Guest editorial

摘要

Scholars in the "Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management" field have long advocated holistic, integrated and collaborative management support systems that can help construction organisations break through productivity barriers and optimise solutions to challenges from growing construction industry complexities and dynamics. Integrated procurement has been regarded a necessity that influences the execution and potentially the outcome of a construction project (Sutrisna, 2008). Kumaraswamy et al. (2010) advocated an integrated common best value focus in building better relationships, which are then together shown to boost performance levels. In reporting their case study, Barrett and Sutrisna (2009) concluded the need for synchronisation across the construction project lifecycle. Potential synergies have also been identified in a proposed integrated management support system (Kumaraswamy et al., 2006b). The development of such integrated management support systems in many cases has been enjoying benefits from the continuous advancement of ICT (Kumaraswamy et al., 2006a; McCaffer and Hassan, 2002).