ASSIGNMENT: From Chapter 3, pages 89-90, WEB-BASED CASE.
Read the following case and answer all questions.
BBC DIGITAL MEDIA INITIATIVE REVISITED
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WEB-BASED CASE BBC Digital Media Initiative Revisited
The National Audit Office (NAO) scrutinizes public spending
in the United Kingdom. Its memorandum on the BBCs DMI project
reported on several key findings. First, the in-house team was
severely challenged by the fact that the project was already 18
months behind schedule when they began work on the project. Second,
the technology team issued releases throughout the project that did
not meet end-user expectations and eroded confidence in the
project. Third, the BBC focused more on the technological
development rather than on encouraging organization-wide changes in
workflow that would encourage adoption. Finally, the NAO concluded,
the DMI lacked governance arrangements for the scale, risk, and
complexity of the project.
Do research online to identify the capabilities of digital
asset management software. What are the top-rated digital asset
management software products? Who uses this software?
Given the NAOs findings and what you discover about
available off-the-shelf products, would it have been wiser for the
BBC to adopt a collection of these existing products? What actions
would be necessary to gain the cooperation of the business units to
incorporate this collection of products into their work
processes?
CASE STUDY Webcor: Building Buy-In in the Brick-and-Mortar
Business Founded in 1971, Webcor Builders is one of the largest
construction companies in California and one of the largest green
construction companies in the United States. Committed to
innovative practices, Webcor has gained considerable attention due
to its award-winning construction, historic restoration, and
seismic renovation work. As Webcor expanded from multifamily
residences to commercial offices, interiors, retail, public works,
parking structures, and federal, education, and healthcare
facilities, the company opened offices first in San Francisco, and
then in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Alameda. Its merger with the
large Japanese construction firm Obayashi positioned the company to
reach customers along the Pacific Rim, with a new office in
Honolulu. Along with developing innovations in building materials
and methods, Webcor has leveraged cutting-edge information
technologiesin an industry that is often slow to consider, accept,
and adopt IT advances. As early as 1984, Webcor integrated the
Apple desktop into its work process. In 2011, Webcor made a
significant commitment to virtual design and construction in its
public sector building projects. Adopting Vico Softwares 5D
Virtual Construction application allowed Webcor to estimate costs,
schedule projects, and manage projects with increased efficiency.
With this software, Webcor can take its customers through a series
of what-if scenarios that allow them to make key design decisions
from the start. Frank Haase, Director of Virtual Building at
Webcor, explains, We have amassed a knowledge base of real
datafrom past projects and from our subcontractorsthat when
combined with the integrated 5D approach gives us an unprecedented
planning and management capability on all projects. The precise
information derived from this approach, both in preconstruction
planning and in ongoing construction operations, helps us to
resolve issues early and to make prompt fact-based decisions.
Using the software, Webcor can also predict the scheduling and cost
impact of changes that occur throughout building design and
construction. The big question many observers asked was, How did
Webcor Builders manage to persuade its workforce to adopt the new
technologies? The decision to adopt the system involved fairly
high risks, given the potential resistance of its end users. As
Vince Sarrubi, Webcor CIO, explained the complexity of the
challenge, Blue collar industries tend to focus on completing
tasks, meeting deadlines, and doing what they know how to do mean
changes to physical work practices, which could mean missing a
deadline. These workers live in the physical world and have been
manually practicing their art for years. Theres a mentality of
head down and nose to the grindstone gets the work done and if
it aint broke, dont fix it. So, how did Webcor achieve this
success? First, Sarrubi is not alone in leading the call for
innovative IT utilization within the company. Webcor cites
innovation as one of its strengths, and its top management has been
firmly committed to technological innovation. Company CEO Andy Ball
spearheaded the virtual construction project. He insists, Change
is never easy, and it has an emotional toll and it has a financial
toll. Initially, it has a reduction in productivity in order to
have a significant gain in productivity. So all of these things
sort of work against change, but if you dont embrace it and you
dont move forward, youre just going to move backward and fall off
the back because it occurs every day. The management of Webcor
understands the risks and advantage of innovation and is fully
invested in seeing it through. With the firm backing of the top
management team, Sarrubi has used two tactics to persuade his
blue-collar workforce to adopt technological innovation. First,
Sarrubi searches for and hires what he calls technology
cheerleaders, young college graduates who are more collaborative
and who have embraced technology from their early years as a means
of producing higher quality work in less time. Once older workers
see a greenhorna new construction workerusing technology to
manage a job, the older, senior superintendents begin to see the
benefits of the technology and start to hop on the wagon, Sarrubi
confides. This strategy successfully persuaded older employees to
adopt Box, a cloud-based storage platform for the companys
architectural drawings and financial documents. Cloud technology
has facilitated low-cost collaboration and electronic document
management for both Webcor and its subcontractors. For a small fee,
workers can use the Box application and an iPad to access drawings
and 3-D models, report problems, submit inspections, and notify all
stakeholders of issues or changes. Sarrubi recalls how Webcor
adopted Box technology: Our enterprise adoption of Box grew out of
a trial at one job site and just took off, caught fire,
adoption-wise
. All of a sudden, what started as a small group test
project grew into almost one hundred Box users within a few weeks.
The match that lit the Box fuse was word-of-mouth employee
testimonials within the company. In addition to his cheerleader
approach, Sarrubi also makes sure that working with the new
technology is as easy as using Amazon. Cost, scalability, and
return-on-investment are important factors the company considers
when making IT decisions, but end-user preference is also a big
factor in what technologies the company adopts. When deciding
between different technology solutions, Sarrubi tells Webcors top
management to slip on the users boots and walk a mile. That he
feels will lead to the best IT choice.
Discussion Questions
1. How has Webcor used technology to support project
management in the construction field?
2. List the main lessons IT managers can learn from Webcor
Builders about the successful adoption of new technologies.
3. Webcor bought an application called PlanGrid to mark up
construction blueprints on iPads. PlanGrid can be used when the
workers are offline and later syncs up with files on the Box
platform. Webcor frequently follows this approach of buying
applications and then building application programming interfaces
(APIs) to connect these programs to its main enterprise systems.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of this IT development
process? 91 Project Management Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All
Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in
whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party
content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not
materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning
reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if
subsequent rights restrictions require it.
4. How might developing whole IT systems themselves, rather
than adopting already developed solutions and integrating them
using APIs, change Webcors ability to encourage IT adoption? 5.
What obstacles do companies face when developing customized IT
systems themselves? Under what circumstances does it make
sense?
Sources:
Webcor Builders, www.webcor.com, accessed October 5, 2014;
Webcor Builders Standardizes on Vico Office for Virtual
Construction, Vico Software, June 9, 2011, www
.vicosoftware.com/0/webcor-builders-standardizes-on-vico-office-for-virtual-construction/tabid/250240
/Default.aspx; Florentine, Sharon, Construction Company CIO Builds
a Better Business with the Cloud, CIO, August 1, 2014,
www.cio.com/article/2459507/leadership-management/construction
-company-cio-builds-a-better-business-with-the-cloud.html; Webcore
Builders Named as 2014 Contractor of the Year, Market WatchPR
Newswire, August 6, 2014, www.marketwatch.com
/story/webcor-builders-named-as-2014-contractor-of-the-year-2014-08-06;
Geron, Tomio, Webcor Moves Construction Industry to the Cloud,
Forbes, August 21, 2013, www.forbes.com/sites
/tomiogeron/2013/08/21/webcor-moves-construction-industry-to-the-cloud/;
Green, Laura, Andy Ball Leads Webcor Builders into a New Age of
Construction, Smart Business, September 1, 2011,
www.sbnonline.com/article/andy-ball-leads-webcor-builders-into-a-new-age-of-construction/.
NOTES
Sources for the opening vignette: Rushton, Katherine, BBC
Ditches Siemens from £80m DMI Scheme, BBC, December 10, 2009, www
.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/broadcasters/bbc-ditches-siemens-from-80m-dmi-scheme/5008953.
article; Glick, Bryan, The BBC DMI ProjectWhat Went Wrong?
ComputerWeekly.com, February 5, 2014,
www.computerweekly.com/news/2240213773/The-BBC-DMI-project-what-went-wrong;
Glick, Bryan, Lack of Business and IT Engagement Led to BBC DMI
Failure, Say MPs, ComputerWeekly.com, April 10, 2014,
www.computerweekly.com/news/2240217918/Lack-of
-business-and-IT-engagement-led-to-BBC-DMI-project-being-a-complete-failure-say-MPs;
Digital Media Initiative, Memorandum prepared by the Comptroller
and Auditor General presented to the BBC Trust, National Audit
Office, British Broadcasting CorporationDigital Media Initiative,
January 2014,
www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/BBC-Digital-Media-Initiative.pdf.
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Andrew, Builder of States Health Care Exchange Misses Key
Deadlines, vtdigger.org, September 27, 2013,
http://vtdigger.org/2013/09/27/builder-states-health-care-exchange
-misses-key-deadliness/. 92 Chapter 3 Copyright 2016 Cengage
Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or
duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some
third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or
eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed
content does not materially affect the overall learning experience.
Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at
any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 7 Goswami,
Neal, State, CGI Sign Amended Contract with New Timetable and
Penalties, Vermont Press Bureau, April 3, 2014,
www.vermontpressbureau.com/state-cgi-sign-amended
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www.vermontbiz.com/news/may/cgi-misses-vermont-health-connect-deadline-again.
9 Remsen, Nancy, Health Site Contractor Misses Deadline, Again,
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www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/2014/06/06/health-site-contractor
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Creator of Its Unacceptable, Glitchy ObamaCare Site, Fox News,
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Thanks for Nothing: Obamacare Website Bunglers Fired, Newsweek,
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It Wont Last Long, Time, September 24, 2014,
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Tuckman, Bruce, Developmental Sequence in Small Groups,
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Integrator Atos Successfully Completes Delivery of Worlds Biggest
IT Sports Contract for Sochi 2014 Games, Atos, February 24, 2014,
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com
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/2014/pr-2014_02_24_02.html.
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