Civil Engineer: Submitted Articles

The rapid pace of technology advancement over the last three decades has transformed the construction industry. Today business and governments are largely reliant on information and communication technology (ICT) to communicate and enter into contracts. Quality of service and value of money is maintained by contracting out the provision of certain goods, services and capital assets/work. One aspects of this has been the adoptions of electronic bidding projects system (or e-bidding) which is user friendly, functional, legally compliant, highly secure, risk free and reliable.

Traditionally the bidding process was paper based system. However several factors
have lead to the increasing use of electronic bidding, including:
∙ Increasing use of technology within the construction industry.
∙ The reality that the considerable exchange of information
between various parties during a bidding process means an electronic system is more
efficient, effective and minimizes paper and waste.

E-Bid- Projects is increasingly being adopted throughout the world. E-Bid-Projects,
in its simplest form, is described as the electronic publishing, communication,
accessing, receiving, submitting, recording and managing electronic documents of
all bid related information and documentation via the internet, thereby replacing
the traditional paper -based bidding processes, and achieving a more easy,
efficient, effective & economical business process for all parties involved in
project management.

This tool is the collective effort of dedicated team of experienced domain experts,
researcher, developer, innovators, lawyers and technocrats in the field of
electronic bidding.

One of the challenges in the developing this Bid-Projects bidding system is in
converting the functionality of the traditional paper based to an electronic
environment while maintaining legal compliance and avoiding security threats. While
an e-bidding system is more efficient and cost effective, the shift to an electronic
environment presents several hurdles, in part because the law that governs
electronic transaction is under-developed and lags behind the technology.

However our team is continuously making research on judicial decision, statutory
requirements and the laws that governs E-bidding like United Nations Commission on
International Trade Law's Model Law on Electronic Commerce, Electronic transaction
Act, Records laws, and Corporation Act & Evidence laws making our tool more secure
on the untested and ambiguous aspects of Laws.

While developing our product 'Bid-Project', we have not only considered the only
legal issues but also the security threats that arise when moving to open networked
environment. These requirements include:

∙           Secure communication to provide integrity, confidentiality,
authentication and non-repudiation of    messages.

∙           Access Control to simulate a bid box by restricting access to submitted
bids documents until after the bid close time.

∙           Secure time functionality to ensure that all parties are synchronized.

∙           Recordkeeping to ensure that audit logs are kept securely for
evidentiary purpose.

There are well known standardized cryptographic algorithms and protocols that can
used to communicate securely. The choice of concrete mechanism depends on the levels
of authentication required for each type of e-bidding communication, which should be
determined by formal risk analysis and customable accordingly. Legal considerations
as to the evidential value of electronic communication and contracts require the
provision of cryptographic non-repudiation using electronic signature

A technical mechanism has been placed in tool in such a way that bids are not opened
before the agreed time. This can be achieved cryptographically by distributing the
capability of opening (decrypting) bids among multiple parties, so as to require
their joint cooperation. Alternatively, one could rely on operating access controls
and logging mechanism, which for common operating systems may not be reasonable
given the lack of assurance that they exhibit. Trusted operating systems provide
better reliability and should be considered for implementation of key e-bidding
functionality, such as the e-bid box.

Information that is considered likely to be used as evidence should be extracted and
stored in records in a way that does not affect its evidential integrity. Mechanisms
are needed to authenticate the origin of records, and time and date of recorded
events. Cryptographic technique, such as digital time stamping, and use of trusted
operating systems and other security certified software play an important role.

Santosh Morbale
Project Controller
Project Management Office
morbale.santosh@exceedintl.com
M +919940196033

Custom Search

Join the mailing list to get informed about new products or links

Home Applied Mechanics Structural Analysis Geotechnics Hydraulics Transportation Land Surveying

Computer Software Conferences Design of Structures Irrigation Engineering Quantity Surveying

Construction Disputes Construction Materials Engineering Graphics Journals & Magazines Job Search

Construction Technology Construction Management Environmental Engineering Disaster Management

Offshore Engineering Construction Equipments Professional Societies Learning Support Research Papers

Colleges & Universities Book Store Scholarships Construction Companies Consultants Photo Album

Free Counter

Last updated on Monday November 03, 2008

For advertisement on this website contact here