Electronic procurement of construction products

Abstract

The advent of e-commerce is revolutionising the way individuals and businesses procure goods and services. There has been tremendous growth in the so-called "Business-to-Customer" (B2C) transactions, with the most significant impact on business processes expected to be made by "Business-to- Business" (B2B) transactions. While other industry sectors are rising to the challenges of e-commerce, the construction industry has been relatively slow to respond. This is due in part to the industry's conservative culture, as well as the lack of appropriate applications to facilitate B2B transactions between myriad groupings and disciplines that make up the construction industry. This paper explores the electronic procurement of construction products on the web and presents an application that is intended to facilitate e-commerce in construction by matching customer requirements with available products. Research issues and implications for the wider construction industry are drawn from the lessons learned in developing the prototype application.

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