The AVANTI programme was one of the two ‘programmes’ of activity selected for funding by DTI in 2002. The introduction of larger areas of development – aiming to become self-funding, ongoing networks – was a response to the recommendations made by Sir John Fairclough in Rethinking Construction Research and Innovation (see Chapter 1).
The Avanti initiative was led by Collaborating for the Built Environment (Be) in partnership with Teamwork and IAI. The group identified a need to reduce the risks involved in adoption of new methods of working, bringing together areas of current best-practice (such as CPIC protocols) that had previously gained too little market penetration to have significant impact on the sector.
The objective was to deliver improved project and business performance through the use of ICT to support collaborative working, applying the AVANTI approach by getting people to work together; providing processes to enable collaboration; and applying tools to support collaborative working.
The Avanti approach increases the quality of information, the predictability of outcomes and by reducing risk and waste. Avanti is not an IT system or tool. As a method or approach, Avanti can be applied to projects using 2D CAD as well as those using 3D intelligent modelling or building information models. It is supported by handbooks, toolkits and on-site mentoring.
The core of the Avanti method is an approach where all CAD information is generated with the same origin, orientation and scale, and organised in layers that can be shared. All layers and CAD model files are named consistently within a specific Avanti convention to allow others to find the relevant CAD data.
Avanti achieves its core objective in three ways; through providing consultants, each an expert in the Avanti approach; Information standards and procedures; and cross-project assessment and measurement.
