Back by popular demand the 2009 COINS-etc Community Day at the Motor Heritage Museum at Gaydon proved to be a huge success. The event brought together over 120 industry professionals representing more than 60 leading construction sector organisations.

COINS-etc community members old and new gathered for updates on the latest thinking on e-Commerce in our industry and the opportunity to network with representatives from across the Construction Supply Chain.

The day started with Matthew Jones, head of P2P at COINS welcoming everyone to the event before COINS Chairman, Larry Sullivan explored the potential opportunities for both Contractors and Suppliers to exploit the current tough economic climate.

The presentations continued with Independent Consultant, Colin Darch examining the all inclusiveness of e-Commerce in the Construction Sector and Matthew Jones looking at the trends that have emerged in recent years. Both speakers drew comparison with initiatives from other sectors and highlighted where lessons could be learned for Construction.

The first of the solution specific presentations saw Dave McAteer, Commercial Manager of COINS-etc team up with Steve Kerridge the managing Director of COINS partner Science Warehouse to talk about enhancing strategic purchasing through the use of the COINS-etc

e-Catalogue.

Dave McAteer was then joined by Richard Manson from COINS newest partner, Documetric to showcase the latest COINS-etc solution. Outsourced Invoice Processing provides a unique way of allowing Contractors to receive 100% of their invoices electronically from their supply base utilising Optical Character Recognition in an off-site environment.

Ian Ford, Managing Director of COINS longest standing partner FirstB2B discussed the latest enhancements in terms of value added services provided by the COINS-etc hub and also provided details of the robustness of the entire COINS-etc technical infrastructure.

Dave McAteer, concluded the review of e-Commerce topics with a short presentation emphasising the importance of the roles of Sponsorship and Project Management in successful COINS-etc initiatives before Phil Andrews, Director of P & J Solutions hosted an Open Forum.

Questions were put to a panel of representatives from across the industry that included, Paul McCulloch from Geoffrey Osborne, Mike Christopher from Dean & Dyball, John Whaling from SIG, Colin Dean from Arnold Laver, Colin Darch, Ian Ford and Matthew Jones.

In the very last presentation of the day Claire Greenwood provided an update on the hugely successful latest fund raising achievements from the COINS 3 Peaks activities and lay down the challenge to all delegates to get involved in the 2010 event.

As the day drew to a close Matthew Jones had the pleasure of announcing the COINS-etc annual awards sponsored by Arnold Laver Timber World. Arnold Lavers Managing Director, Andrew Laver gave trophies to Speedy, Kier and John Sisk Ireland in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the COINS-etc community.

A big thank you goes out to Hewden who most generously sponsored the closing Drinks Reception which provided an ideal opportunity for final networking whilst winding down with a glass of wine or a cold beer.

Hewden represented on the day by Jeff Schofield, Nicola Warwick and Brian Jones also donated a scale model of a Caterpillar dumper truck which was won in a business card raffle by Matt Turner from Skanska.

Our thanks to everyone who attended and helped to make this a hugely successful day.

Aggregate Industries, Allwood4Business, Aplant, Arnold Laver, Artisan Hire, Balfour Beatty, Beards, Beesley & Fildes, Bovis Lend Lease , Brandon, Bryne Group, Carillion, Commercial Group, Connaught, Documetric, E H Smith ,Firstb2b , Francis Bradshaw Consulting, Gap UK, GB Building ,Hewden ,Isourcing, Jacksons, Jewson, John Laing Partnership, Keepmoat, Kier Group , Laing O'Rourke, Lorne Stewart, Magnet Ltd, May Gurney, McLaughlin & Harvey, Moores Furniture, Morgan Ashurst, Morgan Est, OfficeTeam Group, Osborne, P&J Solutions, PCCL, Perceptant, Prater, Progressive Solutions, Protection ,ROK Group, RS Components,Santander, Science Warehouse, Service Point , SIG ,Sisk Group, Sisk Group Ireland, Skanska, Speedy, Staveley, Trant Construction, Travis Perkins, UKOS plc, Vinci plc, Volker Rail, Vp plc, Wolseley UK Ltd, RBS Commercial Cards