It's a statistic of which industry officials are well aware. Day says the biggest barrier to general contractors and the Internet is their size. As more contractors adapt the Internet into their daily operations, competition will demand those smaller firms use the Internet as part of their business strategy, Day adds. And the Internet offers contractors lots of opportunities. One potential the Internet offers contractors is remote project management.
More contractors are putting up Web sites specific to a construction project, officials say.
It's something that's already part of the plan for two local contractors. In a project the company bid for recently, Eby prepared a mock Web site for an art, technology and physics complex at Southwest Texas State University. It's only a matter of time before a Web site specific to a construction project will be the norm in the industry. Such sites speed communication between the parties involved in the project, he adds. Key is providing Walgreens and its Oklahoma-based architect access to the same kind of information through its intranet, an internal computer network.