INDIANAPOLIS | Andy Elsbury had a 6,300-square-foot house to build and about 6,300 decisions to make.

Which knobs for the kitchen cabinets? There were 100,000 to choose from. What about floor tiles? Nine rooms needed them. There were too many toilets to count. Archways over doors. Carpet, brick and countertops.

"The average person can simply get overwhelmed," said Elsbury, 40, chief executive and president of Custom Partnership Network, a Web-based IT solutions company he founded for the home-construction industry.

"This is a process that is not organized. There is miscommunication. It can be confusing. Yet, it's one of the most important things you can do because this is your dream home."

Elsbury wanted to find a way to make it all just a little simpler. He launched SelectionWare -- his solution to the mass confusion of custom-home building -- at the International Builders' Show in Orlando, Fla., earlier this month. The tool allows homebuyers, builders, vendors and even decorators to communicate and share construction details in a 24/7 real-time environment.

The Web-based program, the first product created by Elsbury's Indianapolis-based company, lets homebuyers and builders keep tabs on each other.

The way it works is simple: Builders purchase the product and training from SelectionWare and then pay a fee for each home they build using the program. This allows them to give access to homebuyers through a user name and password.

Together, both sides sit down to determine the requirements for each room, a budget goal, timeline and more. After that, both have access to make changes and update what's going on with the building of the home.

If a customer needs to pick out the brick for the fireplace, she can do it at 1 a.m. or 1 p.m. by clicking and securing a choice for the builder to see the next day.

If the builder has a recommendation as to which refrigerator would look best in the kitchen, he can add it to the buyer's options. The program even offers a glossary of building terms for homebuyers who sometimes might not understand what they're supposed to be picking out.

The process of building a custom home averages about 350 hours of decision-making by the buyer over a six- to eight-month period. Elsbury says SelectionWare will cut that time substantially and allow builders, who typically finish about 12 houses a year, to double their production.

Besides eliminating mistakes and paring down the need for face-to-face meetings between buyer and builder, SelectionWare is a major point of convenience for busy homebuyers.

"They can work from the comfort of their home, they can work on it at the office or they can work on it at 3 a.m. if they can't sleep," said George Geiger, a partner with Shamrock Custom Homes, who started using SelectionWare about a year ago as a trial for Elsbury.

"It makes their lives easier and it just keeps my life simple, and that's what I am looking for," he said. "There is no substitute for human communication and human touch, but this is as close as it gets."

So far, Elsbury has sold the product to 20 builders in Indiana, North Carolina and Florida.

"If we can get in front of the builders, we will enroll about nine out of 10 of them," he said.

At the Orlando trade show, builders came looking specifically for the SelectionWare booth because they had heard about the product, said Jon Hoying, sales coordinator for the company.

"The reaction at the trade show was outstanding," he said. Builders were excited not just about the benefits to them but to the buyers, he said.

Elsbury is convinced the product is going to be a groundbreaking change to the custom homebuilding industry. He has the support of several investors, including a couple that have built a few monstrous homes themselves.

Elsbury graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1988. He then went to work for Lorton Electronics, a company that develops and manufactures lighting-control products. But he didn't stay long.

Within four years he had earned two master's degrees -- in industrial engineering and business administration -- and co-founded his first company, Sentry Technologies. It developed and manufactured commercial construction products.

From there he started a consulting company working for big names such as orthopedic manufacturer DePuy and Chrysler. In 1996, he founded OMC Precision Products, which develops and manufactures orthopedic devices, primarily spinal implants.

Three years ago, he sold his shares to partner Paul Beckwith and went to work on real estate holdings and the home-building industry.

"The thing about Andy is he's a very good businessman and is very thorough," said Beckwith, who is now president of OMC. "He is a perfectionist and that's what is needed with this latest product he's launched. Every little piece of that Web site has to work perfectly."

And Elsbury is working to make sure that happens.

"The risks don't bother me. The money doesn't bother me," he said. "It's more that I see the opportunity to improve something, to improve a process, to make someone's life easier along the way."