FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Danette Ward
512.232.9605
ward@fiatech.org

FIATECH Capital Projects Technology Roadmap Element #8 “User Acceptance of Mobile IT” Project

AUSTIN, TX, June 17, 2008  -  End user acceptance of technology has been identified by both COMIT and FIATECH as a critical factor affecting the success and failure of mobile IT projects. Both organizations are seeking to better understand how to effectively overcome user-centered barriers to successfully implementing technology related  to usability, training and change management.

Back in 2007, as part of this learning process, FIATECH asked the COMIT organization, based in the UK, to pull together knowledge relating to end user acceptance of mobile IT contained within existing COMIT case studies, and other related work. This project has three phases.

Phase 1 - A report was presented to FIATECH members in the fall of 2007. It comprised a summary of ‘lessons learned’ in relation to introducing mobile IT to the UK construction industry. The document outlined, via a series of action points, the main lessons that have been learned from experiences within COMIT and other related work.

The report was well received and FIATECH has proposed to extend this research further and  provide funds to enable COMIT to continue work in this area.

Phase 2 - The next phase is to validate the earlier research by asking FIATECH industry members to formally review the initial report and comment upon its findings, based upon their own experiences with the implementation of similar projects.

All this feedback will be documented and will include a facilitated workshop to be held at the FIATECH annual members meeting later this year. The deliverable of this phase will be the re-issuing of the initial report modified to include all the feedback received.

Phase 3 - The final phase is the preparation of an academic research paper, building upon the results of the first two phases,  based around these three key research questions:

• Which technology adoption models best explain the adoption and/or rejection of mobile information technology within construction, and how can better ones be developed?
• How do you maximize the perceived added value to the end user, when one role they perform is collecting data that will be used by others? And what does 'value' mean in this respect?
• What are the specific adoption issues to do with craft people (e.g. those issues to do with auto timesheets), and middle management (e.g. familiarity with technology), and how do you overcome these issues?

This final phase is subject to obtaining funding from Loughborough University. To support this bid we need supporting evidence. Specifically to:

“Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of past and current work in the subject area both in the UK and abroad”

To do this we need help, support and contributions from FIATECH academic members and partners.

If you are willing to help or would like to know more,  please contact the Element #8 Roadmap Champion Neill Pawsey (pawsey@fiatech.org) or the project leader Andrew May  (A.J.May@lboro.ac.uk).