Project Overview

For any construction project manager, getting the right information to the right people, at the right time is critical to meeting schedules and avoiding risk.

Every day, thousands of project managers around the world use the Aconex online collaboration platform to access, share and manage their information. To keep their projects on track, our clients want to be able to manage their information in real time, not wait until they get back to their desks.

With the Aconex Mobile for iPhone app, they can now manage their information on site, on the move and even when in the air.

Organisation

Aconex

Team

Rob Phillpot, GM of Product (Project Sponsor)
Kirsten Mann, Director of User Experience
Oliver Furniss, Product Manager
Nicole Lawther, Senior Visual Designer
David Koopmans, Product Marketing Manager
Yoram Kulbak, Aconex Technical Lead
IndiaNIC, Outsourced Development Team

Project Brief

Few industries rely on the timely access and distribution of information as much as the construction industry. Projects often involve more than 100 team members sharing thousands of drawings, documents and correspondence items each month. Once in construction, every hour that is not productive, either because people have to wait, or because they have to rectify mistakes a lot of money is lost. All too often, delays, disputes and quality issues can be traced back to miscommunication and poor information processes; people working of the wrong version of a drawing, or waiting for instructions can make the difference between making money and losing money.

Our clients rely on the Aconex collaboration platform to help manage these risks. The system allows project members to log in to a secure, central platform where they can access, distribute, track and archive their information. However, as workforces are becoming increasingly mobile, people are spending less and less time in the office in front of a PC.

This drove the development of the Aconex Mobile iPhone app, which enables our clients to create and access their project information when they’re away from their desks. It also offers a range of features that are only possible with a mobile device, such as capturing photos of defects on site for instant communication to the team. Essentially, the app means that, wherever they are, project managers can stay productive and in control.

Project Innovation / Need

The Aconex Mobile for iPhone app provides an innovative solution to the challenge of managing construction project information on the move. Typically on a project, people need to go back and forth between their office and the project site to check information on their PCs. On-site information is often captured in hard copy, which then needs to be distributed to other team members when back in the office.

With the Aconex iPhone app, project managers have the information they need at their fingertips and can streamline communication with their team members. The app enables them to:

• Deal with issues and reply to project mail in real time
• Access the most current project documents from anywhere.
• Capture on-site information, such as defects, and instantly communicate them to their team
• Work on documents and mails while offline (e.g. on a flight) and then have them sync to the Aconex system as soon as reconnected.

This saves time and improves productivity on projects, helping project managers to deliver their projects on time and within budget.

User Experience

Building an iPhone app wasn’t something we entered into lightly. From the outset, we saw the opportunity for the app to fundamentally evolve and improve how construction professionals manage their information, adding real value to their companies and projects.

To fully understand the industry’s needs, we wanted to develop a detailed picture of our clients’ working week. This involved a number of research initiatives including having some of our clients keep a daily diary describing exactly how and where they accessed their information, their challenges and what tools they currently used (including their use of mobile devises). We then mapped out how an iPhone app could help make their jobs easier and more productive.

Throughout the 6-month development process for the app, our research also included in-depth interviews and beta testing with 50 clients.

Project Marketing

Objectives:
Within 12 months, convert 1,500 of our clients into being Aconex Mobile users.

Target audiences:
Staff with an iPhone
Users with an iPhone


Distribution:
All distribution is done through the Apple app store.

Promotion:
Pre launch – A key component of the launch was to ensure that our sales and support teams were excited and informed about the app’s features and benefits. To achieve this, we ran an educational program using channels such as the company intranet, internal newsletters, webinars and product demos.

Launch – To promote to all stakeholders that we now had an iPhone app, we created a promo video and a dedicated section of our website. We also ran a media and social media campaign, giving interviews to key journalists and opinion leaders.
To reach our users directly, we ran a banner advert on our system’s login page, linking through to the video and more information. We also included features in our client newsletters and technical release notes.

Tagline for the campaign is:
Aconex mobile: now Aconex goes everywhere you go.
Create, capture, share and control your project information from wherever you are, right from your mobile device, online or offline.

Results:
In the 3 months since release, we’ve already had more than 4,000 downloads and are still going strong. The app also appeared in the New and Noteworthy area in the iTunes App store. We’re currently working on our next release, which will incorporate user feedback that we’ve been collating.