Industry-Centric Benchmarking of Information Technology Benefits, Costs and Risks for Small-to-Medium Sized Enterprises in Construction

Small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have struggled with whether to introduce various information technologies (IT) due to costs and risks. As a result, many have sought to reduce the cost risks of introducing IT by underutilizing such information. The benefits, costs, and risks of IT are identified for five Australian professional construction occupations (architects, consulting engineers, consulting project managers, contractors, and quantity surveyors) from the results of a questionnaire submitted to 126 small-to-medium sized businesses. The results of the findings provide benchmark metrics that can aid in the determination of benefits, costs, and risks of IT implementation for SMEs. These metrics will help in providing integral assistance in the process of evaluating IT.(JSD)