Welcome to the E-Construction Era

On February 29, 2000, Heather McCune, Editor-in-Chief Professional Builder, and I spoke to about 175 builders at the Presidential Seminar in Santa Barbara, California about the dawning of a new era in our industry: the E-Construction era.

Not even two minutes into the presentation, I noticed a look of horror on the faces of everybody in the audience. I wasn’t sure if my pants had fallen off or if I was speaking in German, but I seriously began to doubt my words. I briefly turned my gaze to Heather to see if I was in fact talking gibberish. She seemed unaffected by what I was saying, so I just kept on going, reminding myself that what I was saying made sense. Heather had told me that what we were talking about would be foreign to many builders, but I didn’t realize until I was speaking up on that stage that we were actually telling 175 successful builders that everything they have been doing up until now wasn’t good enough. After months of research and years in the Internet world, I have found that no builders were truly utilizing the Internet to it’s fullest potential; and now I was telling them just that.

We spoke about how the Internet has transformed from an information based platform to a transaction based platform. How information is now the product in the E-Construction era; and how builders acquire and apply information on homeowners and trade partners will directly affect new revenue streams, as well as increase profits and savings. We labeled builders "gatekeepers" to the consumer worlds they create, and explained that they controlled access to information about their homeowners. That information is a product that can be marketed across an almost infinite variety of businesses within a given community.

As the hour unfolded, Heather and I diagramed just what it meant to marry traditional marketing and sales methods with the speed and efficiency of the Internet. We outlined various methods of creating a wireless workforce, where every single trade partner is connected via the Internet to cut costs on everything from blast faxes and overnight packages to removing all links in the supply chain that add cost without value. About halfway through speaking, the looks of horror were replaced with what I would call fascination. Eyebrows creased and jaws curled as each builder bounced their experiences with the Internet against what we were saying. Some shook their heads while others nodded with encouragement; and when we were finally done speaking, one by one, hands were raised in the air.

The next thirty minutes were spent answering individual builder’s questions. "If I build a community Intranet, who’s to say people will use it?" "What do I do if I create this Intranet, and I get 300 emails a day from the homeowners?" "Do I need to hire somebody to run my web site?" "What do I do now?" After we answered everyone’s questions and left the stage, builders surrounded me. Each one with more and more questions.

What I realized was that the looks of horror at the beginning of the presentation were not because what we were saying was so revolutionary, but that everyone in that room knew that this conversation needed to take place. They all knew that for as immense and important as the residential construction industry is, it is all but retarded in its grasp of electronic commerce. But they didn’t know what to ask, not to mention who they should be asking.

One similarity that our industry has with others is its relation to the individuals in the world of information technology. For too long now there has been a rift between "the business" and "the IT department" of any company, and it simply has to end. The Internet does not consist of sorcerers wielding black magic. What IT professionals do is apply their technical skills to business situations, and must be made an integral part of all business decisions to perform at their peak level.

Pick your cliché, but a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you can’t express your business needs to the Internet professionals you work with, then they can’t perform efficiently. The same is true with your IT department - incidentally, if your IT department consists entirely of your 18 year old son or daughter who built your site with FrontPage ’98 from the dorms, you’ve got some catching up to do. Your IT department, whether full-time staff or out-sourced consultants, needs to show you how to leverage your current information systems with your company’s portal to the world. They also must be capable of connecting your entire work force, both on a job site and in the office to each other and the world at all times, and that includes the contractors that just figured out where the paper comes from in a fax machine.

The bottom line is this: business has moved on. Even in the world of construction, brick and mortar is obsolete.

Todd Shraiberg is the Project & Development Manager for HousingZone.com. Please email him with any comments or questions regarding his column.

Also see:

The Fight of the Millennium