes and
related commercial products are described. Two efforts by the authors are discussed as examples of
exploration by academia in Indonesia to sho w significant potential of Internet technology for
supporting construction activities, especially in managing construction projects.

THE EVOLVING INTERNET-BASED TECHNOLOGIES

There are information technologies that have potential for use in all integration aspects in construction.
One such area is the Internet-based technologies, which include the Internet, intranet, and extranet
technologies. The Internet was originally developed to serve the U.S Defense Department in an effort
associated with ARPAnet, an experimental network, to provide networks that could withstand partial
outages and still function. In August 1981 there were only 213 Internet hosts in the entire world. In
1994, the Internet consisted of over 20,000 networks that connect over 2.2 million computers and was
used by 20 million people around the world. In 1997, it already consisted of more than 16 million
computers. In January 1999 the number has grown to over 43 million (Zakon 2000).
The major part of this Internet growth should be credited to the Transmission Control Protocol and
Internet Protocol, called TCP/IP - the technology that makes communication between different
computers possible due to its open specification. The term TCP/IP is currently not limited to TCP and
IP protocols only, but it can also refer to a group of other protocols, such as the User Datagram
Protocol (UDP), that are associated with TCP/IP.
When an organization implements the TCP/IP protocol for its computer network with a restricted
access, the network is called an Intranet. The application services used on Intranets are either the same
as those used on the Internet or are modified versions of the Internet application programs. The
Intranets are secure compared to the Internet as they are protected from outside parties by the so-called
firewalls. Firewall is a generic term for hardware and/or software components that share the same goal
of protecting the Intranet from external intrusions, while allowing Internet access from within the
Intranet. The need for communication with parties outside of the organization created the Extranet, as

Jan-99

Jan-97

Jan-95

Jan-93

Jan-91

Jan-89

Jan-87

Jan-85

Jan-83

50,000,000
45,000,000
40,000,000
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5,000,000
0
Jan-81

No. of Hosts

part of the Intranet, to provide access to external individuals and businesses and ability by the business
organization to communicate with its partners in a secure way.

Figure 1. Internet Growth (Zakon 2000)

THE WORLD WIDE WEB

Among the Internet-based services, the World Wide Web (WWW) access, referred to simply as the
Web, has been the prime driver of the exponential growth of Internet. The Web is comprised of many
so-called web servers. The web servers store documents that contain such information as text,
graphics, sound, and video organized into so called web pages. Each web page contains instructions
called hyperlinks that link the web documents. The hyperlinks can point to documents on the same
server, or on a different server on the Internet-based. The web client is called the web browser, which
run on users' computer. The document is encoded by using a special language called HyperText
Markup Language (HTML). The browser displays the HTML documents graphically.
The web client commands and the HTML documents that are sent in response to the web client
commands are transmitted by using special protocol called Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
When a client request an HTML document, a TCP connection is established between the client and the
server. The client determines which document that is looked for by specifying its Uniform Resource
Locator (URL). The server responds to the request by sending a HTTP response that includes several
data attributes, such as header, status, and the data itself. One important information contained in the
header is the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) type, which is a method of encoding
data. With this information on the MIME type, the browser can render the documents as intended,
either in the form of a plain text or a multimedia document.
Today, the Web is not only used to display text and to provide hyperlinks to retrieve the text. It also
becomes a dynamic client/server system and a universal medium that can handle several
communication protocols that had to be handled previously by several dedicated systems. Web
browsers are playing important roles in providing dynamic and universal client programs with their
extended capabilities, such as MIME helper applications, client-side scripting technologies (i.e.,
JavaScript, JScript and VBScript), Formatting technologies (i.e., Cascade Style Sheet and Dynamic
HTML), Plug-in interfaces, Java Applets, and Extensible Markup Language (XML).
On the server-side, scripting technologies have evolved to extend the use of the basic HTTP server as a
dynamic server. These innovations allow the Web server to communicate with other applications

available in the server, such as databases, graphics, word processors, and file systems. Some of the
popular technologies that can be categorized into this server-side scripting are Common Gateway
Interface (CGI), Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP and Java Server APIs.

Dec-98

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5,000,000
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1,000,000
500,000
0

Jun-93

Web server

The Web also experiences a rapid growth in the number of servers and the number of users. The
growth of Web server can be seen in Figure 3. According to International Data Corporation (IDC),
the world's leading provider of information technology data, industry analysis and strategic and tactical
guidance to builders, providers and users of information technology, there were 35 million Web users
in 1996 and over 130 million in 1999 (Zakon 2000).

Figure 2. WWW Server Growth (Zakon 2000)

THE ADOPTION OF INTERNET-BASED TECHNOLOGIES

Despite an explosive growth of the Internet usage in the last five years in many areas of business and
commerce, the construction industry has not kept pace to the same degree. The result from Forrester
Research indicates that the construction industry can be categorized with the laggards in adopting
electronic commerce using Internet technologies. Adopting new and emerging Internet-based
technologies and linking them with legacy systems is not easy, but most orga nizations that have not
kept pace find it even more difficult to make the intellectual and cultural shifts necessary to succeed in
a much more interactive business environment (Economist 1999).
However, at the same time, many large construction firms have entered the Internet age. The basic
Internet services such as electronic mail, remote login, file transfer, network news, and the Web have
become familiar tools for some construction managers, and many project web sites are utilized as a
portal to facilitate collaboration between parties in a project.
A survey conducted by Abduh and Skibniewski (2000) shows that more than 80% of the respondents,
which are construction firms in U.S. that specialize in Design- Build (D/B) projects, have provided
Internet access to their employees for at least two years, and the employees are already aware of the
Internet-based services such as E-mail, Web, FTP, Telnet, Newsgroup, List Servers, Gopher, Video
Conferencing, etc. Another survey by Smith and Wiezel (2000) concluded that the Internet
technologies have been widely used by visionary contractors who pursue changes in technology and
even by pragmatic contractors who typically wait until a product is established as an industry standard.
It was also found that most of the construction firms who used the Internet did so for advertising and
business research, but not yet for e-commerce (Seneviratne and Schexnayder 1999).

USE OF THE WEB IN CONSTRUCTION

The construction industry can benefit from the Web technologies to support the following business
functions:
Information Services. Originally designed to present information in text and to provide
hypertext links, the Web can support the content and distribution of the information in the form
of web pages. Many construction companies use the Web as one of the effective and efficient
advertising tools. The information advertised in a company web page typically includes the
company profile, services or products, recent projects, job vacancies and public feedback
forum. Intranets are also used to provide information presented for the benefit of the employees,
such as the company policy, employees' directory, newsletters, and manuals. Extranets can be
used to present information regarding an ongoing project to the business partners, such as
project description, contract documentation, project documents, and project directory.
Communications . The Web can support a wide range of communication tools for the
construction industry since it can handle effectively almost all communication protocols
provided in a computer network under TCP/IP. The communication conducted with the use of
Web technology can either be synchronous or asynchronous depending upon the urgency and
nature of the interaction needed by the users. The use of electronic mail as an asynchronous
mode of communication can be supported by the Web technology for Request for Information
(RFI) between parties involved in the project, without a need for an e-mail client program. The
Web has also been used to support the Internet Relay Chatting (IRC) program that allows a
seamless discussion between two or more parties involved in a particular session, e.g., when the
contractor and the engineer need to discuss a solution to an urgent problem encountered on the
job site. HTML can also be used for simple communication such as the use of forms, e.g. to
send work progress information from the field, which can then be used for the preparation of
progress reports.
Computing. By the advance of scripting technologies on both the client-side and the serverside as well as through the availability of plug- in modules, the Web can be used also for
engineering and management computing purpose. The Web as an interface to a database
application has been used for several years in a number of construction firms for project
scheduling, resource management and project cost control.

INTERNET-BASED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The convergence of information services, communication, and computing functionality in the Web
technologies allows practitioners in construction to perform Web-based project management over the
Internet. More than 100 software developers have developed web-based project management software
and services for the construction industry (Extranet World 2000). A number of construction companies
all over the world adopted this technology either because they realized its competitive advantages or
they were being forced to adopt it by their clients. To be competitive and profitable in the 21 st century,
more construction companies should try to embrace the Internet-based technologies. When a
construction company commits to adopt a Web-based project management system, there are two
possible strategies that the company can choose in developing the system: in- house development or
outsourcing this activity to a professional consultant.
Regarding the first option, construction firms that decide on in- house development should keep in
mind the substantial financial, technical, and human resources necessary to develop and maintain the
system. The company can host a Web server internally and customize its functionality to fulfill the
corporate needs and those of the project operations. Also commercially available Web-enabled project
management software can be customized into proprietary systems. Examples of this software include
Microsoft Project 98, Primavera Sure Track Project Manager with its Webster for Primavera,

Prolog Manager and Prolog WebSite from Meridian Project Systems , AEC Connect ,
WebProject, and TeamFlow from CFM, Inc.
On the other hand, the second option to outsource is useful for companies with limited resources to
develop their own Web-based project management systems, and there are a variety of opportunities in
outsourcing. Consultants may be hired to build a web site to fulfill the company's Internet advertising
needs, solicit job applications, or conduct comprehensive project management over the Internet. Many
Internet-based information services for the construction industry provide a capability to build one's
own free limited web page residing on the provider's server, e.g. with ConstructionNet and Bricsnet.
Web-based project management services such as Constructw@re, Project Center from Bricsnet,
Active Project from Framework Technologies, ProjectNet from Cephren, and e-Builder from
MP Interactive have established Extranet project services, which offer additional utility through
maintaining and upgrading the originally developed system. Schulz (1999) provides a matrix of
extranet project services that can help a construction firm determine the optimal service for its needs.
The matrix is built based on the relevant technical criteria in selecting the service, such as price,
database engine employed, file conversion options, available plug- ins, document tracking, and
messaging.
As mentioned earlier, an increasing number of clients of construction services encourage or even force
construction companies to adopt web-based project management technologies. While doing this, the
clients themselves also develop Intranets and Extranets for their projects. All participants of the project
may be required to have minimal capability in dealing with the client's Internet-based tools, such as
Internet access and E- mail. As a result, some construction companies attempts to move perma nently to
the Web-based project management, and some only temporarily fulfill the client's requirement by
participating on the client's Extranets (Doherty 1999). Although this trend appears to be beneficial in
helping construction companies move forward to the Internet-based tools, it creates some problems.
First, not all project teams have E- mail or Internet access, and this can force those teams out of the
information loop. Second, Internet connections may be relatively slow and are susceptible to
breakdown.

MAIN FEATURES OF INTERNET-BASED APPLICATIONS

Internet-based application for construction can be categorized into three categories as follows:
1. Information Services for Construction. The applications in this category provide a library
and a marketplace to the construction industry. The main features of this application
include advertisement of products, e-Commerce, discussion forum, job opportunities, bids,
and a gateway to a Web-based project management service.
2. Web-based Project Management. This type of application provides a full Web-based
interface for managing project information and communications. The main features include
document management, work flows, schedule or calendaring, cost control, messaging
between project participants, video or audio conferencing, discussion forum, directory of
project participants, revision control, and project camera.
3. Web-enabled Project Management Software . In this type of application, the application
uses Web technologies to provide an access to well-known commercial project
management software for retrieving and updating project data. The main features here
include Web publishing, status updating, data and document management, reports, and Email notification.
Tables 1 to 3 depict main features provided by selected Internet-based applications in each category.
Applications listed in these tables were selected as examples only and the contents of the tables do not
reflect the current status of each application.

BricsNet
ProjectCenter Yes Yes Yes Yes
Builder SupplyNet
Yes Yes Yes Yes
ConstructionNet
Yes - Yes Yes
eBricks.com
ProjectNet Yes - Yes Yes Yes
PrimeContract.com AEC Connect Yes - Yes Yes Yes

E-mail Service

Job Opportunities

File Transfer

Search

Advertisement

Bids

e-Commerce

Discussions

Products

Products
Information

Gateway to PM

Table 1 Main Features of Selected Information Services for Construction

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes - Yes

Yes -

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Data
Management

Document
Management

Yes
Yes
Yes

E- mail based
Web based
Web based

Yes
Yes

Yes Yes
Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes

Email
Notification

Status
Updating

Microsoft Project 98
P3 and SureTrack
Prolog Manager

Reports

Web
Publishing

Products
Microsoft Project 98
Webster for Primavera
Prolog WebSite

Software/
Database

Table 2 Main Feature of Selected Web-enabled Project Management Software

Cost Control

Messaging

Conferencing

Discussion

Directory

Bids

Revision
Control

Project
Camera

Yes
R, T
Yes
S, T
Yes
F, R, S
Yes
T
Yes C, P, R, S, T
Yes P, R, S, T
Yes
T
Yes C, R, S, T
Yes
P, R, S
Yes C, P, R, S, T
C, F, P, R,
ProjectNet
Yes
S, T
ProjectTalk.com Yes F, P, R, S, T
ReviewIt AEC
Yes
R, T
Project Home
Yes
T
Page
Notes :

Schedule/
Calendar

ActiveProject
AdvantageWare
BidCom
Buzzsaw.com
Constructw@re
e-Builder
eProject
ProjectCenter
ProjectEDGE
ProjectGrid.com

Workflow

Products

Documents

Table 3 Main Features of Selected Web-based Project Management

S
S
S
S
C
C
S

Yes
Yes
Yes

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Yes
-

Yes
Yes
Yes
-

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Yes
Yes
Yes

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Yes
Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

S
-

Yes
-

Yes
Yes

Yes
-

Yes
-

Yes
Yes

Yes
-

Yes
Yes

Yes
-

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Documents include photos, contracts, specifications, drawings, reports, minutes of meeting, and general files
Workflow: C=Change Orders, F=Field Notes, P=Punch Lists, R=RFIs, S=Submittals, T=Tasks
Schedule/Calendar: C=Calendar, S=Schedule

RESEARCH EFFORTS BY ACADEMIA

A large amount of conceptual research on the use of Internet-based technologies for the construction
industry has been conducted by academia. Some of their research to date led to the development of
specific applications related to particular construction activities, while others are intended to develop
web-based project management software or research focus on the implementation of CIC with the use
of Internet-based as a communication medium for exchanging information. Research conducted by
academia attempts to answer questions related to and in anticipation of new issues emerging from the
use of Internet-based to support various construction and related activities. These issues include the
legal aspects of exchanging electronic information, interoperatibility, collaboration, and utility
assessment of services provided by Internet-based technologies. Skibniewski and Abduh (2000)
provided information on several efforts by the academia and can be summarized as follow:

The WWWCoach project at Stanford University provided a mechanism to collect, organize and
share information and service from the Web. Another research project performed at Stanford
University was to develop Internet-CAD (I-CAD).
The Field Inspection Reporting System (FIRS), developed at the University of Colorado, was a
system to collect, deliver, process, and manage the information produced in the inspection
processes by taking advantage of pen-based computers, digital cameras, and the Web.
The SCHEREC project has objective to develop a web-based project management system by
combining the power of an existing project management system with the Web, making the
project schedule available to anyone from anywhere.
A joint research effort between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers at the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL)
established the WWW-QC project. This project is intended to demonstrate the possibility of
multimedia information management through the use of a so-called "digital hard hat," and of
using the Web as the mode of information exchange and retrieval.
A research effort at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University presents a data model of historical
project data and an Internet-based intelligent information system for processing data. The
system aims at storing the data in different media formats, providing access for all authorized
users connected to the Internet, and providing information in a consultative mode that is
familiar to construction professionals.
Web-based Industry Foundation Class (IFC) Shared Project Environment (WISPER) project
conducted at the University of Salford is intended to develop and implement a collaborative
working environment to support Computer-Aided Design (CAD), visualization (i.e., web
format for virtual reality and drawing applications), cost estimating, activity planning,
specification, and supplier information.
The Collaborative Approach to the Realization of Internet-based CAD (CaribCAD) project was
conducted to focus on the regeneration of existing paper drawings in a CAD file format and on
the support of communication needs in remote design collaboration.

Laboratory of Construction Engineering & Management, Department of Civil Engineering, Institut

Teknologi Bandung, has developed two web-based project management applications. The first
application is an internet-based system that aims at assisting project managers in planning and
controlling the execution of projects from remote location. The system is basically an earned-value
cost-schedule integration system. By integrating internet and multimedia technologies, the application
provides managers with not only regular textual and numerical data but also visual information of
project progress. The inclusion of graphical information would greatly enhance the quality of
information as well as a near real time report needed by the project managers. Schematically, the
application is described as follow:

Alternate Location(s)
Project Manager
PROJECT
MANAGER

WAIS

PROJECT
MANAGER

LA
N
LA
N
SERVER
CONTRACTOR'S
HEAD OFFICE

ITADMIN

WAIS

Wide
Area
Internet
System

SUPERVISOR
PROJECT
LOCATION(S)
OWNER &
CONSULTANT
REMOTE AREA

Figure 3. Web-based Project Planning & Control System (Nugroho 1999)

The other application is called Web-based Procurement in Construction. As one of the most important
phases in construction, the procurement process of goods and services is considered as another
potential area to be supported by Internet technologies. The application was developed to improve the
procurement process in construction in terms of time, cost and its effectiveness. The application was
designed based on Indonesian practices in procuring goods and services, and intended to be used by all
construction stakeholder in Indonesia, i.e., engineering consultants, contractors, owners, and suppliers.
Another service provided by this system and tied to its main service is a place to exchange information
among the participants regarding their products and services. The system is equipped with a search
functionality that can help participants in finding projects, goods, and services based on location, type
of construction, and other useful categories (Pinem and Surbakti 2001).

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This paper presents the state of the art and the adoption of Internet-based applications by the
construction industry. Even though considered as the laggard in adopting Internet-based applications in
construction project activities, many construction companies have entered the Internet age. Variety of
options available to construction companies to enter the Internet era, research in academia on exploring
the use of Internet services for construction activities, and related commercial products have showed
the enthusiasms of construction people in utilizing the Internet technologies. Two efforts by the
authors are discussed as examples of exploration by academia in Indonesia to show significant
potential of Internet technology for supporting construction activities, especially in managing
construction projects.
However, to implement Internet-based applications in construction project activities successfully, the
applications should be acceptable in the construction environment and the utility assessment of such
applications is needed. The assessment will determine whether the Internet-based applications in
construction industry can perform as intended and provide an optimal configuration of Internet-based
services for supporting construction project activities.

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