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Abstract
The underlying hypothesis was as follows:
The Irish AEC industry has not exploited IT to date: There are potential benefits for stakeholders in the Irish AEC Industry if the participants exploit IT: the identzfi cation and implementation of appropriate strategies will lead to the exploitation of IT in the Irish AEC Industry.
Four related questions were posed and answered as part of this research, namely:
What are the current and likely future IT tools that could be exploited in the Irish AEC Industry?
What are the factors inhibiting the exploitation of IT in the Irish AEC Industry?
What are the factors encouraging the exploitation of IT in the Irish AEC Industry?
What are the appropriate strategies that should be developed and implemented by participation in the Irish AEC industry to exploit IT?
A detailed survey of two hundred leading firms (Architectural, Consulting Engineering, Quantity Surveying and Construction) in the Irish AEC industry was carried out as part of this research in 1998 and an overall response rate of 70.5% was achieved. The survey identified the nature and extent of the IT tools that were being used, how these IT tools were being managed, factors inhibiting the use of IT, factors encouraging the use of IT and the extent of strategic thinking in relation to IT use within these firms. The survey confirmed that they were not exploiting IT and that they were unlikely to do so in the short-term. Also, for the majority of these firms the gap between their level of IT use and best practice was significant.
The current leading IT tools for use in the AEC Industry were subsequently identified and reviewed. Particular attention was paid to the actual and potential use of the Internet to improve the management and collaboration on projects. Predictions as to the likely development of these IT tools in the short to medium term were also made. Of the various categories of factors inhibiting the use of IT that were identified in this research (i.e. 'Environment', 'Economic & Financial', 'Technological' and 'Human & Cultural'), it was concluded that the 'Human & Cultural' factors were the most significant.