FocusTech anticipates Ed Webb debut in February

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Ed Webb is the latest addition to the local construction and design industry, but Ed won't be building or designing projects; Ed will be tracking and coordinating them, down to the tiniest detail, via the Internet. |ret||ret||tab|

Ed Webb is not a person, but a program a new Web-based software application developed by a trio of local companies and the product of a new corporation, Ed Webb Inc., said Paul Roberts, president of FocusTech Inc. and chief coordinator of the Ed Webb project.|ret||ret||tab|

Ed Webb will keep architects, engineers and contractors informed on their shared projects, with instant access to all documents, plans and changes, and information on who's doing what, as well as when, where and how it is being done, Roberts said. |ret||ret||tab|

But while the initial focus is the construction and design industry, Ed Webb will be a boon to collaborative projects in any industry, he added.|ret||ret||tab|

The initial conceptual design of Ed Webb began to come together in the fall of 1998, Roberts said. The name Ed Webb is an acronym for entity database with a Web browser interface. |ret||ret||tab|

The initial idea was to establish a new, Web-based software product focusing on business relationships.|ret||ret||tab|

Popular PC-based contact management programs, such as ACT! or Goldmine, "set up names of people, companies, all the contact information and, to a certain extent, keep track of interactions with those contacts," Roberts said.|ret||ret||tab|

However, "I, for years, have been frustrated with those products because of some of the limitations I saw, and I wanted to be sure to overcome those with this software," he added.|ret||ret||tab|

What started as a model for tracking and managing business relationships expanded into project tracking and coordination after FocusTech was engaged by Butler Rosenbury & Partners to help evaluate project management and collaboration products, Roberts said.|ret||ret||tab|

Working with Bruce Adib-Yazdi, Butler Rosenbury's partner in charge of information technology, Roberts said he realized there was some overlap between what Butler Rosenbury wanted but did not find in existing project-management programs and what FocusTech had started developing in Ed Webb.|ret||ret||tab|

Roberts next approached Jeff Johnson, president of The Team Inc. advertising agency. Roberts made a presentation to Johnson and a handful of people at the agency, and "everyone at the meeting got very excited about the concept," he said.|ret||ret||tab|

The relationship between FocusTech and The Team was atypical. "Instead of developing a product and then throwing it over the fence to an agency to create a media message, I asked for very active agency involvement during the design and development stages," Roberts said.|ret||ret||tab|

"We wanted graphic artists involved in creating the look and feel of the product. We wanted a clear and distinctive message in marketing materials," he said. "We wanted, and needed, the agency to take a long-term view of the project."|ret||ret||tab|

A team had been assembled. FocusTech would provide the software development and network engineering talent, Butler Rosenbury's Adib-Yazdi would provide the industry insight to help define functional requirements, and The Team would provide visual imagery, message crafting and marketing strategy input.|ret||ret||tab|

The result is Ed Webb, a combination of the best elements of contact management and project management programs with the added bonus of the Web browser interface for easy use and management of the software. For example, most contact management software is single user or client server, but either way, the program has to be loaded on every PC that's going to use it, Roberts said.|ret||ret||tab|

"In the Ed Webb model, everything is stored on the Web server and all you need on the individual PC is the browser, Internet Explorer," he said. "Instead of going from machine to machine and loading software, you can load it on your server and everyone can share, or you can rent if off our servers here and we manage it for you."|ret||ret||tab|

Application rental is "a very new thing that has just taken off in the last year where companies, for various reasons, choose to rent software instead of buying and managing it themselves," Roberts said.|ret||ret||tab|

One reason for this, he said, is the shortage of information technology professionals. With application rental, "If you've got Internet access, you can subscribe with us, we give you a sign-on and you can start using the product," Roberts said.|ret||ret||tab|

He added, "Once inside the product, it's pretty much point and click. It's built around some fairly simple entities, such as People, Groups, Projects, Tasks, Calendars and what we call Intelligence, which you can also think of as documents."|ret||ret||tab|

Ed Webb is expected to be available soon. "By the end of the month we plan to do beta installation at Butler Rosenbury & Partners, and we plan to offer it to other firms in February," Roberts said.|ret||ret||tab|

However, while the software is ideally suited to construction and design, Roberts said it is not limited to that industry. |ret||ret||tab|

"Ed Webb is really designed for any business that is project-oriented," he said. "The key is multiple companies (or multiple departments) that need to communicate with each other and exchange documents back and forth, and do it quickly and efficiently over a duration weeks or even years. Those are the best candidates." |ret||ret||tab|

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