INTRODUCTION

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TERM PAPER

MAY, 2010

THE APPLICATION OF RIPAC SOFTWARE TO QUANTITY SURVEYING PROFESSIONS

PREPARED BY

ALADE ADEKUNLE NATHANIELQTS/2007/017

submitted to:

DR. (MRS) G.K OJODEPARTMENT OF QUANTITY SURVEYING

OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, ILE-IFE

OSUN STATE

A major construction process demands heavy exchange of data and information between project participants on a daily basis. This makes the construction industry one of the most information-intensive industries, and requires close coordination among a large number of specialized but interdependent organizations and individuals to achieve the cost, time and quality goals of a construction project. ICT has been shown to be a vital tool in assisting the construction industry to cope with the increasing complexity of its products as well as the increasing demands of its clients and regulators, and to enhance construction productivity. To assess the impact of ICT on construction in this regard, surveys on the use of ICT in the construction industries of various countries in different parts of the world have been carried out in recent times. Some of these surveys were based on modified versions of the IT Barometer survey instrument, which was originally developed for the Swedish construction industry in 1997.While most of these surveys have been carried out in highly developed European countries and Asian “Tiger” economies, only the South African represents an emerging economy in Africa. This study attempts to bridge some of this gap by examining the state of ICT use of the construction industry of Nigeria, the second largest economy in Africa.RIPAC is a totally integrated system for building, estimating, cost planning, bill preparation and contract administration, using on database from feasibility to final account. Since its launch, RIPAC has established itself as the leading system for building bill preparation and contract administration. This software has installed the construction software RIPAC into offices great performance. The system allows the practice to prepare various levels of estimates/cost plans, bills of quantities and to carryout post contract administration duties such as pricing instructions, cost reports and final accounts. The system has both CESMM and SMM libraries allowing preparation of bills of quantities which can be converted into various different formats including Excel and CITE which can then be emailed to contractors for pricing. RIPAC is a totally integrated system for the construction industry providing estimating, cost

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planning, bill preparation and contract administration, using one database from feasibility to final account. Having been developed over 25 years, RIPAC is now established as the leading system for bill preparation and contract administration, with users among major client bodies, local authorities, consulting engineers and quantity surveying practices.

THE NEED FOR AND CURRENT USE OF RIPAC IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRYThe construction project chain is a lengthy process initiated and driven by the project promoter (client).According to depending on the type of project, the chain may involve large numbers of skilled professionals and companies with, quite often, much repetition of activities and accumulation of paperwork. The main project participants in a typical construction project in Nigeria are the client and his/her team of professional advisers (consultants) on the one hand and the main contractor, subcontractors and suppliers on the other. that the various participants deal with similar information, therefore that information needs to be passed along the chain from team to team. Thus, the majority of the participants require access to the majority of the project information at one time or another.The use of ICT can impact on the traditional processes of organization in construction and result in change in organisational processes, working methods and culture. In this regard, some benefits of ICT critical to the performance of the construction industry are to reduce the time for data processing and communicating information, and to improve communications for effective decision-making and coordination among construction participants to enhance construction productivity. This is possible because the Internet-based tools of ICT allow communication between even remote users and enables them to share files, comment on changes and post requests for information.The common types of software used in construction include word processing, spreadsheet, CAD and Internet software. This software is used for administration,

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communication, marketing, desktop publishing, presentation and project management.While architects, engineers and contractors use CAD mostly for design, drawing and presentation, quantity surveyors use it for measurement, preparation of bills of quantities, estimating and presentation. The engineering analysis software for specific branches of engineering includesMicrostran, and MathCad (Doherty, 1997). With 3D modeling capacity in modern structural design software, designing complex structures is now facilitated where previously this was almost impossible (Walker & Hampson, 2003). For quantity surveying, there are WinQS32, QS Plus2001, QsCAD, CATO, and Masterbill among others (Willis et al., 1994; Adetola, 1998; Murray et al., 2001), which not only speed up but also enhance the accuracy of quantity surveying functions from approximate estimating to final accounts. A detailed description of many of the available software for architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and contractors.In addition to these applications of ICT to what may be termed the traditional domains of the construction industry, there are some emerging new areas of ICT innovations. They include knowledge management (KM), electronic document management (EDM) and e-business. ICT facilitates the transfer of knowledge and information between project teams, enabling the development of new knowledge for innovation. The development of an EDM system for project management can save considerable time and cost for document transfer (Tam, 1999); while e-business provides an efficient infrastructure for remote consulting services to consultants and contractors who desire to provide their services through the Internet.

RIAPC CONTRIBUTION TO THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IN NIGERIAConstruction contributes some 7% of the GDP in most OECD countries and up to 12 to 14% while in developing countries, investments in construction projects could be as high as 50-60% of national budgets. In Nigeria, the construction industry was the dominant contributor to the nation’s GDP in the 1980s,

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accounting for about 70% of the GDP (Planning Committee on the National Construction Policy, 1989). This made the industry very strategic to Nigeria’s development efforts.Unfortunately, however, the industry has been bedevilled by a combination of low demand and consistent low productivity and poor performance over the years.The industry is made up of an organised formal sector and an unorganised informal sector. The formal sector comprises foreign and indigenous companies, which are classified into small, medium and large scale according to their level of capitalisation and annual turnover. The few large firms (mostly foreign), which constitute just about 5% of the total number of contractors in the formal sector, control about 95% of the construction market, giving the small firms just about 5% share of the market.Developed initially by a quantity surveying practice, to computerise the administration of building contracts using SMM6, SMM7 or other methods of measurement, RIPAC will improve the speed and accuracy with which the following are performed:

Bill preparation Digitising using tablet or imported images.

Take-off on screen from CAD drawings or graphic images.

Cut & Fill and Earthworks Calculations.

Electronic Tendering.

Tender appraisal.

Term Contracts.

Export to Data Warehouse for Crystal Reports / Excel, HTML/XML.

Variations.

Re-measurement.

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Interim Payments.

Cost reporting.

Final accounts.

How you and your organization will benefit from RIPAC If you are manually handling any of the above activities, or using one of the early computer systems which only do part of the job, then STOP and look at the benefits RIPAC could provide your organization:

BENEFITS OF RIPAC TO QUANTITY SURVEYING THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Time and money saved, providing higher profit margins. Competitive fee bids.

Improved quality and reuse of data.

Enhanced documentation.

Potential for integration and innovation.

A more comprehensive service to your clients.

Compliance with client requirements.

Electronic data transfer

The Advantages of RIPAC to Construction Familiar Outlook style front end. Database platform provides a cost model in which data is reused from

feasibility through tender documentation to final account.

At all stages, a cost plan comparison is available.

Point and click with the mouse to build descriptions from libraries for SMM, ARM, CESMM, MMHW or other methods of measurement. Rogue

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items easily accommodated at all levels. Use mouse to re-sequence items in the bill.

Data capture of dimensions at keyboard or electronically from CAD or spreadsheets.

RIPAC performs time consuming calculations for quantities, estimating, tender appraisal and price fluctuations and stores results for inspection.

Copy work selectively from project to project or within project.

Full audit trail for quality management.

Can be linked to other systems for tendering, interim applications and estimating using ASCII, CSV or fixed length data formats, including the CITE, (Construction Industries Trading Electronically) standard format.

All reports, including the estimate, cost plan and Bill of Quantities, can be exported to Excel, PDF or using Data Warehousing to proprietary reporting systems such as Crystal Reports.

The RIPAC system modules:

Estimating and Cost Planning. This module covers feasibility, estimating, cost planning, approximate quantities, price databases and 'first principles' rate build up.

Pre-contract. This module covers bill preparation, pre-tender estimating, tender appraisal and schedule of rates.

Post-contact. This module contains the additional programs needed to perform full post contract administration.

Cut & Fill. This module allows graphical Cut & Fill based upon input of existing and proposed levels, with or without digitiser, providing resulting excavation and disposal quantities and ability to vary levels

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and include bulking and compaction adjustments.

Whole Life Costing. This module allows users to define cost structures for alternative uses and specifications for projects. Construction cost plans can be imported. All costs likely to be incured and income expected can be allocated to time periods. Forecast models for carious levels of interest and inflation can be applied.

Cash Flow. With this module, users can spread forecast payments over the duration of one or more contracts according to standard or user defined curves. Actual payments may be entered to recast the curve.

Estimating ModuleThe RIPAC Estimating module is the Estimating and Cost Planning software for Construction Professionals. It is based upon Users or Proprietory cost information allowing consolidation of various estimating methodologies and progressive refinement of data. RIPAC's Estimating Module integrates every stage of the estimating and tendering process into a single dynamic system. No duplication of effort, no missing functions. Your control over data and documentation is complete. brings the data you need into simple and intuitive Windows screens - from libraries and from your own products. Nothing is overlooked. This is the software used by professionals, written by professionals. Seamless integration and total control. RIPAC works the way you want to: hands on control over the complete cost and estimating process, elemental estimating, cost planning and BOQ tendering - throughout the project life cycles - from Capital Budgeting to Construction

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Resource Allocation and Whole Life Costing. Professionals throughout the industry rely on RIPAC ESTIMATING because it is supremely accurate, flexible and efficient. The RIPAC Estimating Module allows you to use just the functions you need and to the level of detail you want:

Ball Park Estimates. Feasibility Estimates.

Cost Plans.

Measured Estimates.

Price Book Maintenance.

Tendering.

Resource Analysis.

Whole Life Costing.

RIPAC gathers all your cost data in one dynamic database. You don't have to duplicate the information you're keying in and you can utilise all the data you've collected from previous projects. RIPAC reuses data simply and quickly.

RIPAC Sets Standards RIPAC estimating is used right across the construction industry. Because it is so firmly established, clients, project managers, quantity surveyors, contractors - all kinds of industry professionals - are able to depend on its uniformity and the standards of accuracy associated with it.

RIPAC Mirrors the way you Work The RIPAC Estimating Module provides you with the information you need at every stage and any level of detail, whether you're reading figures 'off the screen' or generating fully detailed documents.

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CSSP - An Impressive Pedigree sThe RIPAC Estimating Module comes from the same stable as the RIPAC contract administration software, the No 1 QS system that complements it. Both are authored by CSSP, whose standing as an established international organisation provides stability, consistent user support and ongoing investment in research and development (R&D).

What does the RIPAC Estimating Module do? The RIPAC Estimating Module integrates and indexes every aspect of elemental estimating, cost planning, estimate measuring, and BoQ tendering. Library and historical data is re-used dynamically, to minimise data entry and increase efficiency. The level you might be working in integrates seamlessly with any other level you may be using, and lets you extract the information you want and generate reports to your own layouts.

Basic Structure and Functions

1. Project Project Cost Database

2. Part Level Feasibility Estimates

. 3 Elemental Cost Planning / Elemental Estimates

4. Approximate Quantities

Approx Quantities Estimating

5. Tendering Price Book Maintenance

6. Resources Resource Analysis

Level 1 - Project Cost Database Used 'stand alone' the RIPAC Estimating Module can be loaded with historical cost data to provide a single on line source for authorised users. The user can

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decide how data is to be coded and structured. As the system is used to produce estimates, these too can become part of the database with appropriate labels to maintain confidence levels. When used with the RIPAC Pre Contact Module, the project database can be fed electronically with analyses from priced and coded bills of quantities. Users can use their own previous cost plans, analyses of RIPAC Bills of Quantities or cost plans downloaded from BCIS online (see http://www.bcis.co.uk/). Level 2 - Feasibility Estimate As the database grows, it can be used to produce early stage estimates for project costs when only a few parameters - such as gross floor area - are available. The system allows schedules of areas to be produced from base information. The estimate can be produced as an all-in cost for the project or can be broken down into building shell, fit out etc., or however you want to structure the estimate. Costs are indexed as they are entered, by date and optionally, by location, type of work - building, mechanical, electrical and so forth. Regression Analysis is available at all levels.

Level 3 - Cost Planning / Elemental Estimates Accumulated cost and project data feed back into calculations automatically. As the body of data grows, cost plans can be drawn off to ever increasing degrees of accuracy. All revisions to the cost plan can be highlighted to the user’s colour coding requirements. The database has the potential to develop into a key asset for your organisation.

Level 4 - Approx Quantities Estimating RIPAC Estimating gives you a comprehensive measurement facility once sufficient design drawings exists to measure basic quantities for a project. Item descriptions and quantities can be priced by spot rates, resource build ups or using standard rates and/or items from any number of price books. These can be held and maintained on the system. Items and resource components can also be allocated to subcontracts.

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Level 5 - Price Book Maintenance Electronic price books for use with the RIPAC Estimating system can be purchased from CSSP. Once loaded, these can be maintained by the user to represent local conditions. Alternatively, your own price database can be built up from first principles.

Level 6 - Resource Analysis Whether you are working with global rates from a price database or local rates specific to a project, resource analysis can be produced for planning or other purposes. Resource components allocated to subcontracts can also be plugged into the estimate with appropriate marking up. Combining The Functions. Any of the six functions can be combined in various ways to produce estimates that are structured to your own specifications. For example:

Simple measured estimate = Levels 1 and 4

Cost Plan with Parts = Levels 1,2 and 3 Transferring Data The RIPAC Estimating Module further increases efficiency through easy transfer of data via electronic media:

Electronic tendering (CITE etc). Import of items direct from RIPAC pre contract billing system.

Import of items from Excel.

Export of items direct to RIPAC billing system.

Import CAD data.

Export of resource data for planning.

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Sending and receiving sub-contract bills.

Allocation of subcontract items / components and subsequent.

The RIPAC Estimating Module allows you to make use of your data at every stage. As you write estimates the programme stores and manipulates the data for use at any point. For interim reporting, for 'off the screen' and ball park estimates, and then for highly detailed documentation. You can adjust the level of detail, the layout and content, or you can use the industry standard templates that come with RIPAC Estimating. RIPAC allows you to use many different proprietary unit and resource price databases. Or you can create and maintain your own. You can also store your own elemental analysis and costs from previous estimates, tenders, BoQ's and final accounts. RIPAC Estimating manages all this data for you. Resource prices, unit rates, elemental information, specifications - everything can be imported into the current task, stored re-accessed, copied, adjusted.

RIPAC is compatible with all industry unit rate and resource price databases including:

SMM7 Price Database. CESMM3 Price Database.

M&E Price Database.

Overseas Price Database etc

PLEASE NOTE: The licencing of the Estimating and Cost Planning module, and the Pre Contract module provides for interchangeability. For example 3 licences purchased of Pre Contract and a 1 user licence of Estimating actually provides a 4 user licence of either module, or any permutation up to 4 users. However for an interchangeable licence there must be no more than 3 Pre Contract

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licences for every 1 Estimating and Cost Planning module.

Pre Contract.The RIPAC Pre Contract module provides for measurement, bill production, pre-tender estimates and tender analysis. Work orders and term contract administration are included. Measurement.

Wizard to set up new projects. Descriptions built from library phraseologies.

Estimate or Bill items may be generated automatically from CAD data or other schedule data such as spreadsheets using the INTERFACE Module.

Import bills of quantities from other systems.

Dimensions and quantities can be directly obtained via a digitise tablet, CAD model, or any other image.

Copy and paste dimensions from spreadsheets.

Items may be entered via the measurement screen or by using the Quick Item Entry facility that allows rapid entry and/or amendment of items and dimensions.

Rogue items easily created at all levels, and can be stored on project or standard libraries.

Copy items selectively from previous projects, whole or in part, and also from standard bills.

Context sensitive display of Measurement Rules on screen.

View or print dimensions selectively in user defined sequence.

Streamlined dimension input routines for data capture including global and local side casts (or user may enter quantities manually).

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Automatic weighting of steel and reinforcement.

Cut & Fill including varying formation levels and Earthworks Calculations.

Room data sheets for automatically calculating floor, wall and ceiling areas together with the skirting length.

Simpson's and Prismoidal (Trapezoidal) rules for calculating areas and volumes.

Time saving features to locate and reuse descriptions and dimensions.

Records carry user initials, date stamp and audit trail with two level security for editing.

Various options for sign posts and data labels.

Question lists and drawing registers.

Preliminaries, preambles and specification clauses.

More than one method of measurement may be used within one project e.g. CESMM3 and SMM7.

Editing. On screen editing of headings, descriptions and quantities. Point and click to re sequence rogue descriptions.

Spellchecker for easy correction of spelling errors.

Documentation. User defined layout of bill pages. Alternative bills by Part Group, Part, Sub Part, Element, Trade, Sub

Contract, Work Breakdown or Location Breakdown.

Draft or final bills.

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Electronic output to Word and Excel and also as a pdf file.

Pricing . Estimated and tendered rates. PC and Provisional Sums.

Full CITE accreditation for electronic tendering and rate import.

Electronic tendering using Excel.

Tender appraisal including arithmetic check, comparisons and sensitivity analysis.

Payment classification, multiple clients splits.

Cost statistics.

Elemental analysis.

Term of Contracts. Work orders from schedule of rates (with or without quantities). Option of banded rates.

Flexible work order layout.

Stores multiple sets of rates.

Permits appointment of multiple contractors and advises the most cost effective award for each work order.

Powerful selection and filter process.

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Electronic transfer.

Percentage uplifts.

Non-Standard Reporting. User requested and defined reports through a simple report generator. High quality reports are also available from the built-in REPORTER facility

with complex content and format direct from the RIPAC database. This methodology allows for graphics, colour and inclusion of images.

RIPAC Libraries.RIPAC can be supplied with various libraries of descriptions - including SMM6, SMM7, POMI, ARM, MMHW, CESMM3 etc. Further libraries are available for overseas use. Library Maintenance software (LMS) is available from CSSP which allows users to make changes to existing libraries of descriptions or create their own text for other methods of measurement.

PLEASE NOTE: The licencing of the Pre Contract module, and the Estimating and Cost Planning module provides for interchangeability. For example 3 licences purchased of Pre Contract and a 1 user licence of Estimating actually provides a 4 user licence of either module, or any permutation up to 4 users. However for an interchangeable licence there must be no more than 3 Pre Contract licences for every 1 Estimating and Cost planning module.

Cash Flow.

The cashflow module allows the breakdown of the project costs into packages, with each package being able to produce a Cash-flow forecast. User defined views allow a variety of information to be shown and reported. Facilities include:

Standard or user defined curves

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Reporting at Weekly or Monthly reporting

Package, Group and Project consolidation

Retention withholding and release

Time extensions

Lump Sum payments

Inflation handling

Actual payments

Multiple currency

User defined rounding

Graphing to Excel

Cut And Fill

Note: Cut & Fill is a module of RIPAC and not available as a separate system. Earthworks Calculation The Cut & Fill system calculates the volumes of excavation and filling required across a site based on existing ground levels and proposed varying formation levels. Facilities include:

Graphical Cut & Fill representation Calculation of topsoil removal

Adjusted formation levels to determine the most economic design level

Adjustments for Bulking and Compaction

Breakdown, and graphical separation, according to SMM staged levels

For use with or without a digitiser

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Dimensionx.DimensionX allows measurement direct from electronic drawings into RIPAC, from DWG, DWF and DXF drawing files, or from PDF, BMP, JPG, GIF and other image files. Whatever the drawing format, DimensionX Measurement opens the drawing on screen and permits measurement direct, using intuitive and high quality tools! DimensionX supports both 2D and 3D drawings as well as BIMs (Building Information Models). Results are captured in Dimension Groups allowing consolidation of logical results for transfer to measurement areas within RIPAC. Subsequent changes to the drawing and measurements can be made which are automatically adjusted within RIPAC to update quantities and prices. Lengths, Areas, Counts and Heights can be calculated quickly and easily just by clicking or dragging the mouse around the area to be measured. Other features include drawing revisions, comparison overlays, and calibration of scales, with a consistent and modern interface. All the expected facilities for zooming, panning, filtering of layers etc are available... and much more.

Whole Life CostingThe Whole Life Costing module is available for use with RIPAC Estimating and Cost Planning Module release 3.1 and later. WLC allows the use of standard or unique User specified hierarchical structures against which whole life costs can be allocated. This can include the Construction Cost Plan directly imported from RIPAC Estimating and Cost Planning. Each item in the structure can have Alternatives, comprising Components, which in turn have Events which create whole life costs. By comparing alternatives, and if necessary adjusting the components and events, the users can advise on the WLC of various design alternatives, and these can be compared against any cost plan that exists.

Post-contract administration

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Re-measurement, if required. Valuations by %, quantity, amount or milestone.

Nominated sub contractors and suppliers.

Dayworks.

Materials on site.

Variations/instructions register.

Payment certificates.

Automatic retention calculation.

Claims.

NEDO and Baxter Formula fluctuations.

Commitment statement and cost reporting.

Final accounts.

Non-Standard Reporting User requested and defined reports through a simple report generator. High quality reports are also available from the built-in REPORTER facility

with complex content and format direct from the RIPAC database. This methodology allows for graphics, colour and inclusion of images.

Bridge TenderingThe BRIDGE Interface module of RIPAC provides another means of electronic tendering, which eliminates the need for users to key in rates from numerous contractors before tender analysis can be performed by computer. This module allows users to export a reduced set of information from a project database to send to tendering contractors.

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The BRIDGE application is available for download free of charge from the CSSP website (http://www.cssp.co.uk/content/more/bridge.php) and enables contractors to see the bill of quantities, enter rates and print a priced bill. The contractor cannot change the descriptions or the quantities. Contractors return the priced database folder so that the RIPAC user can import the rates into the original version of the database.

CONCLUSION.

Study show that quantity surveying consultancies contracting firms make use of RIPAC as well as academic/research institutions. It examined the current status of ICT use and highlighted the prospects for its widespread penetration of the industry in the near future. Some of the major findings are that

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• Contrary to expectation, the level of use of computers is very high (98.5%) for a developing country like Nigeria. Between the professions, the main use of computers differs along the lines of the core functions of the professions, with architects leading in the computerisation of design (followed by engineers), while quantity surveyors lead in costing and contractors lead in accounting and work scheduling.RIPAC is one of the most has used quantity surveying software in UK and Nigeria. It numerous advantages ranging from online tendering systems to cost planning analysis which increases the performance of quantity surveyor practicing. As perceived by the respondents are “improves quality of work”, “makes complex tasks easier to perform” and “saves time”. A comparison with more developed countries shows that in Nigeria the use of quantity surveying software in the construction industry is still at the rudimentary stage where a basic application like word processing is the most prominent. computer use has advanced to more technical business applications. Also, the fact that inadequate supply of electricity is the most critical obstacle to increased use of ICT in the Nigerian construction industry but is not considered a problem in the more developed countries reflects the very large gap in ICT infrastructure between developed countries.

REFRENCES.

Murray M., Nkado R. & Lai A. (20 Björk B. C. (2002). The impact of electronic document management on construction information

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management, Proc. of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction, CIB W78 Conference 2002, Aarhus, 12–14.01)The integrated use of information technology in the construction industry. Proceedings of the CIB 78 Conference: IT in Construction in Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, 39-1 to 39-13.Mangini M. and Pelli F. (2003). eBusiness scheme for engineering consulting services, Journal ofInformation Technology in Construction, 8, 309-319, at http://www.itcon.org/2003/23 (http://www.cssp.co.uk/content/more/bridge.php)

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