The construction industry is the largest industry in the world. The annual value of construction on a global basis exceeds $3.5 trillion. At the same time real estate, the major output from the construction industry represents the major share of all assets in any nation. These assets has to be used in productive way to eliminate waste and at the same time they have to be maintained, changed for new uses, and eventually replaced by new constructed facilities.

This study will investigate how e-commerce technology over the Internet can impact practices in

• strategic planning and investments in real estate, especially corporate real estate
• construction design, engineering and production, especially the management of the supply chain, i.e. collaborative engineering, procurement of material and equipment
• management of construction assets, such as the equipment yard
• facility management, i.e. management of the constructed assets, especially corporate facilitities such as offices and plants

Research objectives

• Understand the business model and functionality of international efforts to develop AEC I-Commerce systems for content provision, collaboration and commerce.
• Study the technologies used in such projects and explore new Internet technologies that enable effective business processes.
• Outline possible applications in the fields of corporate real estate, construction, and facilities management.
• Develop business and revenue models for these applications.
• Provide ideas about the transition from old to new business model.
• Develop a conceptual portal for the above applications and discuss its implementation.