E-Biz Tools Aren't Smart Enough for Construction

In "The e-biz surprise" (Cover Story, May 12), you note that the construction industry has come up with a big fat zero. I'm not surprised, because simple-minded e-biz products can't do much for this complicated business. The worldwide construction industry marketplace is measured in hundreds of billions of dollars per year. Give me a set of computerized weapons that will help me reduce my overall project costs. I'll be happy with 5%, 10%, 15% -- or anything I can get.

Back in the '60s and early '70s, I worked for the Japanese shipbuilding industry. We used to hand-crank a bunch of heuristic algorithms to reduce overall project costs by making "smart" resource allocation/acquisition decisions. In the '80s, my associates and I successfully used the same models for many projects for Xytel Group and Xytel-Bechtel Inc. Why can't we use the impressive power of the personal computer and the Internet to do the same things in the 21st century?