Company signs strategic agreement with global project collaboration leader Aconex

UAE, October 14, 2015 - Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI) , a regional market leader in the integrated design, engineering and construction disciplines of General Contracting, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP), Water and Power, Rail, and Oil and Gas, and Water and Wastewater Treatment, 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 DSI's offices and project operations.

The Aconex platform will enable DSI to manage its project data and documents across all its offices and projects due to the platform's project wide collaboration, scalability, controlled sharing, and easy online and offline access. Through the use of the Aconex solution, DSI will be able to improve document control, increase productivity, reduce print outs, and recover lost time. The company also plans to set up regional centers of excellence to provide its staff hands on training with the Aconex software. 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.   

Ahmad Al Naser, Managing Director of Drake & Scull Engineering, 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 centralize and simplify project collaboration and document management. Aconex is a trusted, proven brand and will help us meet our goals of cutting down delays in the decision making process and the associated costs. The regional centers of excellence will also benefit our local employees in markets like the UAE and KSA, familiarizing them with the global standard in project collaboration and document management platforms."

Using the Connected BIM capabilities of Aconex, DSI has also increased the adoption of modern technologies such as Building Information Modeling (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. The automation of workflows and other key processes has already reduced document approval cycles and decreased costs traditionally associated with information retrieval and will additionally help DSI meet its sustainability targets by lowering paper consumption. Within the last few months, DSI has successfully deployed Aconex on a number of key projects, including the AED 1.1-billion Lamar Towers, the AED 477-million Salboukh expatriate Residential Compound and the AED 190-million Al Dara Hospital, all in Saudi Arabia, and the AED 180-million Al Reef Residence in the U.A.E.

"This agreement represents an exciting opportunity and partnership for both parties," said Rob Matheson, regional director for the UAE at Aconex. "It further elevates DSI's leadership in utilizing 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."

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. The software already powers the company' UAE operations and will be rolled out in other markets in a phased manner. 

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About Drake & Scull International PJSC
Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI) is a regional market leader delivering world class quality projects via end to end solutions that provide integrated design, engineering and construction disciplines of General Contracting, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP), Water and Power, Rail, Water and Wastewater Treatment, Waste to Energy and Oil and Gas, through People, Innovation, and Passion.

DSI established its first office in Abu Dhabi in 1966, and has since expanded operations to encompass offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Algeria, Iraq, India, Thailand, as well as managing projects in Europe and other parts of North Africa.

DSI's main business streams include Drake & Scull Engineering, which serves as the MEP and Water & Power arm, Drake & Scull Construction (DSC), which is the General Civil Contracting unit, Drake & Scull Oil & Gas, which undertakes oil pipelines and related petrochemical projects, Drake & Scull Rail, Germany based Passavant Energy & Environment which focuses on Water and wastewater treatment as well as waste to energy and Drake and Scull Development, focusing on the Infrastructure sector.

In 2008, DSI offered 55% of its shares to the public and the IPO was oversubscribed 101 times. Ernst & Young ranked the IPO among the top 20 global IPOs in 2008.

DSI has since then used the funds to integrate, establish and acquire businesses that complement its corporate strategy of expansion into new markets, via organic and inorganic growth.

The fully Integrated Management Systems, certified to ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2005, ISO 27001:2005 and OSHAS 18001:2007 standards are compliant with leading building, health and safety regulations, as well as sound environmental and energy management procedures.

DSI is a leader through experience, and has established a regional leadership position over 49 years of successfully completing the most complex projects on time, within budgets and matching set quality parameters.

DSI has delivered more than 700 projects around the world in the last five decades catering to aviation, residential, mixed use, power plants, district cooling plants, hospitality, healthcare, renewable energy, data centers, petrochemical, rail, commercial, government, leisure, and infrastructure sectors.

For further information, please contact:
Rabih Abou Diwan
Corporate Communications Manager
Drake & Scull International
Mobile: +971 52 800 34 12
Rabih.aboudiwan@drakescull.com

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© Press Release 2015