Aconex Smart Manuals Transforms Operation and Maintenance Handover for Capital Projects

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New Product Suite Extends Online Collaboration to Full Project Lifecycle

SAN BRUNO, California, February 25, 2013 – Aconex, provider of the world’s most widely used online project collaboration solutions for the construction, infrastructure, power, mining, and oil and gas industries, today launched Aconex Smart Manuals. This new suite of products provides an end-to-end digital handover solution for construction and engineering projects. With Aconex Smart Manuals, contractors can efficiently capture, review and deliver the documentation required for operation and maintenance of the built asset, and owners can easily maintain that documentation over the operating life of the asset.

“With Aconex Smart Manuals, we can deliver the perfect product to our client at project completion: a complete, high-quality, digital operation and maintenance manual,” said Jan Goetze, projects director, South Australia, at Hindmarsh Construction. “With the cost savings this solution provides, we deliver much higher value to the project. We believe in Aconex, we’re using Aconex on all of our projects, and I think that speaks for itself.”

Aconex Smart Manuals transforms a process that historically has been labor-intensive, paper-based and fraught with risk. At the end of a project, the general contractor rushes to gather handover information from subcontractors – often months or years after the work has been completed – and assemble it for delivery to the owner, which is contractually required for final payment. Information that is inaccurate, incomplete or difficult to manage and use increases the owner’s maintenance risks and operating costs, which account for 60-70% of the total asset lifecycle cost.¹

“Aconex Smart Manuals extends the business benefits of the Aconex online collaboration platform to the transition from construction to operation and asset information management,” said Kerri Lee Sinclair, Aconex vice president of operations and maintenance solutions. “When all project team members collaborate in real time to compile digital documentation – with a complete audit trail – contractors are assured of meeting their obligations, closing the account and moving on to the next project. At the same time, owners can proceed with confidence to realize the full value of their asset through efficient operation and maintenance.”

Product Options for User Flexibility and ROI
The Aconex Smart Manuals suite includes three products designed to offer contractors and owners a range of options to meet their specific needs and budgets:

• Aconex Smart Manuals enables contractors to define and assign subcontractor tasks and deliverables, automate review and approval processes, monitor all subcontractor actions and performance, maintain a complete and searchable audit trail, and deliver comprehensive, accurate digital manuals to owners. ‘Smart’ differentiators include the ability to navigate graphically to physical assets and access their associated information, and to leverage industry best practices in online collaboration, including project-wide workflow processes and information management.
  

• Aconex Smart Manuals Dynamic extends the capabilities of Aconex Smart Manuals to owners for the update and control of operation and maintenance manuals throughout the lifecycle of the asset. This product is integrated with the Aconex online collaboration platform, enabling users to access and manage asset information in a secure, cloud-based environment.
  

• Aconex Digital Manuals is a streamlined version of Aconex Smart Manuals which provides centralized communications and information management, as well as status monitoring for all subcontractor tasks and actions, enabling contractors to deliver professional digital manuals compiled progressively during the project.

Aconex Smart Manuals and Aconex Digital Manuals can be used effectively as stand-alone solutions for projects already in progress or integrated with the Aconex platform from project inception.
 
Aconex will be in Booth #4 at the CG/LA 6th Annual Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum in New York City, February 27-March 1, 2013.     

About Aconex
Aconex provides the world’s most widely used Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for managing information, processes and people throughout the life cycle of construction and engineering projects across multiple industries. The Aconex suite of solutions – secure, neutral and centralized – enables project managers to reduce the cost and risk inherent in capital projects of all sizes and improve efficiency, productivity and accountability for all project participants. Aconex has served projects valued at more than US$700 billion, with over 300,000 users. Customers include nine of the world’s top ten engineering procurement and construction (EPC) firms, 23 of the 25 leading global design firms, and nearly all Fortune 500 construction and engineering firms. For more information and examples of Aconex in action, see www.aconex.com. Follow Aconex on Twitter at @aconex and on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/aconex.

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¹  National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce