Information management support and services with knowledge management for concurrent engineering in virtual construction enterprises: An exploratory study

This paper presents the preliminary findings of a study based on the identification of a workable information management support and services system to support concurrent engineering in virtual construction enterprises. A further dimension to the study is added through research on a possible mechanism for knowledge management with this operational environment. It was found that though theoretically an efficient information support and services system alongside a knowledge management environment does exist existing software applications do not effectively offer the services in the form of a consolidated package. This paper proposes some basic requirements of such a system and presents a guideline for construction companies to consider in their virtual enterprise alliances, and for software vendors to consider in their future developments.