System designed to connect contractors

Despite the dot-com downturn, computer-based technological innovations continue to sweep into the world of Cleveland-area construction companies. The latest entry is set to go live within days as Construction Network Systems LLC launches a private, members-only network for the local construction market.

Robert K. Wallace, the company's majority owner who carries the title of president of sales and marketing, designed Construction Network's system as a way to avoid the costly and time-consuming process of handling multiple copies of blueprints -- a process he saw repeatedly in his job as a concrete salesman.

There's no World Wide Web with Construction Network. Mr. Wallace eschewed the Internet because he believes direct phone connections between dedicated computer equipment are more secure than using a web-based approach.

The idea behind the network is to link general contractors with their subcontractors and architects in an easy-to-use system that gives customers privacy to ship plans to each other without downloading delays and to keep the plans automatically updated. Plans can be displayed to all the network's members should a contractor wish to do so, Mr. Wallace said.

The software also avoids what Mr. Wallace argues is the big problem in the industry -- "the lie (that) I didn't see the change" in the drawings. The system tracks changes made to blueprints as jobs evolve. A CD-ROM is burned at the end of the job to provide a history of it for future use and for legal protection.

Construction Network uses a rarity smacking of a data processing throwback -- a system that relies on placing its own processing units and screens in contractors' offices. That setup avoids problems with outdated machines and conflicts in software and the need for specialists at the companies, Mr. Wallace said.

"This is also the construction industry, where the person who is sitting at a desk drinking coffee waiting for a download is getting paid $27 an hour," said Mr. Wallace, whose nine-employee company is based in Middleburg Heights.

But the hardware strategy also hikes the price. The package costs upwards of $315 a month.

Charles Marshall, president of Marshall Construction Co. of Richfield, is among the first 10 general contractors to agree to go onto the system. He said he was attracted by Construction Network's ability to provide secure, private connections, which are valuable for contractors specializing in design-build projects. Secrecy is prized in such projects, and the jobs are rarely publicly bid.

Construction Network joins those local groups providing online services to the construction industry.

Builders Exchange, a Brooklyn Heights trade group for construction contractors, operates an Internet-based public bidding system for its members. Executive director Gregg Mazurek said members pay fees of $575 a year and can add the system's plan services for another $600 a year.

"Once contractors get a job, we're out of the loop," Mr. Mazurek said. He described the Builders Exchange system as an online construction job reporting service, an electronic version of the traditional industry plan room.

Mr. Mazurek credits Builders Exchange's system for boosting its membership rolls and doesn't believe Construction Network will harm the group. He acknowledged the need for private communication exists, and said his group plans an option within the next 60 days allowing a contractor to post only his or her own plans and specs on an area of the site.

The operator of one web-based online bidding system said he believes Construction Network's costs are prohibitive.

"Nobody's going to buy it," said Bob Fortney, president of both Constructionbidding.com Inc. and the Fortney & Weygandt Inc. general contracting firm in North Olmsted.

"This is construction; you have enough problems with people spending $20 a month," Mr. Fortney said. "A very limited number of people are going to spend money for a service like this, but I'm not one to sit in judgment on someone else's plan."

Mr. Fortney's system relies on registered sponsors paying $3 per set of drawings plus a quarter a page to post plans on the web site. Mr. Fortney launched the Internet company 18 months ago with his own money after developing a system for his own firm's use. He said he now gets 100,000 hits a week on his site.

"I didn't think the industry was ready for it," Mr. Fortney said. "Every day, I've been proven wrong."

For his part, Mr. Wallace said the cost of his approach is worth it for the virtues of the system. And, he added, "I'm not having any trouble signing anyone up." He said 100 users have pledged to work on the system when it's launched.

Mr. Wallace said he and an investor he wouldn't identify spent $1 million creating Construction Network. He estimates the company will be profitable within six months. He's also scouting out-of-town locations to launch it; they include Columbus, Detroit, Tampa, Fla., and the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.

And five years out?
"We've not looked that far," Mr. Wallace said.

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