The EU is forcing hedge funds to become more transparent. Consumer protection associations want Google demonstrate its commitment to openness. Even the American president is taking a hard line with the oil companies, wants to obligate them to more honesty.

And the construction industry? The ICE track between Nuremberg and Munich, construction of the Wehrhahn line in Düsseldorf and, finally, the disastrous collapse of Cologne’s municipal archive: resulting in costs to taxpayers of several billion Euros, irrevocably destroyed art treasures, and the loss of two lives. These recent scandals in the construction industry have shown that time is not running out, it already has run out when it comes to transparency in construction projects.

The famous project manager Mauritz von Strachwitz has taken a refreshingly open stance on these issues. In the podcast of the ILM Forum blog von Strachwitz states how professional project management with documentation, communication and transparency makes criminal acts more difficult. He talks about sustainability, how Project Spaces help, that companies can purchase planning services at a lower rate and why a Project Space is similar to the circulatory system. Listen for a moment!

conject co-founders Elke Tonscheidt and Antun Kovac, who runs the Austrian business from the Viennese office, are using the Real Vienna in the Austrian capital city to exchange with conject customers. For example with Peter Scheich, head of controlling at wien3420 Aspern Development AG. The company was founded solely to realize the ambitious project “aspern Seestadt Wiens”. A city with a new kind of quality with two million square meters of space, showing 20,000 jobs and home for 20,000 people.

With generous open space, a lake and extreme limitation of individual motorized transportation in favor alternative modes of transport. “We looked a long time until found a solution like that offered by conject. This software is capable of contending with the extreme complexity of our project and that can provide cost transparency,” Peter Scheich says as a thoroughly satisfied user.

The same is true for Stephan Barasits, who has been active in numerous CEO positions for Wien Holding. Founded in 1974 as a fully-owned subsidiary of the City of Vienna, Wien Holding combines all relevant business operations and activities of the city under one roof as a public company that acts in accordance with private-sector principles. Users at Wien Holding implement conject in project planning of the Breitensee Business Park “and with great success. Because we are able to bring together very many of the most diverse project partners to one shared platform,” Barasits states.

It is remarkable: Even if those building owners, project planners or general planners involved in a construction project are aware of how practical and useful a closed Project Space can be – they still communicate simultaneously via e-mail. And with the all-too-familiar results, as evident in conject’s customer survey: they lose valuable time looking for communication, documents or drawings,” are “fed up” because they never are sure where to look first or are uncertain whether “they are able to document all processes.”

Moreover, this superfluous multi-channel communication has a direct negative impact on daily work: “the approval process for drawings only works slowly,” ”there are gaps in existing documentation” and “discussions often arise because of misunderstandings.”

Upshot: The best Project Space is useless if participants do not display a minimum of self-discipline when using the Project. You will find a detailed look at the results of the survey by our specialist, Peer Wiesner, in the ILM Forum blog.

“Poland is one of the strongest growing regions in Europe and, for example, the only country in the EU to show positive economic growth in 2009. You can literally feel the spirit of optimism,” says Dr. Marta Tatiana Lang, responsible for conject´s recently formed Business Development in Poland. “We appreciate German innovative technology – but you won’t get very far with it alone. In Poland successful networking is indispensable “, says Dr. Lang, born in Warsaw. And having studied business administration, she knows what she is talking about. After all she received her degree in organization theory. This is important in day-to-day business beyond technical skills. For this reason, the first conject Business Breakfast in Warsaw on March 11th in Hilton Hotel was widely well received and fully booked.

Thanks to this combination of competence, professional support and technology “Made in Germany,” conject can already claim several renowned projects in this market, such as Most Północny in Warsaw.

But also well-known customers, such as Knight Frank Sp. z o. o. the Polish office of the international real estate consulting firm and one of the speakers during the Business Breakfast in Warsaw who presented the benefits of conject, the investment fund BZ WBK Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych Arka or Inter IKEA Center Polska S.A., one of the most active Polish retail project developers are among the customers.

conject Poland plans to acquire new projects in hotel and retail segments and further develop customers in Property and Asset Management, because the temporary slowdown in the construction and real estate market in the past months increased the pressure on the organizations to drive efficiency and deliver reliable property documentation and reporting. According to Dr. Lang, this can also be observed, so that within a short time the Polish market has emerged as one of conject’s most important international markets.

Following the successful start of the conject Twitter-account, conject is launching two other promising social media activities soon. On one hand, XING Group Infrastructure Lifecycle Management is geared towards all interested parties and users of software in the construction and real estate industry. On the other hand, the ILM blog has already become extremely popular in the sector.

Both journalists and web designers, Eric Sturm and Christoph Berger have made a substantial contribution towards the success of both projects.

Berger is a free-lance journalist and lives and works in Berlin, as does Eric Sturm. The online editor and political scientist first came into contact with Infrastructure Lifecycle Management when he wrote about software for property management for Handelsblatt in May of 2007. “The contact to conject AG was established then and has never let up since,” states Berger. Graduate engineer Eric Sturm has been involved with the presentation of content and services in the Internet for nine years. In 2003 he founded the online magazine “Internet für Architekten“, in 2006 followed the foundation of the video platform architekturvideo.de, the first German-language portal for architectural videos. Most recently in 2007 the architect founded his company ericsturm.de – Webdesign für Freiberufler.

What do they both enjoy about working with conject? “The most exciting thing about working for conject is to be a part of the social media activities from the very start. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter make it possible to be in direct contact with readers and to receive the most diverse opinions and assessments – sometime even corrections in the actual data. Just as with the classic forms of media – it is not only merely sent, it is also received. As a result, topics can be discussed and suggestions can be taken up. It is a way of collaborating, the possibility to move forward together in one field and to profit from one another,” says Christoph Berger.

Eric Sturm feels that the following three aspects of social media use are relevant: “First, networks, in other words, the digitalization of contacts. Second, marketing. This includes the company website, as well as other newer formats like blogs or Twitter. And third, optimization of the workflow. With social media tools, I am able to organize and optimize collaboration with others.”

New to conject, but a well known expert by trade with over 20 years experience in the Facilities Management and Maintenance business – this is Keith Birch who joined the conject team at the beginning of the year. Keith has worked with more than 65 major clients and prestigious projects in the Middle East and abroad, such as The Atlantis (Palm Jumeirah), Emirates Airlines, EMCOR, Hilton, Abu Dhabi Mall, Dalkia and The Millennium Hotel. A variety of clients, but in the end they share the same pain points: Proper asset collection and a strong need for command and control of single properties or large portfolios of objects.

Keith Birch is a well known name in the Emirates – he was the instigator of FSI Middle East. He created the Regional Office in Abu Dhabi from scratch. In 2002 he went out to the Middle East to meet with ADMA OPCO and while he was there he did a scoping study on CAFM and the maintenance in buildings within the Abu Dhabi area. He visited several large organisations including Drake & Skull - now EMCOR - to determine if it would be feasible to open an office. “It was tough”, Keith remembers, “going to sites trying to convince the locals to maintain the buildings and try to reduce the repairs by the use of a CAFM system and to create a Planned Preventative Maintenance regime. But we did make it happen.”

Although Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) is a well-proven approach with thousands of customer and users worldwide, in the Middle East this whole subject is rather new. “conject is at the forefront in spearheading this technology for the real estate sector in the Middle East”, Keith is convinced. Uwe Forgber, Managing Director of conject MEA and in Dubai since three years, is very happy to have Keith on board. “It is a very obvious synergy. conject has a strong reputation in the European market on CAFM with thousands of customers and users. Keith’s expertise on CAFM, coupled with his consultancy expertise, proved to us the perfect fit!”

At conject, Keith Birch is responsible for Business development and the successful implementation of Computer-Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) solutions in the Middle East, Asian and African region. “Jointly, we can develop the market because as everyone would agree, it is premature, but with great potential. It really is a beginning of a successful story”.