Staying in Touch

The Nanhai project is a round-the-clock and round-the-world effort, with planners and designers in 15 nations. Even in China itself, the work is far-flung, stretching from the project site in rural Guangdong Province to Wuhan and Beijing.

To keep everyone in touch, project managers decided early on to make extensive use of ProjectNet, Bechtel’s Web-based collaboration software. The Nanhai ProjectNet implementation now has 1,339 registered users from 41 organizations. They use the program to share information, transfer files, schedule meetings, comment on documents, and post announcements on a virtual bulletin board.

Since the start of the project, 127 gigabytes of data have been uploaded to ProjectNet and 310 GB have been downloaded. The tool’s online discussion boards and e-mail also helped combat feelings of isolation during the SARS epidemic.

Without ProjectNet, the parties would have had to share information on disks via courier services or over wide area network connections, which can be expensive and take as long as 90 days to install.

“Within three days of the project award, the three joint venture partners were able to share information,” says Peter Staines, information technology and project services manager. “All they required was a PC and an Internet connection. It resulted in reduced turnaround times for the issuing and review of critical documentation.”