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'E-specs' aim to save time, money
Portland Press Herald Tuesday, May 16, 2000
By CLARKE CANFIELD, Staff Writer
Any architect knows the painstaking process of figuring
out the thousands of minute details that go into designing a building.
A Portland company is trying to make the procedure a little less tedious.
From its small offices in the Old Port, Interspec LLC
uses proprietary technology, the Internet and mountains of data to
sell automated spec-writing services to architects.
The idea of writing architectural specifications might
lack the pizzazz of Web sites that sell cool electronic gizmos or
plane tickets or even fishing equipment. Architectural specs, after
all, are essentially meticulous instructions on construction details
like what kind of concrete or roofing a project requires.
But from a business perspective, Interspec may be onto
something. The construction field has boomed in recent years, and
architects spend hundreds of millions of dollars on spec-writing each
year. Additionally, the business-to-business market on the Internet
is roaring.
Interspec began selling its services about a year ago,
and has built its customer base to close to 30 clients in 16 states
without actively marketing itself. It expects to turn a profit this
year. Most Internet companies can only dream of such a thing. (Take
that, Amazon.com.)
Interspec says that its "e-Specs" spec-writing
service — and its e-specs.com Web site — can save architects time
and money. In so doing, it enables companies to increase their productivity
in a small yet substantial way.
The company also demonstrates how the Internet can empower
a small enterprise on Commercial Street to extend its markets to virtually
anywhere on the globe.
"We're using the Internet to take a local business
and go out and expand," said Gilles Letourneau, who is in charge
of Interspec's technology. "We can just as easily take a project
from Seattle as we can from Westbrook."
Michael Brennan, Interspec's chief executive, said the
market potential for e-Specs is huge. There is about $400 billion
a year worth of building construction in the United States, of which
10 percent or so goes to architecture fees. Of that amount, 1 percent
to 2 percent is spent on spec writing, he said.
"Spec writing alone could be worth $500 million
to $1 billion," Brennan said. "$500 million at least."
In Internet time, Interspec is almost ancient. It dates
back to the fall of 1997, when Brennan, Letourneau and two other partners
who live out of state started the company. They spent the first year
developing the technology and began selling the services about a year
ago.
Letourneau is an architect and specifier (or spec writer)
who years ago envisioned creating an automated spec-writing system.
His idea is the driving force behind Interspec, and it is his technology
that allows the system to work.
When architects design buildings, they have to provide
specifications — or specs — for all the materials used.
They specify the types of doors, concrete, windows,
roofing, flooring, siding, insulation, plumbing fixtures, lighting,
toilets and hundreds of other items that will be used in a project.
For a large building like a school or an office building, a specifications
book can easily be several hundred or even 1,000 pages or more.
Interspec automates the spec-writing process by using
a technology that connects a large database of building specifications
to an electronic architectural drawing of the project. Depending on
the job, the typical charge ranges from under $1,000 to up to $10,000.
Customers can also access the specs by Internet, allowing them to
watch as they are being written and make changes if they want. "It's
almost as if they're sitting next to me as I'm working on their projects,"
Letourneau said.
So far, Interspec has completed more than 50 projects,
including schools, homes, municipal buildings, a Marine barracks,
a golf club and a car dealership. It also has a do-it-yourself "ezSpecs
Online" program for $149 for architects with small commercial
and residential projects.
But that's not to say that Interspec has the field to
itself.
Greg Balestrero, executive director of the Construction
Specifications Institute in Alexandria, Va., said a growing number
of companies in the so-called "AEC" field — architecture,
engineering and construction — are turning to the Internet in increasing
numbers. In January 1999, he said, only 10 dot-com companies served
the AEC market, he said. Now there are 130 to 140 such companies.
Experts say that most everything in the construction
industry will be automated and online, from spec writing to bidding
on projects to choosing subcontractors. This is all part of the booming
business- to-business market on the Internet, which Forrester Research
Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., predicts will grow to $2.7 trillion by 2004.
"This is significant, because if it happens, it
eliminates a tremendous amount of paperwork that takes an enormous
amount of time," Balestrero said.
Other companies around the country sell spec-writing
documents online and other products that allow for spec writing to
be done in check-list fashion on a computer. However, Letourneau said,
he knows of no company other than Interspec that has the technology
to directly link electronic architectural drawings with large databases
of text documents.
All of which streamlines the spec-writing process and
save architects time and money. An architect who recently called Interspec
said it would take six weeks for him to complete the specs for a complex
project. "We quoted him a turnaround of six days," Letourneau
said.
Mark Burnes, project manager with Gawron Architects
in Scarborough, says Interspec does more than just save time and money.
He also likes the fact that Letourneau serves as another experienced
set of eyes looking over the project plans.
"It's good to have a person who has the experience
to give you feedback: 'Are you sure you wanted this?' 'Have you ever
tried this?,' " he said. "There are lots of positives to
this process."
Staff Writer Clarke Canfield can be contacted at 791-6464
or at: ccanfield@pressherald.com
Copyright © 2000 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
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