Keywords: IT, strategy plan, construction sector.

The construction sector is one of the main contributors to Malaysia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment. It is also a key indicator of the country's economic health and performance. The sector has suffered severe impact during the downturn of the world economy, issues of globalisation and trade liberalisation. Competition has become more intense and one way to sustain growth and remain competitive is through the intensification of its operational efficiency and effectiveness. Information technology (IT) has been recognised as a key enabling tool to enhance its operational performances.

This paper examines the current problems, gaps and future of the applications of IT in different levels of construction communities, i.e., at the national, industry, association, company and user levels. Inputs and data were gathered from workshops, pilot surveys, semi-structured interviews and extensive literature reviews to investigate the contemporary usage, initiatives, benefits, problems and applications of IT in the construction sector.

The adoption of IT is inconsistent and dependent solely upon individual proponent inclination, education and means. Realising the importance of having a comprehensive study and co-ordination, the government of Malaysia has mandated SIRIM Berhad to formulate an IT strategic plan that provides guidelines, proposals and recommendations for national policy makers, construction professional bodies, institutions of higher learning and construction enterprises. The impact of the adoption of IT in the CS by various levels of players has established gaps that are splitting the sector. The Public Sector is well advanced with IT adoption and gaps appear that will prevent some sector players from communicating with the government at the levels that government may wish to achieve. In essence, the levels of construction communities could be divided to national level, industry level, association level, company level and user level.

One of the most advanced players of the construction sector for the adoption and use of IT is within the public sector at the national level. The government has the will to leap forward and lead most industries with policies, directives and initiatives that benefit the sector players. This is propagated both in the private as well as the public sector. When a mandate is given and the directive forthcoming from the agencies representing the various sub-sectors, these are generally carried out and implemented. The initial impact of IT on the sector at the National Level, from the CS player's perception, is that the government may not know what the sector actually needs. The overall impact that this scenario creates has not been felt, mostly because the public sector has not yet fully introduced those applications that will affect the CS player.

At the industry level, each agency or body has been established to represent one segment of the CS. This task, each agency or body carries out, within its role and sector or sub-sector. The impact comes from the fragmentation of the sector in the lack of coordination between these agencies. The overall CS is not represented and is not seen in its entirety by one governing agency.

The impact of IT in the construction community value chain, at the association level, is similar to that of the industry level. The associations are generally a self-regulating body that provide directives to their members, approvals for licensing professionals, exams for licensing professionals, ongoing training for upgrading their skills and knowledge and general information for their membership on changes within the sector. The impact for this sub-sector of the sector is on the transfer of knowledge and know-how required to adopt IT use.

The impact of IT in the construction community value chain, is highest at the company level. An emergence of young and dynamic companies is rising, but mixed with the traditional, the outcome is creating gaps between IT users and non-IT users. This not only has impacts on the companies within the sector but it also has impact at the 'user level'. The impact of IT in the construction community value chain, at the user level, is probably the segment of the sector that is most vulnerable to change and at the same time most apt to be the leader in the market driven change for the sector.

The current and future of IT in constructions issues that have been discovered through the workshops, pilot survey, semi-structured interviews with the various CS players within Malaysia and extensive literature review on international CS provide a better understanding of the issues that CS must contend with, locally. The issues are not very different from the international front and thus much of the international research and findings are extremely useful for the purpose of determining an appropriate IT Strategy for the CS within Malaysia.

Finally how the CS approaches the required changes to the industry in order to reduce those gaps to improve operations, processes or management will determine the outcome of the entire industry. What CS needs is probably a clear direction (an IT strategy plan) as the various CS players unable to lead on their own, require government support. By streamlining operations and processes through IT use within the industry, coupled with the integration of all interelated CS players along the value chain from both the private and public side of the industry, the CS would eventually become globally ready.

purchase the full-text of this paper (price £20)

go to the previous paper
go to the next paper
return to the table of contents
return to the book description
purchase this book (price £105 +P&P)