Aurecon and Autodesk are continuing to deepen their decade-long, strategic partnership to innovate as part of Aurecon’s commitment to creating a better future for people and the planet. The partnership is resulting in a reduced tech stack, with a focus on best-in-class tech, consolidating multiple dispersed platforms into a single-source location that connects teams, data and content through Autodesk Construction Cloud. The Autodesk partnership is pivotal to Aurecon’s client-centric approach and digital innovation strategy moving forward and will support the team’s future vision and growth at an enterprise level across the entire business.
Aurecon is a leading Asia Pacific design, engineering and advisory company with a strong presence in Australia, New Zealand, and multiple countries in Asia. With 7,500 employees in 31 locations, its strength lies in how it brings together design, engineering and advisory capabilities to provide its clients with integrated solutions across the entire asset lifecycle. From shaping and planning, to designing and delivering, operating and optimising, to closing and transforming, Aurecon designers, engineers, scientists and advisors work with clients across markets and asset types to tackle some of the world’s most complex challenges. With innovation in its DNA, Aurecon’s purpose is bringing ideas to life and to imagine and co-create with its clients a better future for people and the planet. The Aurecon team places eminence, digital and innovation at the core of all they do and are committing to this with their long-term and continuously maturing partnership with Autodesk.
Over the past decade, Aurecon has leveraged Autodesk products including Autodesk BIM 360 Model Collaboration. Initially signing an Enterprise Business Agreement with Autodesk in 2015, the relationship was still in its early stages and realising the value from Model Collaboration and cloud working. However, the reality was that most of the growth had happened organically. This made it challenging to introduce standard templates, roles and permissions, and automation. Along the journey, the relationship has evolved. Aurecon began to increasingly engage with Autodesk’s platform strategy and to align with Autodesk’s vision of a granular, open and connected data platform, in a future that would be built on Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) rather than BIM 360.
“Over the years, Aurecon’s relationship with Autodesk has matured, bringing key stakeholders from both companies together to drive digital innovation. One of the challenges has been fragmented knowledge of Autodesk internally, which made it difficult to get the full value out of Autodesk. In the last six to 12 months, we’ve realigned capabilities, and we are now ready for the digital transformation Autodesk offers.”, said Carl Duckinson, Chief Information Officer, Aurecon.
ACC connects workflows, teams and data at every stage of construction to reduce risk, maximise efficiency and increase profits. Aurecon saw an opportunity to ensure they were on the right platform for future growth, but also to seize the opportunity to standardise their Autodesk environment. This is enabling increased security, reduced risk and further automation. Aurecon recognised that ACC also incorporates many potential value-adding workflows that it was still yet to tap into.
“With Autodesk growing and innovating alongside us, we are excited to continue to evolve our partnership after 10 years.” said Carl Duckinson, Chief Information Officer, Aurecon.
Carl Duckinson, Chief Information Officer, Aurecon
As part of Aurecon’s Enterprise Business Agreement with Autodesk (EBA), Aurecon has continued access to Autodesk’s full suite of tools, as well as enhanced support and more collaboration opportunities. Increased efficiencies will be gained through further consolidation of Aurecon’s tech stack, resulting in one platform where the data points, information channels and communication storage are all connected.
Amy Bunszel, Executive Vice President, Architecture, Engineering and Construction Solutions, Autodesk
“Trust has been integral to our partnership with Aurecon, and our relationship has been built on a foundation of transparency and open deeper and more impactful engagement, enabling us to support Aurecon at an enterprise level to implement change and achieve strategic goals across the business.” said Amy Bunszel, Executive Vice President, Architecture, Engineering and Construction Solutions, Autodesk.
One of the key milestones in Aurecon’s collaboration with Autodesk was the migration of several thousand users from BIM 360 to ACC during the pandemic. As part of a three-staged approach to innovation, Aurecon worked with Autodesk to build a phased program to be delivered over the course of six to 18 months, building out a detailed transition plan with executive sponsorship. The intent was to move all their several thousand users, in flight, to a new collaboration platform in the following three stages:
Stage one of the program included the ‘pre-transition’ enablement pieces of work, including a detailed gap analysis between BIM 360 and ACC; a detailed transition plan; standardised roles and permissions built into a standard Aurecon template; and automated project creation.
Stage two comprised a series of weekly, comprehensive live coaching sessions over the course of several months, with the generated content readily accessible on Aurecon’s intranet.
Stage three looked at the value-add workflows Aurecon could be utilising to further progress towards their goals around standardisation and automation.
Aurecon’s strategic goal was 100 per cent cloud adoption, driven by the need to improve efficiency and collaboration across the organisation. This was achieved, allowing Aurecon to work more effectively and adapt to changing business needs. The long-term benefits of the ACC rollout include significant improvements in efficiency and collaboration, the ability to integrate and automate processes, and improved data management. These benefits are expected to continue to grow as Aurecon further leverages the platform.
Moving forward, Aurecon is strategically aligning its partnerships at an organisational level with other leading companies that have a shared vision for innovation and excellence, working with Autodesk to take advantage of the integrated platform and data, and to create standardised systems and processes. The partnership between Aurecon and Autodesk is an industry-leading approach that will help shape innovation and drive growth for the future over the coming decade and beyond.
