Testing the Application of Google Fusion Tables as a Collaborative Productivity Database and Benchmarking System for the Construction Industry

摘要

Productivity benchmarking has been an elusive element for construction companies around the world. With the advent of the Internet many companies have attempted web-based database and benchmarking efforts since the late 1990's. However, an industry consensus on a collaborative database and benchmarking tool has yet to be established. New opportunities are being generated for efficient and free database services that are challenging the established paradigm. Google Fusion Tables (GFT) was launched in 2009 and has been evolving ever since its release. GFT provides a user-friendly, collaborative, and interactive database tool that is available to the public on an international scale at no charge. This tool provides the user options to publish their data on another site, make it publically available and discoverable by search engines, or keep it private. The research presented in this paper aims to develop a pilot database using GFT for the storage and management of data from work-sampling observations for designated work trades on a project located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Data was uploaded to the Google cloud to commence the pilot database. The collected data was further complimented by the tool's charts and shared with participating parties. The application of GFT as a data management system was tested against a selected company's extranet and individually assessed through the survey of the users of the pilot program.