Construction's largest fleet owners are jumping on the Internet bandwagon, but the mainstream is still watching from the sidelines, dot-com executives lament. Livermore wants better online information from equipment manufacturers. But he understands that manufacturers dislike the idea of finding and putting 20 years of past equipment data on line. At the least, Livermore wants them to put all such future data on line. Nearly 400 equipment manufacturers maintain Websites with product information, some even with complete specification sheets.
Many sites suffer from stale equipment prices, and lack real-time technical data.
Information retrieval can be slow, especially for large files. Pa. Late last year, the firm helped spark the growing movement to create descriptions of items used in construction, including equipment, in a computer language called aecxml that is especially geared for working on the Web. Etiel says the first version of the language will be made available later this year. Ill.-based Caterpillar is developing an electronic storefront that offers everything the customer would see if they entered a dealership. If contractors need a part after dealer hours, for example, they have the option to procure it over the Internet through the dealer's site.