Barriers for Technology Still Exist in A/E Industry

NATICK, Mass. -- Architects, engineers, and planners are finally realizing the benefits that information technology can bring to their business, said IT experts, speaking at at a recent Zwig White conference. However, the experts said, there are several barriers that must be overcome before IT can be used to its full potential.

There are few incentives for A/E and environmental companies to want to try out new technologies. Factors like the high cost of new technology and inability to pass that cost along are chief among them. Also, should something go wrong where the new technology was involved, the litigious attitudes associated with projects make the firm subject to lawsuits. Instead of working together with a client to solve the problem, firms are often forced to shoulder all of the blame, making it less appealing to try something new.

One of the best ways to make change work in a company is from the top down. In order for IT leaders to begin working on changes that company leaders will support, they need to ask those leaders what they want. It sounds simple, but it's not always done, said Mark Zweig, president and CEO of ZweigWhite and a keynote speaker at the conference. "The boss is not stupid, but he may be ignorant," he said.

The war for IT progression is being lost on the home front inside individual companies. IT managers and other technology leaders need to work hard to build relationships within their own firms to prevent that from happening.

People lost trust in technology after the dot-com bubble burst and that trust needs to be regained. Gaining back that trust involves speaking to staff members using vocabulary they can understand, not technical jargon. By doing so, IT staff can gain back some of that trust and become more effective at being a change agent in the firm.