What Took Expedia Nine Years Could Take Construction Two

Better Information, Stronger Project Relationships

In 1996, a small division within Microsoft launched an online platform that made travel information easier to search and compare. The useful lesson for construction is how connected information can reduce administrative work—not how technology can remove people from a transaction.

That platform was called Expedia. Its development offers a starting point for discussing better access to information, but lighting procurement has its own needs and relationships.

A lighting schedule is not a travel booking. It involves product compatibility, local requirements, budgets, installation conditions, and coordination across a project team. Lighting agents already help teams navigate these decisions.

Their technical expertise, manufacturer relationships, and knowledge of local projects are central to that work. Better software should support those strengths by making current product information easier to find, share, and discuss.

Information and Expertise Work Better Together

Digital access can help a project team arrive at a discussion with better information. It does not replace the judgment needed to evaluate an alternate, resolve a product question, or understand the implications of a change.

For lighting agents, shared product records can mean less time sending the same documents or reconciling different schedule versions. That leaves more time for the advice, problem-solving, and project support they already provide.

The opportunity in construction is to connect information around the people who make projects work.

Procurement Needs Better-Connected Tools

Ask a designer or architect to describe their procurement workflow, and you’ll hear something that feels… familiar.

• Endless manufacturer websites
  
  
• Spreadsheets and screenshots
  
  
• Repeated requests for the same availability information or alternate-product documents
  
  
• Dropbox folders with disorganized spec sheets
  
  
• A lot of wasted hours, duplicated work, and missed context
  
  

Specifying lighting — or any construction product, really — is like trying to book a multi-stop international trip with no map, limited filters, and a half-dozen people cc’d.

These are coordination problems, not shortcomings in the people doing the work. Reps, manufacturers, and designers bring valuable expertise, but disconnected tools make it harder to keep everyone working from the same information.

There’s a reason most new design teams still rely on PDFs and folder structures. The technology they’ve been given doesn’t match the complexity of the work — or the pace of modern projects.

Why Hasn’t This Changed Already?

Better tools need to respect how lighting projects actually work, including the local relationships and specialist knowledge that support them.

Construction is collaborative. It’s local. It’s complex.
You don’t just “buy a product” — you align it with a code, a schedule, an installer, a submittal, a warranty, a site condition.
The context around the product is as important as the product itself.

A product catalogue alone cannot resolve that context. Project teams need the people who understand the product, its application, and the local supply channel.
The opportunity is not just digitization.
It is better coordination among designers, agents, manufacturers, and the wider project team.

And that’s exactly where the opportunity lies.

What Connected Information Can Do for the Lighting Channel

The lesson worth taking from digital travel tools is simpler access to shared information. For lighting, that should strengthen collaboration with agents, not bypass them.

Lighting agents already bring context: product knowledge, manufacturer relationships, technical advice, and an understanding of the local project environment.

Shared records can reduce repeated data entry, document searches, and version checking. They give agents and designers a better starting point for the conversations and decisions that still need human judgment.

We see the same potential in construction.

Imagine if product search wasn’t siloed.
If communication wasn’t scattered across inboxes.
If submittals, alternates, and markups lived in the same place as your Revit model.
If manufacturers didn’t have to fight to be seen by specifiers.
If reps had more time for technical advice and project coordination, with less repeated document handling.

Imagine a system where everyone in the value chain worked from the same data source — live, accurate, coordinated.

That’s the future Sourcery is building.

Construction’s Inflection Point

The difference now is that we don’t need nine years.

Expedia was built in an era of dial-up. Sourcery is being built on cloud infrastructure, real-time BIM, and AI-enabled workflows. The runway is shorter. The change is faster.

We’re not here to replace people.  We’re here to replace friction.

Our goal is a stronger lighting channel: better-connected designers, agents, and manufacturers working together throughout the project.

Here’s what happens when you get it right:

• Designers move faster
  
  
• Manufacturers get clearer insight
  
  
• Reps have more time for the expertise and project support they already provide
  
  
• Owners and contractors get fewer surprises
  
  

And crucially: the entire process becomes more collaborative — not less.

So What Happens Next?

The industry has a choice.

The relationships are already there. The next step is to give those teams shared tools that reduce repeated work and keep project information connected.

Or you can lean in. You can help shape what this next era looks like.

The good news?
You’re not starting from scratch.
The tools are here. The ecosystem is growing. And the transformation — already underway — is being led by designers, manufacturers, and reps who are ready to work smarter.

At Sourcery, we’re not trying to be the Expedia of construction.

We’re building tools with and for the lighting channel.

Something that honors the depth, complexity, and human expertise of this industry — while making the coordination feel as seamless as booking a trip.

We believe procurement can be delightful. Transparent. Collaborative.
We believe that what took 9 years in travel could take 2 years — maybe less — in construction.
And we believe now is the moment to build the future together.

Curious where you fit in?
If you're a designer, rep, or manufacturer who's ready to help shape what’s next, we’d love to chat.

Because the best way to predict the future of procurement… is to build it.

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