INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Information Management in Construction Organizations



Information Management in Construction Organizations

Introduction

Companies around the world are experiencing a new age of corporate competition. The emergence of globalization in different aspects of the organization, especially supply chains and the radical changes and transformations in technology at an escalating pace mark the present global network competition. This global network competition implies that companies and organizations must not only compete with the rival firms for strategic advantage, but also devise such collaborative and cooperative strategies with their business partners and associates that ensure a favourable, competitive position for their global supply chains. This ability of an organization to succeed in such an intense network competition depends largely upon the effective and efficient management of its information resources. Today, Information Management is one the core competencies that a firm must possess for gaining sustainable competitive advantage. However, it is also a fact that a large number of businesses have failed to develop proficient information management competence that often results in their poor standings, in the global competition.

One industry where globalization has affected the cost and supply of its product is the Construction industry. In the last few years, the Construction industry has experienced an increased demand for Construction, which in turn has caused the cost of Construction to increase drastically. The information (the logical output of a system) is critical for managers of a construction firm to achieve the objectives in the short, medium and long term relating to the various projects. The management wants to have a combination of sales, prices, turnover, costs and income per unit that result in higher recovery of invested capital. Given adequate information these essential facts, management may rely more on analytical and deductive methods than intuitive judgments and estimates that are forced to use when no relevant data is ...