AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.06.2003, Side 73

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Common message protocol and
payload
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eProCon: the Nordic product information platform
k r
Menufacuters Suppiiers e-Marketplaces
quality, construction professionals
find using the Internet in their
work cumbersome.
Widely-accepted standards and
solutions for producing basic
information on building products
have not been readily available for
product manufacturers that meet
the information requirements of
the AEC/FM industry. E-cata-
logues routinely used for e-pro-
curement and links to manufac-
turers’ web sites are the most fre-
quent sources for information.
Their common feature is that a
human user is needed to navi-
gate, interpret and extract any
meaningful information when
evaluating and matching product
properties in the decision-making
and procurement processes. The
lack of structure, fragmentation,
heterogeneous nature of the
information and incompatible
semantics makes it inapplicable
for computer processing, which
extensively restricts its usefulness
and offers little advantage over
conventional paper-based infor-
mation sources. Building prod-
ucts also represent a special
challenge compared to other
types of products, as they are
more frequently made to a cus-
tom specification (one-of-a-kind)
and in many cases configurable
to adapt to varying user require-
ments.
Aim and Vision
The general aim and vision of the
eProCon project is to enable
seamless flow of building product
information in an electronic form
over the life cycle of a product in
the construction value chain, to
support more efficient collabora-
tion and communication among
manufacturers, suppliers, infor-
mation providers, designers,
engineers, contractors, facility
maintainers and owners through-
out the construction business
processes and to enable e-work-
ing in design and construction
and e-procurement of building
products.
More specifically, the eProCon
project aims to provide manufac-
turers and suppliers with the
means to produce and publish
re-usable building product infor-
mation based on open standards
whilst allowing them to maintain
their distinctive market values and
differentiating product character-
istics. Information service
providers and e-marketplaces
offer the ability to transparently
aggregate building product infor-
mation from multiple manufactur-
ers to create the critical mass
required for cost-effective infor-
mation portals and to integrate
value-added information and cus-
tomer services. Construction pro-
fessionals with access to quality
building product information from
one focal point with functionality
and intelligent targeted search
capabilities for finding, evaluating
and selecting products for appli-
cation in an informed way when
designing, constructing and
maintaining facilities.
The eProCon technical develop-
ments, specifically address the
needs of SMEs with low-end IT
infrastructure and skills, also pro-
vide advanced support for
integration of high-end ITC solu-
tions.
Solution
EProCon provides an open, flexi-
ble framework for integrating dis-
tributed building product informa-
tion and customer services into
national information portals host-
ed in the Nordic countries.
Technical developments include a
set of core specifications and
middleware technologies, based
on open XML standards, that will
enable information service
providers (brokers) and informa-
tion providers (suppliers) to lever-
age their existing systems in a
cooperative network for building
product information delivery. The
eProCon architecture provides
Nordic building information cen-
tres (the eProCon partners) the
ability to exchange and share
information between the national
information portals, integrate var-
ied value-adding information and
services with product information,
and for manufacturers and suppli-
ers to integrate and manage
building product information in a
transparent way.