Genivar Selects Aconex Collaboration System for Major Restaurant Upgrade Program in Canada

TORONTO–(Marketwire – July 6, 2010) –  Aconex, the world’s largest provider of project collaboration solutions to the construction and engineering industries, has been selected by Genivar, one of Canada’s leading consulting engineering firms, to support the delivery of a major restaurant chain’s redevelopment program.

Part of a national initiative, the program involves the redesign, renovation and upgrade of the chain’s 600 restaurants in eastern Canada by the end of 2012. Aconex will provide a central, web-based platform for managing the information and correspondence generated during each project.

By using the system, all organizations engaged on the program — including Genivar, the client, the design team and suppliers — will be able to access, distribute, track and archive their project data online, from any location and at any time. In addition, Genivar, the project managers, will have a central view over the flow of information and the progress of deliverables.

Mr. Alain Bertrand, Genivar Senior Project Manager, said, “The program was initially using an FTP site, however the large volume of documents being exchanged meant it was quickly getting out of control. The lack of structure and audit trail made it difficult for project members to retrieve what they were looking for and to consult historical documents. This program is a multi-site operation, with a number of small projects being managed at any one time, so we needed a more advanced, industry-specific solution.” 

The Aconex online project management system provides powerful searching capabilities for the fast retrieval of information. By using keywords, attributes, date ranges or other criteria, team members are able to quickly retrieve the drawings, documentation and correspondence that their organization has created or been sent. Within a few clicks, project members can distribute documents over the system to other participants and an audit trail is kept of every transaction. To ensure maximum update and usage of the system, Aconex provides training to all participants followed by unlimited helpdesk and online support.

Mr. Bertrand said, “Having worked with Aconex in the past, I knew that the system was easy to use and that the client service was excellent. At any time during the program, I can check the progress of restaurants and give access to the client — we both have the information we need at our fingertips. Using Aconex will improve our control, giving us better visibility over information and providing structure to our project correspondence. At the end of the program, we’ll be able to give the client a definitive archive of project data.”

From its 37 offices worldwide, Aconex, www.aconex.com, services US$220 billion worth of projects in 65 countries. Its clients include IKEA, Las Vegas Sands, McDonald’s Restaurants, AECOM, Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Graham Construction.

For the past 50 years, Genivar has been a Canadian leader in consulting engineering. The company has more than 4,400 employees, a presence in 85 cities and projects in more than 35 countries.