Employing Data Warehouse for Contract Administration : e-Dispute Resolution Prototype 31 32

Although data warehouse is very practical for decision making, its application in contract 33 administration is rather limited due to the complicated legal issues and the voluminous data involved. This 34 research attempts to bridge this gap in two ways. First, conceptual models of data warehouse are developed 35 to explain the contents and overall features of the system which were verified by twelve experts in 36 Malaysia. Second, a template, e-Dispute Resolution (e-DR), is prototyped using Microsoft Access based on 37 the guidelines of contractual variations agreed by the experts. Subsequently, the prototype is evaluated by 38 sixteen professional quantity surveyors from an established consulting firm. The prototype was organized 39 based on a systematic breakdown of issues and incorporated a Boolean keyword search feature. The results 40 show that the concept of data warehouse is applicable to contract administration and is well received by 41 practitioners. Overall, this article renders significant theoretical and practical contributions where the 42 resulting e-DR does not only lead toward a more informed decision making, but is also able to mitigate or 43 prevent contractual disputes in the construction industry where such a phenomenon seems to be inevitable. 44 45