So, what have other industries and business sectors achieved with Information and Systems Technology?  Also, how and why are they ahead of the AEC sector?
Looking back at what has happened since the start of the computer age it is possible to identify three evolutionary models. Since the 1960s we have had the Data Processing Model which is primarily operational in nature. Initially there were two types of systems (Ward and Peppard, 2003):

  • Monitoring – transaction handling and control;
  • Exception – triggered reporting and/or action.

By the early 1980s the personal computer (PC) was introduced. Soon new software tools , such as word processors, spreadsheets, electronic mail and user graphics, added two new functions for Information System (IS) and Information Technology (IT) developers and managers to consider:

  • Enquiry – flexible access to data and information initiated by user request;
  • Analysis – decision support, with flexible processing of data and information.

These applications provide managers with information and the ability to transform it in order to make effective management decisions. Yes, as computers stored more data, managers realized that this information could increase the effectiveness of decision making, so that, from the 1970s onwards, there was a move towards the Management Information Systems Model.

This transition was not an entirely smooth process. “The rationale for investment had reverted, in many cases, from ‘business pull’ to ‘technology push’ and the management style often regresses accordingly.” (Ward and Peppard, 2003) Ward and Peppard identified a number of lessons learned at this time. Here is a list of those which, in my view, are most important:

  • Justification of IS investments is not entirely a matter of return on investment / financial analysis.
  • The IS resource needs to move from a productive to a service orientation to enable users to obtain their own information from the data resource – the information centre concept.
  • There is a need for organizational policies, not just Data Processing methodologies.
  • Personal computers and office systems enable better MIS to be developed, provided that users and IS specialists both focus on the information needs rather than the technology.

By the early 1980s a third, and very significant, model was evolving. Indeed, it is in this third model where Architecture, Engineering and Construction businesses and professionals are laggards, and where the attention of this blog is to be focused.