User Forum Keynote Speech
28 September 2000
The Keynote Speech delivered by Anne Marlow, Director, Ai Solutions Ltd;
A very warm welcome to our user forum. We are delighted to see so many of our regular CDM ToolKit members, many of whom have been with us for a number of years. We are also pleased to welcome some new members. Our team is the same as always, David, Theo, Charles (the I.T. brains) and myself (the non I.T. brain)
As always we want the day to be as relaxed, participative, and informal as possible. We hope that all our forums are interesting and enjoyable but we are particularly excited about this one, as not only do we have Stephen Wright from the HSE with us; Stephen is head of the policy unit responsible for the new ACOP, but we are also launching our new web based service cdmUK.com
The whole background and theme behind this service is improving construction health and safety through better communication. This is exactly what cdmUK.com, our web service is going to offer. Having a CDM community working together, sharing best practice and communicating with other principals and clients over the net. This is the culmination of the vision, which began with the development of the CDM ToolKit™ over six years ago.
We want to form a CDM community that shares best practice, works in partnerships and actively looks for ways to improve construction health and safety These are high ideals, but so many times when dealing with CDM, it seems that conformity to the regulations has grown into an end in itself, when the real objective of improving safety and health has been forgotten. The means has become the end. The tail is wagging the dog.
You can see from the attendee list that you represent every sector of the CDM community in the UK, from the smallest to the largest, from the public to the private. Our largest customer Seeboard is about to expand their network across six sites. Bradford MBC has doubled their installation to include Property Services. Both of these organisations now have their entire internal CDM community committed to the ToolKit. Another major utility is embarking upon a CDM ToolKit™ 2000 pilot project for a potential 500 users.
All of these are major CDM communities in their own right, however they also have third parties/suppliers who participate in the CDM process. Our web-based service can now embrace that entire community, internal and external. The CDM ToolKit™ 2000 will remain the focal point for CDM management with its in depth functionality. What the new web service will bring to ToolKit users is the ability to publish their projects to third parties across the web and to allow all participants to communicate quickly and easily. In this way we are seeking to break down barriers, improve awareness, stifle bureaucracy and improve construction health and safety.
In this way, our dog will be wagging its tail!