How to Form the Knowledge that Marketers Need? An Approach for Marketers to SMEs

International audienceTraditionally, the formula for knowledge consists of belief and truth. The key challenge behind this is to understand how a marketer can benefit from this knowledge. Like the traditional Chinese saying, the reason a ship floats or sinks is the same, it is because of water. Similarly, the success or failure of a marketing campaign depends on knowledge. For a marketer, useful knowledge is the combination between the truth and the customer " s belief

Academe—industry collaboration through the experience of a construction IT membership-based network

Traditionally, the construction industry has been renowned for its deep fragmentation, with various stakeholders and disciplines brought together as virtual teams, in many instances for one-off projects. In addition, the industry is extremely information-intensive and document-driven. Such traits have been major contributors to the poor performance and inefficiency of the construction industry. For the last 30 years researchers have focused attention on the field of construction-related information technology with a view to improving industrial performance through the innovative application of information and communications technologies (ICT). In addition, in the mid-1990s member-based network organizations emerged, which aimed to bring together the various industry stakeholders in a neutral environment so that they could identify common problems and propose pragmatic ways of addressing them. Construct IT For Business (CIT) is an international industry-led collaborative network of leading-edge construction organizations. In the UK, CIT has a membership of over 50 organizations, including major construction companies, client organizations, suppliers and IT and communications companies, as well as professional institutes and R&amp;D and academic institutions. This paper addresses the impact of CIT and the key challenges it has encountered in pursuing its objectives, derived from its mission ‘to be an effective enabling and coordinating force in the application of IT within the construction process as a contribution to innovation and development of best practice’. It is concluded that the needs of the industry are diverse and can be served in various ways but that there is a strong desire to network, fuelled by firms' needs to be aware of IT developments and specifically of the likely future applications of IT in construction. </jats:p

Construction sustainability through visualisation of building operation

International audienceThe maintenance phase of construction project exerts the biggest influence on project sustainability which is measured in terms of environmental, social and economic impacts. Building maintenance itself is profoundly influenced by decisions at the design phase. Typically, building maintenance programmes are designed using preventative or responsive approaches. While the former have an adverse impact on both the economic and environmental priorities, the responsive methods tend to compromise the interests of the users. It is therefore argued that the just-in-time methodology is the only approach that is capable of producing an optimised and balanced solution to building maintenance scheduling. However, due to its retrospective nature, this method has posed serious practical challenges. On the other hand, with the advent of visualisation technologies and virtual prototyping, we are now capable of making informed decisions about design parameters as well as generating building maintenance scheduling that would facilitate a just-in-time solution. This chapter presents a visual methodology for developing just-in-time solution through visualisation of the degradation of building components. To this end, the chapter presents the overall time-based visualisation model and demonstrates the simulation process for two major building components—the lighting and flooring systems

Construction Sustainability Through Visualisation of Building Operation

International audienceThe maintenance phase of construction project exerts the biggest influence on project sustainability which is measured in terms of environmental, social and economic impacts. Building maintenance itself is profoundly influenced by decisions at the design phase. Typically, building maintenance programmes are designed using preventative or responsive approaches. While the former have an adverse impact on both the economic and environmental priorities, the responsive methods tend to compromise the interests of the users. It is therefore argued that the just-in-time methodology is the only approach that is capable of producing an optimised and balanced solution to building maintenance scheduling. However, due to its retrospective nature, this method has posed serious practical challenges. On the other hand, with the advent of visualisation technologies and virtual prototyping, we are now capable of making informed decisions about design parameters as well as generating building maintenance scheduling that would facilitate a just-in-time solution. This chapter presents a visual methodology for developing just-in-time solution through visualisation of the degradation of building components. To this end, the chapter presents the overall time-based visualisation model and demonstrates the simulation process for two major building components—the lighting and flooring systems