While all parties report frustration at the lack of incentives to improve interoperability both within and among organizations, it is the owners who have the most incentive to demand tighter data specification and control and-as reported by the architect above-to require that professionals get on board with MasterFormat 2004.

CSI member Tom Rauscher, a Rochester, N.Y. communications, life safety, and automation systems consultant, spells out the savings in construction costs if voice, data and video systems are addressed fully in a building's specifications. When they are coordinated between consultants during the design phase, problems are relatively minor, he notes (see table of cost categories page 180). But when the building is already under construction, they are harder to resolve, and, he estimates, drive up the cost of building as much as 50 percent-thus adding five to 10 percent to the facilities' overall construction costs. He lists some of the many forms changes and delays may take:

• Tearing down and rebuilding walls to install cabling or cable pathways
• Adding closets to house switches, servers, and other electronic components.
• Expanding the HVAC system to handle the heat generated by such systems.
• Paying for express delivery of large amounts of products, such as wire and cable, to minimize schedule delays.
• Paying crews overtime to install systems to keep the overall project on schedule.
• Using higher-interest money such as a line of credit to pay for systems because they are a change order during construction. Lower-interest money via the building's mortgage, can be used if the systems are fully specified in the project manual developed during the design phase.
• Paying additional money to install voice, data, or video systems after the building has been completed.