DUBAI, UAE, 02 February 2021: Following the announcement of its ongoing global expansion, AESG said it has strengthened its position as a leading provider of consultancy services for the built-environment through the acquisition of Springboard Middle East. Making the announcement through a Press release, the consultancy, engineering and advisory firm said that in addition to gaining ownership of Springboard Middle East’s regional contracts, staff, IP and assets, the deal has enabled it to launch its new digital commissioning, handover and asset management platform, called Data+.

As highlighted in the seminal ‘Building a Safer Future – Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety’ report , insufficient or inaccurate data can significantly impact the performance, efficiency and safety of buildings, AESG said. While over the last decade, the building industry has gradually moved away from traditional paper-based documentation to digital alternatives, issues around the accuracy, accessibility and updatability of building data continue to linger due to the static nature of the pdfs, spreadsheets and documents typically used in the process, AESG said.

Saeed Al Abbar

By offering one of the first comprehensive digital handover solutions in the Middle East, AESG said it hopes to introduce new practices for the industry, while strengthening the value proposition of its existing services. “Our acquisition of Springboard Middle East perfectly aligns with our strategy of pioneering new and more effective means of service delivery,” Saeed Al Abbar, CEO, AESG, said. “Their revolutionary platform perfectly rounds out the digitalisation of our offerings and enhances both the immediate and long-term value of the projects we deliver. By adopting an integrated, digital approach across commissioning, handover and asset management, AESG is committed to leading the data revolution in the built environment.”

As a value-add to its clients, AESG said, it will now offer full digital handovers on all commissioning and handover management projects, along with the option of hosting project data on Data+, its cloud-based platform – making it accessible from anywhere, easily searchable and instantly updatable. When utilised as a subscription-based service, Data+ serves as a secure, collaborative environment that stands as a ‘single, central source of truth’ for all stakeholders and project teams, it added.

Given the fact that Data+ has been built on industry standards and follows a COBie and BIM Level 2-compliant framework, it can be integrated with most Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM) solutions, AESG said. This allows for accurate and validated asset data to be seamlessly exported to these platforms, greatly enhancing building owners modelling, performance optimisation, and maintenance capabilities, it added. The platform also features integration with IoT and AI systems to provide digital twins of assets that enable the use of advanced analytics to optimise the performance of systems during the operational phase of a building’s lifecycle, it further added.

While AESG believes clients of all sizes can benefit from its new offering, Al Abbar noted that Data+ will prove to be especially valuable to mega-projects. “We are working on a number of such high-value projects across the region, and the size and scale of these undertakings warrant a more streamlined approach to data management,” he said. “With all teams having instant access to the up-to-date information they need, they can have a clear picture of the real-time project metrics, which will greatly enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. We are excited to work together with our clients in familiarising them with this new approach to handover and ongoing project management.”