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(Source enr.com - Date 3/23/03)

By Judy Schriener

Marketing professionals of AEC firms and their clients claim that their number one challenge today is keeping up with technology. Next in the queue of challenges is finding and keeping good employees and training existing workers. Not surprisingly, firms say that the biggest advantage of e-technology is improved availability of information, whereas loss of personal contact is the most significant disadvantage.

Clients say they use the Web to research AEC companies, and there they expect to find contact information, brochure-type information and, preferably, current projects. Some want pricing data too. An AEC firm's e-technology savvy is not currently a top criterion for selection, say most clients, but they indicate that it will become more so in the future.

These findings are from a national Web-based survey of client expectations of e-technology commissioned by the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) Foundation, the education and research arm of the SMPS trade organization; they were announced at the recent SMPS National Marketing Conference in Orlando, Fla.

SMPS members were sent three e-mails explaining the purpose of the survey and inviting them to participate, and they were urged to invite their clients to respond to the client version of the survey as well. Four hundred seventy five (or 10%) of 4,527 members who were e-mailed the invitation responded between June 15 and July 9, resulting in data with a confidence level of 95%, with a standard error of +/- 4.25. Since only 52 clients filled out their surveys and there was no accurate report of how many clients received the invitations from SMPS members, the client information is not statistically valid and "should be viewed as directional information," according to the study.

Both clients and members suggest "improved communication" to improve e-technology skills, says Judy Kienle, whose company, Kienle Communications Ltd., Dublin, Ohio, commissioned Sunbelt Research Associates Inc., Jupiter, Fla., to do the study for the SMPS Foundation. "No matter how successful we get with technology, they're telling us that nothing will replace human contact," says Kienle.

Source: SMPS e-Technology Survey

Advantages
Nearly half (47%) of SMPS members thought their clients would say that availability of information is the primary advantage of e-technology. Over half (52%) of clients do say that. Members overestimate the importance to their clients of time savings and underestimate the value of centralization of data. About 39% of members thought that time savings would be named as the major advantage of e-technology by clients, but significantly fewer, 27%, cite time savings as their number one choice. Only 8% of members thought that centralization of data is of primary importance to clients, but 13% of clients name that as their first choice. Larger member firms are more accurate in those predictions than smaller member firms, according to the study.

Cost savings, named just 5% of the time by member firms and 6% by clients, "does not appear to be a driving force," the study says.

Disadvantages
SMPS members correctly predicted that clients would name loss of personal contact as the biggest disadvantage of e-technology; 35% of members said their clients would point to that first and 38% of clients do. Second choice is "inconsistent use" of e-technology, named by 23% of SMPS member respondents and 21% of clients.

Third is information overload, fourth is security and fifth is incompatibility. Nearly twice as many members predicted that security would be the number one problem for clients as clients that named it, 18% and 10%, respectively. However, all but about 6%-7% of both members and clients say they are either "somewhat concerned" or "very concerned" about security, even if other problems are a bigger driving force.

Source: SMPS e-Technology Survey

Compatibility issues can be solved by good old fashioned conversations about what kinds of drawings, photos, documents and other files each party will send . "You don't just start sending these things," cautions Barbara Allan, president of Sunbelt Research. Have a meeting; discuss who will be sending what and whether the formats and platforms are compatible, she suggests.

E-Technology Savvy
Nearly three fourths of members think their clients are satisfied with the member firm's e-technology skills, but only half of clients actually say they are. When clients are asked specifically where AEC firms could improve, the majority of responses are in the categories of better communication and better software compatibility. The study cites two representative comments: "Better compatibility and standard software for marketing materials to enhance teaming/joint proposals" and "I would like more staff at the architect's office to have dedicated mailboxes so I could e-mail them directly."

Clients do not consider themselves early adopters of e-technology. SMPS members' perceptions of their clients are on target with their clients' own definitions in terms of how receptive they are to technology. In general, 60% of clients describe themselves as wanting to "wait a little while" before adopting new technology; 60% of members evaluate their clients in that category. Around 20% of both members and clients see the clients as early adopters, with about the same number seeing clients as "late to enter" the technology arena.

Nearly one third of AEC firms report using Web-hosted extranets on projects. It is the same across the three types of firms, architectural, engineering and construction firms.

Source: SMPS e-Technology Survey

Web Sites as Selection Criteria
More than half, 53%, of clients say they use the Web to research AEC firms either sometimes (40%) or often (13%). Just 15% say they never go to the Web to find out about AEC firms.

Upward of 90% of SMPS members say that their firms have Web sites; those that don't tend to be smaller firms of under 50 employees or younger companies in business for less than 10 years. Most member firms, more than 90%, say they utilize their Web sites to impart information, mostly brochure-style with little interactivity, and nearly 80% of them use their sites for recruitment. About half of the members responding to the survey say they post and update project information.

Clients name contact information and basic brochure information as what they most want to see on AEC firms' Web sites, followed by updated project information. There lies a disconnect. About three-fourths of clients say they want project information, but only about half of member firms provide it on their Web sites.

Sixty percent of clients say they expect to see electronic capabilities for RFP/RFQ submissions on AEC companies' Web sites, and nearly one third of clients expect billing and payment capabilities on the Web, though just 4% think it's "very important.". Almost 20% expect Webcam technology. Whether SMPS member firms offer those features and technologies is not addressed in the survey.

One controversial element of the survey is that 13% of clients want pricing information but just 2% of SMPS members put that on their Web sites. Many members feel that pricing information is inappropriate for Web sites, according to the discussion at the SMPS conference.

Clients indicate that e-technology is not nearly as important a factor in the selection of an AEC firm as specialized expertise and exceptional service. "Only 11% feel a firm's e-technology expertise plays more than 50% level of importance in the selection of an AEC firm. However, 33% feel expertise in e-technology will become a more important selection factor in the future, and 44% feel it will become somewhat more important," the study says.

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