CASE STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN HIGHWAY
CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISES
Hui Xu
Gansu Provincial Highway Administration Bureau, 743 South Binhe East Road, Lanzhou, Gansu, P.R. China
Keywords: Information management system (IMS), Highway construction enterprise, Case study.
Abstract: Due to the specificities in industry status, company characteristics and trends in development, the
transportation industry needs information management systems more than any other industries and benefits
most from such systems as well. However, in certain parts of China, management level and technological
expertise fall behind the state of art. Therefore multiple problems rise in this field, including obstinately
high cost, delayed information transfer, backward construction methods and wasting construction
management. In order to propose effective solutions to the above problems, a case study is committed on the
information management system construction of a highway construction enterprise in north-western China.
This paper presents the case study from five aspects, including cost control, project management, human
resources, financial management as well as office automation. Through longitudinal study of the
Enterprise’s requirements derived from business management, rapid development and specificities of the
field, key technologies as well as solutions has been proposed in the enterprise informatization process to
utilize the core competitive power of the company, providing valuable references for similar enterprises.
1 INTRODUCTION
There are certain specificities in information
construction solutions of highway construction
enterprises due to industry status, company
characteristics and trends in development, which are
listed as follows:
 Most of the enterprises in highway construction
industry are geographically distributed in large
areas. Flexible transfers could be achieved among
various project sites.
 Most of the enterprises are administered in form
of groups. As branches and subsidiaries of these
enterprises commit diverse business, they have
numerous requirements when accessing the
Information Management System.
 The distribution of the enterprises will be further
decentralized as the enterprises participate in
international competitions and undertake
international contracts. They may need to cross
multiple markets and switch in various engineering
fields in the short term.
 The construction and production are frequently
committed at the sites far from the group
headquarters, thus logistics are complex and
complicated.
Due to these specificities, the transportation industry
needs information management systems (IMS) more
than any other industries and benefits most from
such systems.
However, in certain parts of China, management
level and technological expertise fall behind the state
of art. Therefore multiple problems rise in this field,
including obstinately high cost, delayed information
transfer, backward construction methods and
wasting construction management. In order to
propose effective solutions to the above problems, a
case study is committed on the information
management system construction of a highway
construction enterprise in north-western China.
Enterprise A, as a large-sized road and bridge
construction group in China, has 1,900 employees
and administers 11 subsidiaries. In 2010, it had 48
projects under construction. However, as the scale of
operational management expands and competition in
market aggravates, the challenges to the original
Information Management System gradually emerge,
which include:
327
Xu H..
CASE STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRI-
SES.
DOI: 10.5220/0003603803270335
In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (BIS-2011), pages 327-335
ISBN: 978-989-8425-54-6
Copyright
c
 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

 the existing methods of financial management,
project management, cost control and office
automation no longer meet the requirements of rapid
company expansions;
 traditional work patterns cannot fulfill the needs
of quick and intense information acquisition;
 the extensive management methods cannot
satisfy the requirements of refined management.
Consequently, Enterprise A is urged to build a
uniform information management platform to
support refined management, business integration
and efficient information transfer as well.
2 DESIGN AND APPLICATION
OF INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN
ENTERPRISE A
In this section, the design and application of the
information management system in Enterprise A
will be presented. First of all, system architecture
design of IMS will be introduced. Subsystems of the
IMS, including cost control, project management,
human resources, financial management as well as
office automation will be presented afterwards.
2.1 System Architecture of Information
Management System in Enterprise
A
In the latter part, the system architecture of
Information Management System in Enterprise A
will be introduced, including application structure,
business architecture, modular architecture and
software architecture.
2.1.1 Application Structure of Information
Management System in Enterprise A
Information Management System in highway
construction enterprises is composed of five
fundamental systems, including system
infrastructure (networking platform and system),
data platform (fundamental database), data
acquisition platform(data interface), business
application (enterprise integrated application) and
information publishing (public service).
System infrastructure (networking platform and
system) is the foundation of Information
Management System Construction. It contains
network devices, communication links and database
servers as essential network supporting equipments.
Data platform (fundamental database) contains
data storage facilities, both software and hardware.
For instance, database system and operating system
are included.
Business application (enterprise integrated
application) is comprised of business integrated,
namely, financial management, overall budget
control, progress control, quality control, personnel
administration, rewarding and punishing
administration, telemonitoring, cost control, contract
management, material and device management, limit
order management, personal administration, salary
management, evaluation and assessment
administration and remote attendance management.
Information publishing (public service)
integrates modern media like websites and office
automation systems. It provides convenient, efficient
and effective communication channels for
advertisement, enterprise notice as well as
administrative examination and approval.
The application structure of IMS is presented in
Figure 1.
System Infrastructure (Networking Platform and System)
Data Acquisition (Data Interface)
Data Platform (Fundamental Database)
Information Publishing (Public Service)
Business Application (Enterprise Integrated Application)
Enterprise Management System
Figure 1: Application Structure of Information
Management System in Enterprise A.
2.1.2 Business Architecture of Information
Management System in Enterprise A
The business architecture is demonstrated in Figure
2.
2.1.3 Modular Architecture of Information
Management System in Enterprise A
Figure 3 presents the modular architecture of the
IMS.
2.1.4 Software Architecture of Information
Management System in Enterprise A
Figure 4 presents the software architecture of the
IMS.
ICEIS 2011 - 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems
328

Figure 2: Business Architecture of Information Management System in Enterprise A.
Figure 3: Modular Architecture of Information Management System in Enterprise A.
2.2 Development and Application of
Cost Control Subsystem in
Information Management System
Through in-depth study of cost control in Enterprise
A, according to activity-based costing, a
bicirculating cost control model is proposed in
consideration of the enterprise’s specificities.
On the level of project management, project
control benchmark is built based on contract
management, target cost and planned cost.
The cost will be broken down according to the
dimension of time, resource categories and project
components. During the project, cost control will be
committed through the circulation of cost prediction-
effect evaluation-benchmark adaption.
CASE STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN
HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISES
329

Figure 4: Software Architecture of Information Management System in Enterprise A.

Figure 5: Cost Control Subsystem of Information Management System in Enterprise A.
The aim is to help the administrators calculate
correctly, manage right and manage well.
On the level of enterprise experience, previous
business data will be abstracted into management
indexes, providing instructions for the biding and
construction procedure.
These two steps will comprise a general
circulation in the enterprise, continuously improving
cost control.
The design of cost control subsystem is
demonstrated in Figure 5.
2.3 Development and Application of
Project Management Subsystem in
Information Management System
As core of business management in highway
construction enterprises, project management
impacts upon the whole enterprise. Serious analysis
of existing problems in project management and
exploration of improving methods are the key issues.
ICEIS 2011 - 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems
330

2.3.1 Project Management Subsystem
Modules
Project progress management contains plan report
from each project department, engineering calculates
report as well as engineering image report. The
department of project management commits
statistics and analysis to obtain overall management
of project progress.
Project quality control is responsible for quality
management during the construction process,
including experiments and detection of material, end
product and intermediate products; examination and
experiments of mixture proportion and mixing
control; testing and recording of quality control
factors; collection, integration, analysis and
feedback of quality information such as non-
conforming products control records.
Personnel administration collects, selects,
evaluates and manages labour information, raising
project profits to ensure continuous development.
Rewarding and punishing administration timely
collects relevant information from project
departments, providing prompt feedback and urging
quick responses to improve customer satisfaction.
Telemonitoring system leverages wireless video
devices to monitor crucial project progress and
quality at the scene. In order to make sure the
construction of critical tunnels, huge bridges and
precast plants can be constructed under complete
control, 24 hours of project sites monitoring via
wireless broadband devices and wireless
communication network is implemented through
real-time transfer of video images at key project
sites. The Telemonitoring system is presented in
Figure 6.
2.4 Development and Application of
Human Resources Subsystem in
Information Management System
The human resources subsystem will be introduced
in this section, especially, system modules.
2.4.1 Human Resources Subsystem Modules
Human resources subsystem utilizes communication
technologies to build standardized, normalized and
networking platform for human resources
management. In addition to meet basic needs of HR
department, it contributes to cost reduction and
efficiency improvement.
Human resources administration includes
employee information management, attendance
management, salary management and document
management.
Employee information management collects and
updates employee information in enterprise.
Salary management digitized salary information.
Attendance management uses finger print
attendance management machines. The system
applies bio-individual identification, networking and
automatic statistics technologies. The attendance
management system is demonstrated in Figure 7.
Figure 6: Telemonitoring of Information Management System in Enterprise A.
CASE STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN
HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISES
331

Figure 7: Use Case of Remote Attendance Management System.
Figure 8: Business Architecture of Centralized Accounting System.
ICEIS 2011 - 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems
332

2.5 Development and Application of
Financial Management Subsystem
in Information Management
System
Financial management system combines networking
and information technologies with traditional
accounting operations, builds centralized accounting
platform according to accounting regulations. It
normalizes basic data and integrates accounting
system and business system, realizing overall budget
control.
2.5.1 Application Architecture of
Centralized Accounting System
Figure 8 charts the business architecture of
centralized accounting system.
2.5.2 Application Architecture of Overall
Budget Control System
Budget control commits overall budget estimation
based on ERP system, thus budget data can be
derived from business modes and historical data,
addressing the difficulties of manual processing
large volume of data in long-term based on
complicated analyzing model. Meanwhile, according
to the actual operational modes, budget model can
be chosen among overall budget, accounting budget
and specific budget. Nevertheless, choices of
deploying distributed or centralized application can
be made according to budget application modes.
Budget control includes budget planning, budget
collection and approval, budget execution and
monitoring, budget adaption as well as budget
executive analysis. Each responsible department and
enterprise’ budget formation strictly conforms to the
regulation of authority and data uniqueness. Thus
completeness of enterprise budget planning is
ensured and multi-layer budget control is
established. Meanwhile, the statistics of budget
facilitates timely strategic adjustment in group,
providing references for rolling budget or next-term
budget. The application architecture of overall
budget control system is presented in Figure 9.
2.6 Development and Application of
Office Automation Subsystem in
Information Management System
The design of office automation subsystem will be
introduced in this section.
2.6.1 Design of Office Automation
Subsystem
The office automation system aims to build
competent, stable and reliable information resource
sharing channel to assist collaborations in enterprise.
The design contains:
 construction of internal collaboration platform;
 building information publishing platform;
 automation of working procedure;
 knowledge management;
Figure 9: Application Architecture of Overall Budget Control System
CASE STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN
HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISES
333

 automatic transaction management, e.g.,
conference management;
 information integration
 distributed working.
3 KEY TECHNOLOGIES
Major considerations of choosing key technologies
applied in information management system
construction include well fitting existing
management modes and cost-effectiveness. The
project departments of Enterprise A are
geographically distributed in China, requiring
distributed applications. Meanwhile, Browser/Server
architecture turns out to be a ripe technologies
meeting the requirements to realize advanced
management design with high efficiency.
Major architectures applied are J2EE and .NET,
each with its own advantages. In consideration of
cost and efficiency, .NET is the choice option.
3.1 Application System Deployment
Pattern
Enterprise A has two project management modes:
direct management by group and self-administration
by subsidiaries or branches. The operational modes
and organization structures are similar within the
group, thus the information management system
applies completely centralized deployment pattern.
The characteristics of the centralized pattern are
highly integration of business and data, as well as
strict requirements on network access performance,
security and reliability of server. Figure 10 presents
the deployment of the applications in the
information management system.
3.2 System Interface
The information management system is developed
using WEB-based architecture and Microsoft SQL
Server. .NET is used as application development
tool. During the development,
Object-Oriented
principles are strictly followed. Component based
methodology is used with focus on technical
infrastructure. With the application of Web Service
technologies, further development and third part
application integration can be achieved. The design
of system interfaces is demonstrated in Figure 11.
Web Service leverages standardized Web
Service Description Language as interfaces to clients
on Internet/Intranet.

Figure 10: Application System Deployment.
ICEIS 2011 - 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems
334

Browser
Application
Client Layer
WEB
Server
Application
Server
Web
Service
Microsoft
SQL
Database
Server
Application Logic Layer
Data Layer
Figure 11: System Interfaces.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Construction of the Information Management
System studied in this paper fills in the blank of
research on information management system in
Gansu province, P.R. China. It may effectively guide
information construction of similar highway
construction enterprises. Since the information
management system has been put into use since
2009, the contract fulfilment rate reaches 100% and
material amount has been taken under control, which
implies that the “calculating correctly and managing
right” goal is achieved. The case study suggests that
the construction solutions of the information
management system are sound and applicable.
Moreover, the system architecture is reliable. The
whole information management system has satisfied
the actual demands of the enterprise, leaving
sufficient spaces for future expansion.
REFERENCES
Chai, X. G.; Finger print based individual identification
for civil use. The People’s Posts and
Telecommunications Press, 2004.
Chen, C. X.; Design of Inside Control System in
Construction Enterprises. Southwestern University of
Finance and Economics Press, 2007.
Hinkson, G.; Silverlight 3 Programmer's Reference,
WROX PR/PEER Information Inc, 2009.
Kerzner, H. Project Management: A Systems Approach to
Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, 9th Edition.
Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2008.
Kurose, J. F., Ross, K. W., Chen, M.; Computer
Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 4
th
edition.
Chinese Machine Press, 2009.
Pahlavan, K., Krishnamurthy, P.; Principles of Wireless
Networks:A Unified Approach. Qinghua University
Press, 2002.
Wang, Z. B.; Research on Cost Control System
Construction. The Economic Science Press, 2008.
Zhang, C. S.; Enterprise Overall Budget Control. Beijing
University Press, 2007.
CASE STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN
HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISES
335