The term collaboration can be defined as working together towards the same objective. Collaboration is making a comeback. Being called a collaborator took on a sinister tone during past wars when occupied people cooperated with their enemies. Today even lawyers representing opposite sides often collaborate, even though adversarially, to settle cases. One area where collaboration plays a critical role is in construction or capital projects where owners and contractors must work together to achieve construction project objectives including:

·         Schedules

·         Budgets (costs, profit)

·         Quality and performance goals, and

·         No after project claims

There are many reasons why the need for collaboration is intensifying. Many owners and contractors have achieved master agreements or preferred vendor status and desire to maintain or strengthen their relationships. A factor which is increasingly coming into play which allows collaboration is collaborative software. Three examples of existing technology I would classify as collaborative software applicable to capital projects are:

·         Decision making

·         Workflow management

·         Document management

Whether or not collaborative technologies meet their promise of better outcomes in capital projects is dependent on study, understanding, piloting, and implementation by owners and contractors. The potential certainly seems to be there and will be further explored and reported on based on our efforts to work with collaborative software developers, providers, and owners and contractors in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.