Drake & Scull International Standardizes on Aconex

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES--(Marketwired - Sep 15, 2015) - Aconex Limited (ASX: ACX), provider of a leading cloud collaboration platform for the global construction industry, recently signed an enterprise subscription agreement with Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI). Under the agreement, DSI will standardize the use of Aconex solutions across all of its construction projects throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Headquartered in Dubai, DSI is a global industry leader delivering state-of-the-art projects and solutions across six main high-performance sectors, including general contracting, engineering, rail, oil and gas, infrastructure development, and water/wastewater management. Over the last 130 years, DSI has established a strong reputation for integrated design, innovation and high efficiency. DSI projects range from data centers to renewable energy and span the structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing disciplines.

Within the last few months, DSI has successfully deployed Aconex on a number of key projects, including the AED1.1-billion Lamar Towers, the AED477-million Salboukh Residential Compound and the AED190-million Al Dara Hospital, all in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the AED180-million Al Reef Residence in the United Arab Emirates.

Connecting Teams for Project-Wide Collaboration

The adoption of Aconex marks DSI's commitment to best-of-breed industry tools and processes, and a move away from reliance on generic legacy tools such as email, spreadsheets and file-sharing software. The neutrality of the Aconex Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform will enable DSI to realize considerable information technology (IT) and infrastructure savings, while providing a familiar and trusted collaboration environment to their external project participants. DSI will also benefit from complete audit trails of all project data, specialized solutions for field inspections and handover, and comprehensive process control for documents and forms-based communications.

"The adoption of Aconex across all DSI projects and departments provides the familiarity of a single system and standardized processes," said Ahmad Al Naser, managing director of DSI Engineering. "The centralization of project information on one platform enhances remote coordination and eliminates unnecessary redundancy and risk of data loss, improving the efficiency and productivity of the entire project teams."

Mr. Al Naser added that the certification of Aconex with ISO 27001 -- the global standard for information security management -- facilitates ready integration with DSI's own enterprise security protocols. Another key attribute of the Aconex SaaS platform is its full scalability in line with project growth. The "Aconex Unlimited" model provides DSI with unlimited users, platform usage, data volumes, training, and support for the term of the agreement.

Automated Construction Processes and Connected BIM

"The automation of workflows and other key processes has already reduced document approval cycles and decreased costs traditionally associated with information retrieval for variations and claims," said Mr. Al Naser. "In addition, Aconex helps DSI meet sustainability targets by lowering paper consumption. We are pleased with the quality of service and support provided by Aconex, and we look forward to rolling out the platform to all remaining major markets in the near future."

Mr. Al Naser also cited Aconex Connected BIM functionality as an important element in DSI's strategy to support the growing market adoption of building information modeling (BIM). Connected BIM -- built into the Aconex platform -- enables design and construction teams to work together on BIM data and processes, linking project information to specific objects in 3D models.

"As the Middle East construction and infrastructure markets continue to boom, projects are becoming increasingly larger, more complex and more challenging," said Henry Jones, senior vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Global Accounts at Aconex. "We're delighted to partner with DSI as they continue to innovate and deliver some of the region's landmark projects. With this enterprise agreement, we look forward to supporting their continued growth and increasing prominence throughout MENA."

About Aconex

Aconex Limited provides a leading cloud collaboration platform for the global construction industry. The platform connects owners, contractors and their project teams in the construction, infrastructure, and energy and resources sectors, providing project-wide visibility and control between the many different organizations collaborating across their projects. With more than 60,000 user organizations and approximately $1 trillion of project value delivered in more than 70 countries, Aconex is the industry's most widely adopted and trusted platform. Founded in 2000, Aconex has 41 offices in 22 countries around the world, including headquarters in Melbourne, Australia and San Francisco, California. The company's ordinary shares are traded on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the ticker code ACX.

Supporting Resources

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