After a slow start, engineers are rapidly claiming their territory on the World Wide Web. Here's a look at what they're doing and what they hope to gain -- along with some common-sense tips on how to make the most of this intriguing opportunity.

by Peter Salwen

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Much of what we hear about the Internet is, if not exactly hype, then wildly premature. The Internet is not really "the most empowering technology invented by man" (anybody remember the wheel?) and it's doubtful that "being on the Internet is critical to business today," as some ads warn. But the Internet -- and particularly the World Wide Web -- does represent a genuinely new medium of communication. As it gains in speed and reliability -- and as a certain number of glaring shortcomings are remedied -- it will take an important place beside such existing business media as print, telephone, and fax.

Already, many professionals in engineering, architecture, and construction are vigorously extending their use of the Internet, mainly in three broad areas. First, companies are using Web sites to publicize and market their services. Second, many are using the Internet to explore new business opportunities, learn what their colleagues and competitors are up to, recruit new talent, and find better ways to cooperate and/or compete with other firms. And third, a rapidly growing number of firms are using the same technology internally to speed up and simplify communications, share information among employees, and organize and manage project teams.

Marketing and corporate communications

Some of the simplest Web sites belong to the largest firms. The $30-billion Swiss leviathan ABB has one of the simplest, with a few paragraphs of black type on each page varied only by the red "ABB" of the company's logo. The Bechtel Group's home page (http://www.bechtel.com) is also understated, with a single sentence of company description and four illustrated buttons offering a choice of "Who we are," "What we do," "How we deliver value," and "Where you can find us."

Quite a few other large organizations, including Roy F. Weston, Inc. (http://www.rfweston.com), HNTB (http://www.hntb.com), Holmes & Narver (http://www.hninc.com), Belcan Engineering (http://www.belcan.com), HDR (http://www.hdrinc.com), T.Y. Lin International (http://ccnet4.ccnet.com/~watec), and many others, keep their Web sites deliberately brief and unpretentious.

CH2M Hill's Web site (http://www.ch2m.com) is well-conceived for this new medium, blending low-key graphics with chatty, brisk text. Buttons on the home page lead to various types of related information, all written in-house and maintained on an in-house server. The most interesting of these, the "CH2M Hill News Desk," leads to numerous additional pages on the company and its clients, projects, and technologies. There are also links to the Global Network for Environmental Technology and the White House Technology Program.

More elaborate Web sites need either the services of a specialist or highly skilled insiders. Weidlinger Associates, New York, used an in-house graphic artist to give its site (http://www.wai.com) richer-looking graphics and numerous links (in button format) that let a visitor jump to explanations of the firm's specialties, company newsletters, and a detailed article on a current hot topic, such as "Designing Buildings to Resist Explosions."

Najib Abboud, an associate in the firm's applied science division, leads Weidlinger's Internet activities. He says the response to their page, which was launched last January, has been surprisingly positive. "Quite a few people have reached our page," he says, "and their comments have been very favorable. We got a few business leads within the first month, from people who approached us via the Web site who otherwise might not have heard of us."

One size fits all?

One of the most striking features of the Internet is its leveling effect: with the right graphics, a tiny start-up can look as substantial as a multinational giant. Small and mid-sized firms, with limited promotional budgets, have been quick to see this and use it to their advantage.

Abbood/Halloran Associates, Inc., is a good example. This 50-person Waltham, Mass., consultancy unveiled a "home-made" Web site last February (http://www.aha-engineers.com) that includes an on-line brochure with information on its projects, staff, and organization. Many of the client names on AHA's project list are hotlinked. A click jumps the viewer to the client's home page, which in effect makes the page a little extra "freebie" from the consultant. The site also includes a collection of construction industry links, a monthly newsletter, and a "Special Features" section that changes monthly.

Several potential traps await the unwary (see the sidebar, "A Site for Sore Eyes," below). Trying to have "something for everyone" is a common mistake. So is loading in too many graphics. It's tempting to try to use all the available gadgets (complex graphics and backgrounds, fancy buttons, elaborate logos, imposing photos, etc.) or to create comprehensive lists of related sites, topics, affiliated organizations, etc. But if a site is cluttered and confusing, or takes too long to download, it isn't doing its job.

Fortunately, the Internet is a forgiving medium, and early missteps are easily corrected. The very first consulting firm to post a Web page, power engineering specialists Sargent & Lundy, Chicago, started out in October 1994 with an extremely simple home page, with just a bare-bones description of services and projects. Now in its fourth "edition," the site (http://slchicago.com) is one of the most elegant and functional in the profession, with strong, lively graphics, by an in-house designer, that provide fast links to information on a variety of specialties.

Another very handsome new Web site belongs to LoBuono, Armstrong & Associates (LAA), the bridge engineering division of Frederic R. Harris, Inc. LAA is one of a growing number of firms that are going outside to get design expertise. "We made a point of employing a very high-level graphic designer with international experience--a nonengineer--to design our site," says LAA engineer André Catellier. "The new generation of Web users has an attention span measured in microseconds. To reach them, we have to be sure our Web page is dynamic and includes current news and projects." Planned enhancements to the LAA site include hot links to Caltrans and other DOTs, a technical library for bridge engineers, and an array of downloadable LAA-developed freeware.

The big question, of course, is whether these efforts really help. To some, it's axiomatic that the Internet is "the future of communication." Thomas Dickmann, senior vice president at LAA's parent firm, isn't fully convinced yet--even though he's an ardent champion of such other new technologies as multi-media presentations and 3-D CADD. "A Web page looks great," Dickmann says, "and it gives you something cute to put on your business card. But unless it really brings in more jobs, who cares?"

Believers argue that the cost of maintaining a Web presence is low compared to almost anything else you can name, and getting lower. Even so, maintaining an up-to-date, lively Web site does represent a significant ongoing commitment--if not of cash, then certainly of time, attention, and energy. So it's fair to say that the jury is still out on this one--and that the debate will be energetic.

Research and networking

For many consultants, the real promise of the Internet is its potential for speeding up and simplifying research, networking, technology transfer, and similar functions. "Our end of the business is driven by regulations as much as by technology," says partner Pete McGroddy of Lawlor, Matusky & Skelly, a Pearl River, N.Y., environmental engineering firm, "so the largest involvement with the Internet is to have instant access to governmental agency information and scientific and technical information."

For small and medium-sized firms with a limited geographical reach, one of the most alluring aspects of the Internet is the opportunity it offers to locate potential partners and teaming opportunities for projects. Several sites, including AE&C InfoNet (http://www.aecinfonet.net), InterPRO Resources (http:www.ipr.com) and the ambitiously named Global Construction Network (http://www.gcn.net) address this need by providing targeted leads and partnering opportunities to their subscribers.

As for job opportunities, a few government agencies are now starting to put up solicitations on the Web, a trend that will likely gain momentum as printing and postal costs continue to rise. And for those who know their way around, the Internet is on its way to becoming an important source of information on federal, state, and local contracting opportunities. Starting points for a search include the Procurement Assistance Jumpstation (http://www.fedmarket.com/procinet.html) and the State & Local Procurement Jumpstation (http://www.fedmarket.com/statejump.html). The Federal Acquisition Jumpstation (http://procure.msfc.nasa.gov/fedproc/home/html) is useful for contract information from all federal agencies and departments, including defense, energy, transportation, general services, NASA, EPA, and many others.

Looking further ahead, Weidlinger's Najib Abboud sees great possibilities on the Web for advancing the state of engineering practice. As an example, he says, "You may be looking for software that is not necessarily mainstream, or that is a bit out of the mainstream," he says. If you can locate a breaking'-type of technology that is still at the university stage, you can actually talk with the professor to see if it does what you need. In this area, the Web has the potential to tremendously speed up the transfer of technology from researcher to practicing engineer."

For many, customer service is the most promising area by far. "We see it as another way to add value," explains CH2M Hill communications manager Leigh Phipps, whose firm is currently exploring ways to offer on-line support to customers via the Internet for proprietary facilities maintenance services software. GZA Environmental Technologies, Newton Upper Falls, Mass., includes two trademarked sections in its home page (http://www.gzea.com/home.htm), both protected by user names and passwords, designed for electronic transfer of data, information, and even project deliverables. The first, called CustomerLink, leads to the home pages of GZA clients. The second, ProjectLink, allows access to information on specific projects, and includes preformatted e-mail connections for project managers and personnel as well as actual files.

At Sargent & Lundy, Steve Ornberg, principal manager in the company's information technology services group, says his group is looking at ways to set up "virtual" project teams on the Internet. "We're also looking at ways to put three-dimensional plant designs on our Internet page, using the new virtual reality modeling language (vrml<$>) [see "Is Virtual Reality for Real?" Civil Engineering, June 1995]. This will let a customer look at a plant, rotate it, and do a walkthrough on our Internet site, just as our project teams and clients do now with our existing PLADES2000 project design and management system."

Internal communications

The biggest news this year has been the explosive growth in the number of so-called "intranets": private networks for internal communication among management and employees. Intranets use the same features that make the Web so information-rich and user-friendly, and their recent proliferation--the number is currently reckoned to be doubling every six months--is phenomenal even by Internet standards.

An intranet can be used to share anything from company phone books to policy and procedure manuals, drawings, job specs, costs, proposals, meeting minutes, market research, or strategic plans. Management can receive information from employees, enter into a dialogue with them about issues, ideas, and problems that concern the company and its future. Secure behind the company firewall, professionals can freely explore and experiment, safe from the prying eyes of business rivals or other outsiders.

CH2M Hill's intranet has been "a phenomenal success," according to Leigh Phipps. "When you go into our intranet site," she says, "you see an illustration of a virtual office with a desk, a phone, file cabinet, and a window. Click on the computer, and you can see what the computer systems people are doing; click on the bookshelf, and you can access information on various operations. The wall calendar changes month-by-month to show holidays, paydays, and special events. The file cabinet has standard forms, policy and procedure manuals, and we plan to transfer all types of notebook-format information to the virtual bookshelf, so it will be instantly accessible to all employees." The view from the CH2M Hill window (which changes with the seasons) leads to various "outside" resources, such as EPA data, travel information, and competitors' Web sites. The intranet is also being used to Beta-test new applications, Phipps reports.

Most large organizations contacted for this article are now using an internal net or seriously exploring the idea. At Bechtel, several thousand employees now use the company's intranet, launched in early 1994. Black & Veatch, Kansas City, Mo., had an intranet in place before launching its Web page (http://www.bv.com) in early 1995, and other large organizations reportedly studying intranet options include Fluor Corporation, Brown & Root, and environmental consultants Golder Associates.

Still, many firms are proceeding with caution. At Roy F. Weston, production services manager Joe Paquet is looking at intranet-based ways to enhance the company's existing network, which includes manuals, Q&E files, procedures, a very sophisticated controls system integrated throughout 60-plus offices, and a real-time accounting and billing system, among other things.

"We have a pretty extensive network," he explains. "We use e-mail very heavily, and we have 150 people who already use the Internet for research or to find new technology. The goal now is to leverage all the information on our legacy systems to communicate better, faster, and cheaper throughout the organization. With Internet search engines, an engineer could search across all the different servers within the company's network. If you were looking for data on brownfields,' for instance, by simply typing in a query you could get all the different information, then hotlink to that information. The idea is to leverage the company's broad experience and expertise, bringing all the information to a single desktop."

From the business perspective, Paquet explains, there are still two major problems. "Security is overriding. Until the system is absolutely secure, we have to be very careful. And the second issue is speed--i.e., the bandwidth issue. With so many people going on the Internet, will this thing eventually just come crashing down? That's something of a concern. We've already found that when we send information via Internet, the transmission couldn't be guaranteed. So for anything that's time-critical, we'll still use FedEx for awhile."

Looking ahead

The bundle of technologies we call the Internet is a new kind of service, and we can only guess at its real power. Enhancements now on the way include a new and much more powerful version of the hypertext markup language (html<$>); the Java programming language, for building animations, special effects, and interactive images directly into Web sites; and the long-awaited "Virtual Reality" graphical interface. Also coming soon are secure encryption technologies that will make it safe to send company-sensitive information across the Web, thus unleashing a fresh torrent of new applications.

The main roadblock, paradoxically, may be the Net's own huge success. Conservative projections call for about 120 million connected machines by 1999, and some media gurus are worried that the whole thing may come to a screaming halt as the crush of new users overwhelms the Net's capacity. It is likely that things will get worse--more bugs and incompatibilities, longer waits for access, servers crashing--before they get much better. In the long run, though, the seeming roadblock will probably turn out to be more of a cyberspace speed bump--the inevitable growing pains of an infant industry.

Meanwhile, only a handful service providers and stock speculators have figured out how to make money from any of this. But companies like Netscape, Microsoft, IBM, AT&T, and hundreds of smaller enterprises are scrambling to establish a beachhead in this unknown terrain. As a result, we are now an intensely experimental and euphoric phase. Software tools and other Internet resources that would have seemed incredible at any price just a few years ago--including some that undoubtedly will carry a hefty price tag tomorrow--are now being given away free, making this is an ideal moment to try out some of these high-tech options and opportunities for yourself.

This article was originally published in slightly different form in the June 1996 issue of Civil Engineering, the monthly journal of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Reprinted by permission. Peter Salwen is president of Salwen Business Communications in New York and an Affiliate Member of ASCE.