Business Focus is a weekly column providing at-a-glance
statistics and commentary on spending priorities and trends in
particular sectors. This week we look at the construction
industry.
Large construction firms spend an average of £10,285 per desktop
each year on IT - more than 20% above the UK-wide business average
of £8,455. This differential is even more marked in small and
medium sized construction firms, where the average spend is £5,307
per desktop against an SME industry average of £3,132.
The sector is becoming increasingly dependent on IT, with firms
installing systems to handle key business functions such as design,
procurement and information management.
Successful construction relies on strong project management, and
the building industry has long been held up as an exemplar for IT
project managers to learn from. One development in this area is the
growing use of web-based collaboration systems to manage
projects.
Independent research commissioned by the industry found that 74%
of construction customers want their contractors to have experience
of using web-based systems - or project extranets - to deliver
construction projects. The Proving Collaboration Pays study by
Benchmark Research, also found that project teams welcomed the
greater control over projects that collaboration technologies gave
them.
Methodology
The analysis is based on Computer Weekly's database of more than
60,000 IT budget holders, twice yearly user IT expenditure surveys,
CBI/Kew senior executive surveys, government surveys, government
demographic data, HM Treasury economic forecasts and Cambridge
Econometrics industry sector forecasts.
Further details
www.kewassociates.co.uk
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