CADWEB - Project extranet and project collaboration extranets

Product

In 2002, Cadweb released its latest evolution: Cadweb.net is the fastest and most robust project information exchange, management and collaboration tool on the Web.

If you would like to try Cadweb.net for free and without any obligation, go ahead and click join a project and just give us your details and we can put you on a project usually within 30 mins. When your asked to choose a project to join, just type in 'Test' and you will be added to a test project. [All applications to join live projects, are vetted first by Cadweb's project managers and then the project owners.]

What is Cadweb.net?

Cadweb is an Internet based project information management system that facilitates, accelerates and records all electronic communication between parties to a construction contract. Cadweb is accredited to the ISO / British Standard for Information Security (ISO 27001) to guarantee that project information is exchanged and stored as securely and reliably as traditional paper records.

What does Cadweb.net do?

Cadweb.net is used instead of the post, the fax machine or email to send and receive information relating to your contract or subcontract. The traditional flow of information either in paper form or by email is diagrammatically represented below:

An Extranet routes all information through a central database located on the internet, thus enabling all project communications to be recorded, visible to everyone on the project and auditable. The diagram below illustrates how information flows when a project Extranet is used:

The following benefits are achieved:

Fast Information Transfer
The Cadweb.net system is simpler and faster than any other method of sending information between parties. Any document type can be sent in any file format (drawings, RFIs, spreadsheets, letters, comments, etc). It takes you only a minute or two, and is available to the recipients as soon as you have finished sending it – without the sort of delays involved in printing, photocopying, filling out QA forms and licking stamps. You will never be told, “it is in the post” and then have to wait for it!

Recorded Delivery
Cadweb.net keeps a record of every item sent or received by you on the project. You can view this record at any time in order to establish who sent what to whom and for what purpose, when it was sent, whether it was acknowledged and when it was viewed or collected. This independently verified audit trail cannot be disputed: if something was sent and received then that is what happened – no excuses such as “I sent it to you last week”!

Secure Automatic Filing and Storage
Cadweb.net automatically files all your project information by using the sender’s reference number, revision, date and other attributes. All this is stored on the Cadweb server in a secure way so that you can find and retrieve any or all of your files, issue sheets and messages with ease and minimum delay. Since first used in 1997, and on hundreds of projects, Cadweb has never misplaced a file.

What does it save?

Organisations using Cadweb.net have reported enormous savings in time, paper handling, and money. If you use Cadweb.net for all your communications, filing and archive storage. If you do any of these things by traditional methods, you will fail to make some of the savings.

60% of printing costs and 85% of photocopying costs.
100% of filing and archiving costs.
100% of postage costs.

Who does it Benefit?

The application has been designed to suit the current requirements of all members of construction project teams:

For the client it provides a secure, permanent and quickly accessible record of the project. This covers the entire project lifecycle from feasibility through planning, design, construction, completion and all facilities management functions. Project contingency costs are greatly reduced.
For the professionals seamless collaboration and communication tools, with full accountability to professional quality assurance standards. Projects document handling and printing time costs are saved.
For the construction team the ability to manage the project programme and construction process related information in a way never before possible. Project information, its status and revision together with workflow documents such as RFI's are instantly available to the management team.

Experience shows that the most important qualities of an on-line extranet are Simplicity, Speed and Security.

Simplicity
The Cadweb tools are ideally suited to the task and so simple to use that they will be the preferred method for any member of the team to communicate on the project.

In order to use the system, users need only be familiar with construction business practices. Just send the information (drawings, a memo, a letter) to the people who need it via Cadweb's simple issue-sheet interface. Cadweb does the rest - delivers it to the recipients and keeps a copy on file.

In today's world of digital information there are constant demands for instant access to project information. With Cadweb.net it is possible to find any information on the system at a click. There are no confusing folders, just plain-language links to project information. Users can search their filing cabinets at any time by mouse-click; or in more detail by using simple, but powerful, searches.

Information can be read or viewed online or in Cadweb's local viewer just by selecting it.

Speed
An ingenious combination of Internet, database and file management technologies makes Cadweb.net the fastest web application of its type in the world. The system compresses all information transfers - thereby speeding the process by up to six times. Files are digitally signed allowing a unique information cache on the user's computer to eliminate all redundant file transfers.

Security
Cadweb.net is designed to be incredibly reliable. The servers are designed to be up 99.9% of the time - and have been for 9 years. If a user's Internet connection fails, the application will not lose any data. It will simply postpone communications until the connection returns and re commence where it left off. The system conducts an end to end check to verify the transaction before it stamps the database.

The system has built-in accountability. Audit trails are kept of all communications so that users can establish the whereabouts information. High security is achieved by using 128 bit encryption for all information transfers. All uploaded files are stored in an encrypted, compressed state, and the whole system is independently audited to the ISO 27001 Information Security Management Standard.

How do I get Started?

When you join a project team that is using Cadweb.net, you will need to fill in a form on the Cadweb.net website, http://www.cadweb.net, to tell us who you are. Simply select “Join a project” and fill in the form following the on screen instructions. Your application will be vetted by the project owner and Cadweb will be authorised to admit you to the project. You will then be sent your user name and password by email and guided through the use of the system by the Cadweb Project Manager assigned to your project.

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