Palo Alto, CA, October 5, 1998 — Blue-Line/On-Line, a premier provider of web-based collaboration and decision chain management solutions, today announced that Bechtel Enterprises, the development, financing, and ownership arm of global engineering and construction giant, Bechtel Group, Inc., has taken an ownership interest in Blue-Line/On-Line. Bechtel’s investment strengthens Blue-Line/On-Line’s growing network of powerful business partners and customers who are establishing the Silicon Valley start-up and its ProjectNet solution as the standard for on-line collaboration and decision chain management in engineering-related industries.
In addition to its investment in Blue-Line/On-Line, Bechtel is implementing the company’s ProjectNet InterPrise solution in its core businesses, and plans to begin a staged roll-out of ProjectNet with business partners on certain global engineering and construction projects over the next several months. ProjectNet will be used to help manage multi-billion dollar construction projects involving numerous suppliers and subcontractors around the world.
Blue-Line/On-Line’s ProjectNet is a highly robust, secure and scalable Web solution customized to address the technical standards and workflow requirements of specific industries. By creating an Internet-based standard for cross-organizational collaboration, Blue-Line/On-Line’s solution allows all constituencies of an industry decision making process — or decision chain — to reap the benefits of improved productivity in communications and workflow, including customers, engineers, contractors and suppliers. The proven results include cost savings, improvements in project cycle times and better integration of multi-vendor resources on geographically dispersed project teams.
“The Internet has the power to redefine the way project teams communicate and work together. Blue-Line/On-Line and ProjectNet will be critical enablers of that phenomenon by facilitating web-based collaboration for construction and other technical industries,” said Santhanam “Slim” Shekar, vice president and managing director of Bechtel Enterprises. “As a global leader in the engineering, procurement and construction industry, Bechtel, along with its customers and subcontractors, clearly can benefit from a solution that streamlines collaboration by cutting travel and communication time, shortening review cycles, and providing superior project documentation.”
The need for more efficient collaboration is prevalent among all technical work team environments. Although Blue-Line/On-Line’s initial customer focus has been in the engineering and construction industry, the company is developing other industry-specific solutions by customizing ProjectNet workflow design and technical file format support for markets such as aerospace, manufacturing, automotive, and pharmaceutical research and development.
“We are delighted to welcome a partner and customer with a reputation for success that Bechtel brings,” said Jas Dhillon, president and CEO of Blue-Line/On-Line. “Bechtel and leaders in other industries will be fundamental in our efforts to provide the industry-specific standard for more effective collaboration across a wide array of engineering disciplines. Of course, each industry has its specific requirements and formats, but we see a fundamental opportunity to dramatically increase productivity and reduce costs for any company that needs to communicate, distribute, and interact within the decision chain in team project environments.”
Blue-Line/On-Line solutions have been implemented by some of the world’s leading organizations in their industries, including Gensler, Webcor, Four Seasons Hotels, and Philips to integrate the decision chain among customers, partners, and suppliers through advanced collaboration technology. These companies have adopted Blue-Line/On-Line’s ProjectNet solution to achieve benefits in improved communications, faster time-to-completion, and significant cost savings.
ProjectNet is a subscription-based Internet collaboration service that provides users with instant access to project information for sharing documents, distributing revised documents and changes, and communicating among distributed and diverse project team members. ProjectNet includes secure document management, team messaging, discussion forums, conferencing, and workflow automation to facilitate productive decision chain management and control of costs and schedules.
About Bechtel
Bechtel Enterprises is the development, financing and ownership affiliate of Bechtel Group, Inc., a premier global engineer-constructor. It has ownership interests in more than 30 projects in the power generation, water and wastewater, transportation, and pipeline sectors and is a partner in ten other world class infrastructure and technology companies. Since 1990 alone, Bechtel Enterprises has arranged or participated in more than $12 billion in project financings. Bechtel, now celebrating its centennial year, is one of the world’s most accomplished and experienced engineering, construction, and project management firms. It provides premier technical, management, and directly related services to develop, manage, engineer, build, and operate installations for customers worldwide. Throughout the course of its 100-year history, Bechtel has built a reputation as an industry leader in the planning and management of complex infrastructure projects. Over 30,000 Bechtel and joint venture employees are at work on more than 1,000 projects in 63 countries, serving every industry that requires project facilities or expertise. The privately held firm completed work totaling $11.3 billion in 1997. For more information, see Bechtel’s website: http://www.bechtel.com.
About Blue-Line/On-Line
Blue-Line/On-Line, Inc. develops and markets Internet-based services and applications to transform the way teams collaborate and manage the decision chain within projects. Based in Palo Alto, California, Blue-Line/On-Line was founded in 1997. With expertise in e-commerce, team collaboration and engineering/ construction, the company’s management team is committed to creating a market-driven solution that leverages the most advanced Internet-based technologies available. Blue-Line/On-Line’s clients and partners include leaders in engineering-related industries such as Bechtel Group, Inc., Gensler, Webcor Builders, Four Seasons Hotels, WAT&G, Philips, Psomas, Staubach International, and Clear Communications. For more information about the company or products, contact Blue-Line/On-Line at (650) 845-2000 or visit the Blue-Line/On-Line web site at http://www.bluelineonline.com.
