|  | e-tendering - learning from our mistakes?
With targets set for e-commerce in government to include 100% of all civil central government tenders to be sent out and responded to electronically by the end of 2002, e-tendering would appear to be a hot topic. Paul Watkins BSc(Hons) MRICS of Masterbill Micro Systems Ltd considers the past learning and the future requirements of efficient e-tendering.
Ever since quantity surveyors and estimators began to invest in IT in the 1980's and 90's, both parties have been keen to explore the possibilities provided by exchanging the tender documents and rates electronically, thus reducing the need for retyping information already in an electronic format and delivering time and accuracy benefits.
Initially contractors were happy to simply receive an ASCII file, as this saved them typing or scanning the tender documents into their estimating systems. Then, as more and more quantity surveyors invested in their own IT solutions, they began to see that real efficiencies could be achieved if they not only issued the Bills of Quantities electronically but were also able to receive them electronically, thus allowing the tendered rates to be read back into their systems for analysis. This desire to achieve a complete two-way exchange led to a number of software providers, including Masterbill, providing their users with an electronic tendering solution.
The mid 1990's saw an initiative designed to bring together the various software solutions, with one definitive standard: CITE (Construction Industry Trading Electronically). CITE, in consultation with quantity surveyors, contractors and software providers, defined and published a standard for BQ exchange, which has been adopted, wholly or in part, by the majority of software providers in the UK construction industry.
Unfortunately, in many instances the CITE standard is yet to achieve its full potential and arguably, it never will. QS's are providing an electronic BQ to their tenderers, who in turn are reading it into their estimating systems, but it seems that all too often that is where it stops, the tenderer returning a printed BQ not an electronic one.
It seems there are three main obstacles to realising CITE's full potential:
- Willingness of the contractors to return an electronic tender document
- The ability of the contractor's estimating system to export in the CITE format
- The ambiguous nature of some aspects of the CITE standard leading to implementation problems.
If the UK construction industry is ever to achieve the kinds of efficiencies proposed by both Latham and Egan then clearly these obstacles have to be overcome. |
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