McGraw-Hill Construction Broadens Availability of Industry Intelligence by Creating E-Commerce Store With Analytic Forecasts and Trend Analysis

    NEW YORK, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- McGraw-Hill Construction launched a new
 online store, http://www.analyticsstore.construction.com, dedicated to
 providing access to more than 8,000 of its analytic offerings, including
 forecasts, trend analysis, historical reviews, and market snapshots.
     The new store, operated by ECNext, provides easy online access to
 lower-priced items that can give forecast or historical information on a state
 or metro area or a snapshot of a particular market, such as healthcare or
 green building.
     In California, for example, McGraw-Hill Construction forecasts that
 construction will increase by $1.6 billion or 2% in 2006 compared to 2005,
 with the largest forecasted growth coming from construction of manufacturing
 plants, dormitories, and bridges.  According to Harvey M. Bernstein, Vice
 President, Industry Analytics & Alliances for McGraw-Hill Construction that is
 just one of the facts that can be found in these online reports.
     "Small business owners are limited in their time and resources.  By
 providing these resources, based on sound economic models and the McGraw-Hill
 Construction proprietary database of construction starts, we can give a
 business or organization of any size access to information on a particular
 state or metropolitan area," Bernstein states.
     The analytic offerings McGraw-Hill Construction provides on their new
 store include:
 
     -- Forecasts:
         * MarketLook: Forecasts of the industry at the local metro or state
           level across sectors
         * Construction Market Forecast Service:  National forecast for five
           years for a particular construction industry sector
         * Subcontractor Potentials:  Two-year forecast and two-year history of
           one of 19 subcontractor trades (such as carpentry) for a metro area
           or state
         * Metropolitan Construction Insight:  Synopsis of forecasts, starts
           and trends for a specific metropolitan area
 
     -- SmartMarket Reports:
         * Green Building (2006):  Sizing and trends of the green building
           marketplace
         * Healthcare (2005):  Snapshot of the healthcare construction
           marketplace
 
     -- Historical reviews:
         * MarkeTrack:  Historical review of the market for a metro area or
           state with square footage, value, units and starts by sector
         * Contractor Potential Bulletins:  Historical review for a state or
           metro area by sector
 
     These analytic offerings are created McGraw-Hill Construction's 40-person
 group of economists, engineers, analysts, and market research professionals
 using the project data collected into McGraw-Hill Construction's database of
 construction starts, which at any one time contains over 600,000 projects
 across the U.S.  McGraw-Hill Construction has been compiling statistics on
 construction since the early 1900s and has a comprehensive database dating
 back to the 1960s that remains active today, providing accurate data for trend
 and historical analysis.  McGraw-Hill Construction's statistics are a key
 input to the U.S. Bureau of the Census' construction value-in-place series,
 and its construction starts are tracked by the Federal Research Board and
 regional banks to monitor activity for the industry.
     "ECNext is proud to be a partner in getting this information out to the
 industry," reports ECNext President and CEO Pamela Springer.  "Our goal is to
 help industry leaders, such as McGraw-Hill Construction, who have millions of
 high quality pieces of content, to get all of their products into search
 engines using online marketing tools so that end users can find it."
     Some industry associations agree.  "Easy access to this type of
 comprehensive intelligence is what our members are looking for," states Ronald
 Worth, President & CEO of the Society for Marketing Professional Services.
 "As marketers, our members are looking for the opportunities in the industry
 as well as what has performed well in the past.  McGraw-Hill Construction has
 the expertise and a long history of providing this information, and this new
 on-line store makes it even easier for the industry to be informed and plan
 strategically."
 
     About McGraw-Hill Construction
     McGraw-Hill Construction, part of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:   MHP),
 connects people, projects and products across the design and construction
 industry. From project and product information to industry news, trends and
 forecasts, the Company provides industry players the tools, resources and
 applications that help them save time, money, and energy, especially through
 the new McGraw-Hill Construction Network. Backed by the power of Engineering
 News-Record (ENR), Dodge, Sweets, Architectural Record, MyHouse, and 12
 regional publications, McGraw-Hill Construction serves more than one million
 customers within the $4 trillion global construction community. For more
 information, visit http://www.construction.com.
 
     About The McGraw-Hill Companies
     Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global information
 services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education
 and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard &
 Poor's, BusinessWeek and McGraw-Hill Education. The Corporation has more than
 300 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2004 were $5.3 billion. Additional
 information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.
 
 

SOURCE  McGraw-Hill Construction