SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — (Marketwired) — 10/13/15 — Aconex Limited (ASX: ACX), provider of a leading cloud collaboration platform for the global construction industry, today announced that Built, a leading Australian construction company, successfully refurbished a high-rise office building at 20 Martin Place using Aconex solutions. The signature property is part of a $1-billion renaissance of Sydney–s historic central business district.
Built had previously signed an enterprise agreement with Aconex to support construction, refurbishment and fit-out services on all of its projects throughout Australia. The firm was particularly interested in deploying the neutral, cloud-based Aconex collaboration platform on 20 Martin Place because its project team was separated by far-flung geographies and multiple time zones. The building–s owner, Pembroke Real Estate, had several stakeholders in the United States, and the building façade envelope was designed by James Carpenter Design Associates, based in New York. The architects, Crone Partners, were based in Australia, along with Built. “It was very important to be able to move information seamlessly between geographies,” said Daniel Graham, Built–s design director.
In order to achieve strict performance and sustainability goals, Built stripped the existing 22-story building down to the underlying steel structure and relocated the core of the building to the north side. This allowed for larger and more flexible office floor plates. Other changes included the replacement of inefficient building systems and a new, high-performance glass façade that reduced operating costs by minimizing the energy needed for lighting, heating and cooling. With these changes, 20 Martin Place will offer 19,080 square meters of office space and is expected to earn a 5-Star NABERS Energy rating and a 5-Star Green Star As-Built rating.
With Aconex, the project team of more than 500 was able to easily find and access the most up-to-date versions of documents and drawings, regardless of where they were located. Centralizing correspondence on the platform further improved communications, while limiting rework and cost overruns. By the end of the A$100-million project, more than 230,000 documents were registered on Aconex and nearly 160,000 pieces of correspondence were received.
From the outset of the 18-month refurbishment, one of Built–s concerns was to keep design reviews moving so that the project would meet its deadlines. Leveraging Aconex, Built put in place a process that emphasized –first principles.– Each design submittal package was mapped to each of the disciplines. Built then returned the submittals offering 30%, 60%, 70%, 90%, and finally, 100% workshopped drawings.
“That allowed us to fast-track the design and really get the project moving,” Mr. Graham explained. “The client was able to readily confirm that the team was on the right track.”
A new process for handling site inspections and defect resolution led to significant productivity gains. Instead of having inspectors manually record defects floor by floor, Built divided the building into QR-coded areas. Team members conducting an inspection could scan the QR codes in Aconex Field and enter the issues they identified on an iPad. The minute a defect was entered, it was assigned to the appropriate subcontractor for resolution.
“It was immensely faster for us to be able to turn around and issue defects using Aconex Field than when we were using a manual process,” Mr. Graham said. “What was previously a two- or three-day turnaround could now happen within an hour after the original inspection was completed.”
Mr. Graham said another benefit of Aconex Field was that issues identified by the engineering foreman, architect and client were now available on one platform. Depending on a user–s access permissions in Aconex, it was possible to see all issues in one view, where previously they had been captured in separate lists. Creating and sorting lists became a matter of clicks.
The new process also streamlined issue close-out. Before it was implemented, closing out defects was often a daunting exercise. Built and its project team could end up with a list of defects that was 50 pages long. With Aconex, inspectors could focus on specific defects in each area. Instead of worrying about the entire list, they checked into each area when they arrived by scanning the QR code and then focused their review on the particular issues in that location.
According to Mr. Graham, Built has tried other stand-alone tools for capturing defects but he prefers Aconex because it provides a single, consistent, project-wide view. “Aconex was a better tool for the client and for handling close-out than anything else,” he said. “That alone was worth the investment.”
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.
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