Introduction

The advent of Information Technology drives a tremendous impact on electronic communication system in the world. In building industry, there are extremely large amount of information (both drawings and data) flow among various parties of the project or maintenance team. The efficient communication and information management is very important to the success of a project and the properly operation of the facility in a building.

In general practice, verbal instruction and written confirmation on paper are common means of communication. It is hard to assure that all parties will receive the same information on time. On the other hand, information distributed may not be relevant to some parties of the project or maintenance team, but they are still receiving such information resulting in vast and unnecessary consumption of papers.

The application of Building Information Technology (IT) is the trend of the building industry. A well-developed e-Document and Facility Management System (e-DFMS) can hold electronic documents in many different formats, and maintains an index that identifies the storage location of each document file within the computer network. It permits authorized users to browse, search, and retrieve drawings and documents through user-friendly interfaces as well as exchange of information over the Internet. The e-DFMS can also support access control, version control, and the generation of record history for efficient distribution and management of information in a project team.

The e-DFMS would also provide spatial analysis and facility data maintenance based on the drawing data developed from DWG platform. The space and the facility object would embed with the database, so such objects would facilitate the maintenance of facility in virtual environment, such as the storage of maintenance history, personnel data in occupying the space, the facilities record in a space, departmental charge-back in spatial analysis, etc.

While there are many advantages in employing an e-DFMS for the operation and maintenance of a building, it is still a relatively innovative, and should therefore be handled with care. Amount of information flow is enormous particularly for drawings which are usually quite large in file sizes. The success in implementing such system relies much on the architecture of the hardware and the software. A well-planned computer network among the project or maintenance team ensures fast transfer of large amount of data while a practical and functional software package that is easy to use can warrant user input without difficulties. Finally, human factors should not be ignored. The project team should feel comfortable about the system in their daily operation. After all, no matter how good is the system, it will not be successful without the participation from all members of the project or maintenance team.

The above generate the need of an expert to provide consultancy of the required information system for the design and implementation of both hardware and software as well as a full aspect of training, administration, security and reliability issues. Through the consulting service, the users' requirements can be further explored to ensure an appropriate system be adopted for the successful daily operation.