Aconex will provide its online information management service to Melbourne residential development Solson Place – a ‘Green Village’ that will become the largest solar powered site in the southern hemisphere.
Expected to be completed by late 2008, the 2.1 hectare site will feature 140 apartments and townhouses, as well as a cinema, café, pool and gym. The 6-Star energy rated development features solar panels that will provide 80% of the residents’ energy requirements and eliminate 569 tonnes of greenhouse gases every year. Solson Place will also be equipped with the latest energy and water conservation and waste reduction technology.
Developers, Long Lease Property Group, selected Aconex in order to ensure accountability across project teams, to increase productivity and to reduce the amount of documents printed.
Aconex is a web-based solution that stores and manages all project information – including drawings, documents, workflows and correspondence – online through one central site. This allows project participants, such as the developer, architect, engineers and consultants, to view, track, share and archive their information electronically at any time, and from any location.
Peter Giantsis, Director at Long Lease Property Group, manages a team of consultants on the project that includes town planners, traffic management specialists, civil and structural engineers and the architect. Giantsis believes that being able to use Aconex to track the status of documents and correspondence will keep the project on track.
Giantsis said: “From a developer’s point of view, we can hold project participants accountable for everything. Because people can’t say they didn’t receive something we have sent them, this means that we have more control. From an accountability point of view, this is a godsend as you give people a deadline and they need to meet it.”
Throughout the course of the project, Giantsis expects to see increased productivity by giving team members fast access to the latest information. Giantsis said, “We believe Aconex will deliver us efficiency through being a central system that everyone is connected to where they can manage their information and correspondence.”
Being pioneers in the field of sustainable development, Long Lease were also conscious that using Aconex could significantly reduce the amount of paper documents generated on the project.
“Everything that gets uploaded can be viewed online so doesn’t need to be printed off, which is good from an environmental point of view,” says Giantsis. “We don’t like to print anything unless there’s no other choice.”
Long Lease is also using the site camera facility on Aconex, where images of Solson Place can be viewed through the system and are updated every ten minutes.
“The Site Cam means that we can monitor what’s happening on site. At any time, from an administrative point of view and from a construction point of view we can check the project’s progress and hold people accountable,” Giantsis said.
“With Aconex, we won’t even need to be on site to monitor the project, I can even be abroad and keep and eye on things. Then, at the end of the project, we’ll be able to compress the videos to use for marketing purposes.”
Aconex is the world’s largest provider of online collaboration for construction and engineering projects. From its 24 offices, the Company services projects in more than 40 countries and manages information for projects with a total value in excess of US$100m.
