UAE-based contractor Drake & Scull International (DSI) has entered into a strategic agreement with Aconex, a global leader in collaborative project information management, to implement its highly advanced Software-as-a-Services (SaaS) platform built for construction and engineering across the group's offices and project operations.

The new Aconex platform will enable DSI to manage its project data and documents across all its offices and projects due to the platform’s projectwide collaboration, scalability, controlled sharing, and easy online and offline access, said the Dubai company in its statement.

Through the use of the Aconex solution, DSI will be able to improve document control, increase productivity, reduce print outs, and recover lost time.

Aconex’s project collaboration platform currently links 620,000 users across 19,000 projects in 70 countries, worth over $800 billion in project value.

In the Gulf region, Aconex powers 85,000 users across 3,500 projects including Dubai Metro, Yas Island, Qatar Rail, and Dubai International Airport Concourse 3.  

The company also plans to set up regional centres of excellence to provide its staff hands-on training with the Aconex software, stated the DSI statement.

Ahmad Al Naser, the managing director of DSI, said: "The Aconex implementation complements our recent ISO 27001 information security management standard certification, which spans our employees and processes and affirms the robustness of DSI’s IT systems and mechanisms."

"We have selected Aconex to implement its project collaboration solution across all DSI offices and project operations with an aim to reduce project risks, increase productivity and improve efficiencies. The increasing complexity of our projects and volumes of correspondence, combined with the increase in our workforce, necessitate the need to centralise and simplify project collaboration and document management," he added.

Al Nasser said using the Connected BIM capabilities of Aconex, DSI has also increased the adoption of modern technologies such as building information modelling (BIM), allowing for real-time three-dimensional (3D) analysis of construction designs to identify structural weaknesses, heat signatures and design solutions well ahead of mobilization on sites.

Rob Matheson, the regional director for the UAE at Aconex, said the agreement represents an exciting opportunity and partnership for both parties.

“It further elevates DSI’s leadership in utilising proven construction technologies to deliver value and results to their customers. It is also another step forward in consolidating the leadership of both DSI and Aconex in the booming Middle East construction industry,” noted Matheson.

"DSI is currently undertaking the implementation of Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, an integrated application suite of comprehensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which is now the region’s largest ERP initiative of its kind," he stated.

The software already powers the company’s UAE operations and will be rolled out in other markets in a phased manner, he added.