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[July 2000]
First E-commerce Conference reveals construction industry hungry for change
150 construction industry professionals gathered in London today for the Construction Products Association's first e-conference: "e-commerce, the business imperative" at Lords Cricket Ground Conference Centre. 12 speakers from companies such as Ove Arup, KPMG, Laing, Whitby Bird & Partners, and Jarvis offered a mixture of practical advice, future-gazing and success stories in an attempt to unravel the mystery and jargon surrounding e-commerce and the Internet.
Opening the conference Construction Products Association President Roy Harrison called for an end to "the dot.com hype" and a new focus on how e-commerce can benefit traditional industries and business models. "The real e-revolution is yet to come" he commented, "and it will be in industries such as ours that e-commerce provides the key to long-term competitive and commercial success."
Bill Southwood of Ove Arup followed this with a warning. "We haven't seen anything yet", he claimed, "this technology will get faster, more challenging, and more difficult to integrate but in the long term we have no choice. As long as the technology remains relevant to business and customer needs we have a very exciting future ahead".
The conference was organised by the Construction Products Association in conjunction with The Building Centre Trust, following the Association's April survey, which investigated attitudes towards e-commerce in the construction industry. Called "E-Construction - Are we ready?" the survey revealed an industry slow to change but confident that the Internet revolution will have a real impact on the future direction of the construction industry in the UK. While currently only 5% of activity is conducted via the Internet, this is expected to double in the next 12 months and triple again by 2004. By 2005 it is predicted that 50% of transactions in the industry will be carried out via e-commerce.
The survey will be repeated annually allowing the Construction Products Association to track the industry's response to e-commerce developments.
For further information or photographs of the conference, please contact: press@constprod.org.uk
ENDS