The increasing dissemination of the Building Information Modelling (BIM) approach must not overshadow the fact that many firms are still far from BIM, and are in fact just starting out on the road to adopting information technologies. This paper presents an ethnographic action research study conducted with an industrial partner that decided to implement information technologies on its construction sites, with a strong preference for home-made applications. The results suggest that firms lack the internal expertise to effectively conduct such development work. Thus, the passage of needs expressed by the firm towards the development of the application is particularly difficult and the pivotal role of the researcher was crucial in the success of the project. Multiple iterations and versions were necessary before achieving the expected goals.

Despite the increasing dissemination of the Building Information Modeling (BIM) a p p r o a c h , m a n y f i r m s a r e s t i l l f a r f r o m B I M a n d a r e o n l y s t a r t i ng to adopt information technologies. We conducted an ethnographic action research with an industrial partner that implements information technologies on its construction sites, w i t h a s t r o n g p r e f e r e n c e f o r home-made applications. Results show that the development of such applications faces difficulties and that multiple iterations and versions are necessary before achieving the expected goals because the required competencies are lacking among internal development teams. Moreover, initial needs evolve considerably throughout the application's development and evaluation process. However, notwithstanding the difficulties encountered during the different application development phases, the industrial partner believes the decision to be worthwhile because of the desire to have internal control over the project data and the need to consider certain specificities related to business processes.