ABSTRACT
As already highlighted in this book, collaboration is an essential part of construction projects because of its multiorganisational and geographically dispersed project nature. Collaboration tools and systems are commonly used and the industry is constantly seeking new, more efficient and more effective information and communication technology (ICT)-based solutions. Despite emerging technologies offering the construction industry opportunities for computer-supported collaboration environments, the companies adopting these technologies commonly fail to achieve the full benefits from their implementations. This is usually attributed to the priority being given to the technical factors over other aspects related to change management, human and organisational issues, and the roles of the high-level management and end users. Each new information technology (IT) implementation involves some form of change for the organisation and the employees, and is therefore a potential source of resistance and uncertainty unless special attention is paid to managing the related change. This chapter presents the findings from two sets of case studies: the first explored the general issues associated with the implementation of collaboration environments within construction firms (collaboration environment implementation case studies); the second investigated the use and potential benefits of mobile collaboration technologies on construction sites (mobile collaboration technologies case studies).
