JCT announced a major new development for the way construction contracts will be prepared in the digital age, with the launch of a range of new online contract services at their annual Construction Industry Parliamentary Reception, at the House of Commons on Wednesday 23rd May 2018.
Many JCT customers will already be familiar with JCT’s On Demand service, which enables users to complete their contracts online in a seamless, online environment using an interactive Q&A process.
JCT were today able to announce that a full online subscription service, JCT Construct, will soon be joining JCT On Demand, but offering a much greater range of features, including full editing functionality, version-to-version comparison, the ability to add and amend text, and the ability to grant guest access to other users to collaborate on documents.
In a presentation featuring JCT’s publishers and technology partners, Thomson Reuters, Tania Quan, publishing director, explained:
“Construction and technology are two of the fastest changing areas, and so to build the new services, JCT and Thomson Reuters have had to work at the cutting edge of what is possible and create two online services to accommodate different needs.
“The first new service, JCT On Demand, has launched and this service allows you to complete JCT Contracts in a seamless online environment, using an intuitive question and answer process which makes sure you cover all the key areas.
“The second service, JCT Construct, will follow close behind. This has already been through thousands of hours of building and testing and Construct will offer something fresh to the industry, giving users the tools to carry out editing of potentially complex project and invite contracting parties to review and make amendments, with a document that will show the differences, all online.
“Whilst we can’t make the negotiation itself easy, together, we can provide online tools to the industry to allow you to get through some of the most complicated phases—quickly.”
The announcement of the new digital services comes at a time when JCT are also celebrating a strong performance of sales through their online store, following the publication of the JCT 2016 Edition. JCT chair, Richard Saxon CBE, said:
“This year has been an extremely strong year for JCT, in terms of the sales of the 2016 Edition of contracts.
“Sales have been buoyed up by buyers’ rising use of the JCT online store, which has proved to be exceedingly convenient to people. […] The uptake of BIM and collaborative working is going alongside this trend.
“A lot of the speed of uptake has been down to our fortunate 15-year collaboration with Thomson Reuters. We have benefitted from their expertise as a global organisation delivering complex technology solutions [and] they have enabled us to provide this next generation of JCT digital services to the construction industry and its clients”
The JCT Construction Industry Parliamentary Reception was hosted by Eddie Hughes MP, whose career prior to becoming an MP included working as a civil engineer for Balfour Beatty and working as a construction and property manager. Eddie Hughes is the Chair for APPG for Excellence in the Built Environment and is currently a member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee.
Image shows L-R: JCT chair, Richard Saxon CBE, Eddie Hughes MP, JCT chief executive, Neil Gower.