BIW Technologies -- UK -- Selects Web4's Document Collaboration Technology for its Leading Construction Portal.YORBA LINDA Yorba Linda (yôr`bə lĭn`də), city (1990 pop. 52,422), Orange co., S Calif., in a region of citrus fruit; inc. 1967. The city has grown tremendously along with the southern California area; its population increased fivefold between , Calif. -- Web4, a division of netGuru, Inc. (Nasdaq:NGRU), a provider of enterprise-wide collaborative document review solutions, today announced that BIW BIW Body in White (automotive design technique) BIW Business Information Warehouse biw Biweekly (medication dose) BIW Building Information Warehouse BIW Ben Ik Weer (Dutch: I'm Back) Technologies, UK (BIW) is to invest around $0.5 million over the next two years to use Web4's expertise to enhance its BIW visual interface. The UK market leader, BIW's web-based BIW Information Channel(TM) construction collaboration platform An emerging category of computer software, collaboration platforms are unified electronic platforms that support synchronous and asynchronous communication through a variety of devices and channels. is also Europe's most intensively used construction project management system. Since 2000, BIW has invested heavily in creating its own powerful visual collaboration environment, carefully integrated with its core platform. To help it increase its lead over its European competitors, BIW is investing in extending the capabilities delivered through its viewer interface. Working in a development partnership with Web4, BIW intends to enhance its viewer's asynchronous Refers to events that are not synchronized, or coordinated, in time. The following are considered asynchronous operations. The interval between transmitting A and B is not the same as between B and C. The ability to initiate a transmission at either end. and real-time collaboration facilities. Drawing on Web4's expertise in developing eReview, future releases of BIW's visual interface will support a wider range of file formats, deliver new online meeting, chat and messaging features, and incorporate advanced voice and video technologies. End-users will be able to collaborate in real-time, using co-view, co-markup and conferencing features; such 'net meetings' will also be capable of being saved, replayed and archived into BIW Information Channel's work environment. BIW Information Channel is a sophisticated web-based supply chain integration technology, designed specifically for construction projects or programs. Each client is provided with a unique, project or program-specific website created around a knowledge database. With this, data can be made available securely to every team member -- from the earliest concepts, through detailed design, buildability studies, pre-fabrication, construction, maintenance, operation and improvement to the eventual demolition or dismantling of the facility. The initial order is valued at around half-a-million US dollars over a two-year period. This includes licenses, integration and customization work. "Visual, knowledge-centric collaboration, both asynchronous and real-time, will soon become an important differentiator in any sophisticated web-based supply chain technology," commented Colin Smith, the CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of BIW Technologies. "This deal makes netGuru's leading-edge technologies and its substantial intellectual resources and manpower available to BIW, massively increasing our development capabilities. We are particularly excited about the integrated solution that we are putting together specifically for construction projects or programs. The combined offering will consolidate BIW's leadership position in the UK and Europe." "BIW is clearly the European leader in web-based collaboration systems for the construction and property industry, measured by many metrics such as numbers of users, usage and volume of data," commented Amrit Das, CEO of netGuru, Inc. "We are very excited to work with BIW to incorporate collaborative features from our sophisticated eReview product into the BIW solution delivered to their long list of esteemed customers." Partial list of BIW customers include United Utilities, Sainsbury's, BAA, housebuilders Crest Nicholson Crest Nicholson is a second tier British housebuilding company based in Chertsey, Surrey. Crest Nicholson Plc became a private company on 3 May 2007. The Company was acquired by Castle Bidco Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture between HBOS and West Coast Capital which is partly owned and the Peabody Trust The Peabody Trust is one of London's largest and oldest housing associations. Its own website says that it "... exists to tackle poverty, provide good, affordable housing and to make a difference through every project or initiative it undertakes. , Marks & Spencer, the Ministry of Defence, the Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a United Kingdom-based charity established in 1936 to administer the fortune of the American-born pharmaceutical magnate Sir Henry Wellcome. Its income was derived from what was originally called Burroughs Wellcome & Co, later renamed in the UK as the , O2, Mace, Bovis Lend Lease, Kajima, Gleeds and developers Stanhope stan·hope n. A light, open, horse-drawn carriage with one seat and two or four wheels. [After the Reverend Fitzroy Stanhope (1787-1864), British clergyman.] Noun 1. , Land Securities and Garbe. The planned integration will allow BIW users to view, find, examine, manipulate, and mark-up diverse documents including more than 450 types of 2D and 3D drawings/models, as well as conference/collaborate with others. eReview allows multiple participants across the globe to simultaneously view and redline documents with their geographically dispersed team A Geographically Dispersed Team (GDT) – also known as a Virtual team – is a group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology. members using their web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. . The same environment allows for chat, whiteboard, audio-video conferencing, remote desktop and application sharing A data conferencing capability that lets two or more users interactively work on the same application at the same time. The application is loaded and running in only one machine; however, keystrokes are transmitted from and screen changes are transmitted to the other participants. , web-casting, and many other facilities to comprise a complete document-centric conferencing system. Asynchronous and real-time collaboration enables user to respond to constantly changing needs quickly and effectively. It also helps users collaborate on unstructured data Data that does not reside in fixed locations. Free-form text in a word processing document is a typical example. Contrast with structured data. See free-form database. , documents, capture the tacit knowledge The concept of tacit knowing comes from scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi. It is important to understand that he wrote about a process (hence tacit knowing) and not a form of . and create a corporate record of meetings that are searchable and re-playable. About BIW Technologies BIW Technologies Ltd (BIW(R), www.biwtech.com) today provides supply chain integration services to the global AEC AEC US Atomic Energy Commission Noun 1. AEC - a former executive agency (from 1946 to 1974) that was responsible for research into atomic energy and its peacetime uses in the United States Atomic Energy Commission (architectural, engineering and construction) community. An application service provider (ASP), it deploys, hosts and manages access to software applications from a centrally managed facility. Its core services The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. Please help [ improve the introduction] to meet Wikipedia's layout standards. You can discuss the issue on the talk page. were developed in partnership with UK government and several major construction industry clients, professionals and contractors, with research inputs from Salford and Loughborough universities, among others. Its collaboration services were first employed in 1999 on UK construction projects for retailer Sainsbury's. BIW believes it is the European leader in web-based collaboration systems for the construction and property industry, measured by numbers of users, usage and volume of data. At June 30, 2004, the total number of BIW Information Channel users had reached 34,517, from 3,747 different companies. Collectively, these users had logged in five million times, published more than half a million drawings and documents in the past 12 months alone, and have been working on around 2,000 projects with a total capital value estimated at around GBP GBP In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the British Pound. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. 15 billion. BIW and BIW Information Channel are registered trademarks or trademarks of BIW Technologies Ltd. About eReview eReview is real-time and asynchronous, web-based document-centric, view, markup and collaboration software for design teams. eReview offers a one-to-many model of collaboration, moving one step ahead of the traditional peer-to-peer model. The software requires only one server-based installation, saving clients having to install anything further on their machines. eReview is also platform agnostic in the sense that it can seamlessly run on multiple platforms such as Windows, MAC, UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). simultaneously. Furthermore, eReview has the capability to read native file formats without the need for original applications on either the client or server machines. Incorporating powerful features like 3D model viewing, and compatibility with over 450 2D file formats and MS-Office documents, eReview offers state-of-the-art desktop application sharing and Web-based collaboration via textual chat, voice and video conferencing. For more information, visit http://www.ereviewonline.com. About netGuru netGuru is an engineering information technology and services company offering engineering and design collaborative software, solutions, and professional and technical services and support to businesses worldwide. netGuru serves its global markets and clients through offices located in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and through distributors in 40 countries. The Company licenses its engineering software and solutions to more than 20,000 businesses in 85 countries. For more information please visit www.netguru.com. Safe Harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and of 1995: With the exception of historical information, the matters discussed in this press release including terms of the partnership, expected performance and use of the integrated solution, our ability to achieve rapid growth in the Web4, eReview and collaborative products and services business, our ability to successfully partner with companies to globally market our eReview and related products and derive financial benefits from such partnerships are forward looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The actual future results of the Company could differ from those statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the continued demand for the Company's eReview products and services, worldwide economic conditions, including Europe, changes in governmental regulations and policies, the emergence of competitive products and services, unforeseen technical issues and those factors contained in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Form 10-KSB for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004. |
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