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Project Overview
Whether you’re building a skyscraper, a bridge, an underwater tunnel, or an oil rig, you need the most current design and construction drawings right there in your hands, not back in your office. Up until now, those documents have only been available onsite in hardcopy (aka paper), which presents a range of issues.
The solution is Aconex Mobile, which ensures you always have access to the most up-to-date documents and data required to keep your project on track and avoid costly mistakes.
Organisation
Team
Rob Phillpot, GM of Product (Project Sponsor)
Andrew Barron, Senior Product Manager
Kirsten Mann, Director of User Experience,
Belinda Dal Lago, Senior Interaction Designer,
Jeremy Gaedtke, Product Marketing,
Chetan Venkatesh Rukmini, Quality Assurance Engineer,
Ravi Shankar Badharadinne Mata, Quality Assurance Engineer and
Sandil Shah Project Manager, IndiaNIC
IndiaNIC Development Team
Project Brief
We built capabilities into Aconex Mobile that went beyond what's offered in our traditional web application, which makes working from a mobile device a powerful experience, rather than a painful one.
Over the eight-month project we gave our users the ability to quickly move documents and files received on any app on their device straight into (and out of) the Aconex platform — more easily and more quickly than the web application can. We gave them specific features to ensure that local versions of any documents they had were the latest, and if not, the option to update them. Construction sites are notorious for horrendous connectivity. Thanks to these features, even remote oil and gas rigs are using our mobile app.
In addition to these great user-oriented improvements we added support for 2-step verification a well as the ultra-high-end Single Sign On, bringing these into line with our web application.
Project Need
Aconex Mobile has already had over 20,000 downloads and has led our global industry in mobile solutions. However a lead in this space can evaporate overnight if you don’t continually innovate and invest.
Starting as the mobile leader in our space set high expectations. We needed to better the extensive capabilities we'd already brought over from our world-leading SaaS platform.
Globally, mobile functionality is changing the way people go about their personal and professional lives. People are using their device to interact with countless systems, creating many streams of data. The ability to easily bring this data into Aconex and create powerful project documentation is essential.
Our app heavily leans towards exposing the capabilities of the web application — which doesn’t cater to many mobile paradigms or expectations. For example, have you ever tried moving email attachments on your mobile device into another application or system? It’s a difficult process! We created a whole new area called My Mobile Files, which provides a space for the consolidation and safe-keeping of files and documentation brought in from other applications. From the My Mobile Files area, users can view the documents, create new mail or reply and forward from other mails, as well as register them into their organization-wide document register.
User Experience
Users have high expectations for mobile apps and expect them to be polished. They’ll quickly dismiss apps that lack this polish, so we didn't want to disappoint. The introduction of iOS7, although initially overwhelming, was quickly embraced as an opportunity for us to update every screen of our iPad and iPhone apps. We've introduced a fresh, contemporary design, which ultimately influenced a UI update on our web application.
The introduction of My Mobile Files has enabled Aconex Mobile to become the center of our users’ workflows. Instead of having to return to the site office and use the web app to load files received via email into Aconex, they can do this remotely using Aconex Mobile.
Project Marketing
We have recently introduced extensive in-app markup capabilities, allowing users to review and digitally sign drawings and documents, wherever they are. The first step was to market and educate internally, getting our sales and support teams up to speed with the new functionality. To do this, we developed a range of materials, conducted training webinars, and communicated extensively to build excitement.
We work hard to educate our users and the market, publicizing the app and its benefits in the day-to-day onsite environment. We have created a promotional video, updated our public website, and run social media campaigns. To reach our users directly, we run banner advertisements on our system’s login page, linking through to the video and more information. We also include features in our client newsletters.
Project Privacy
A core value proposition of Aconex is its strong ability to allow and encourage all project participants from thousands of organizations to utilize a single platform for all their project documentation. As it's a neutral platform, each organization exists as a separate entity within the system. Organizations retain complete control over the information they store on Aconex, and can create and control the access rights of their users as required. These concepts ensure security and privacy.
Access controls:
- Aconex is a multi-tenant Software as a Service (SaaS) application.
- Access controls on information are enforced.
- Roles may be defined to limit access to types of information and application functionality.
- Access control lists may be applied to mail and documents to make them confidential.
- With appropriate authorization, a user within an organization may be granted permission to see confidential information within the organization (e.g. if another employee leaves their organization).
- All documents and activities are searchable, and an audit trail is maintained.
- Because Aconex is a multi-tenant application, logical controls are enforced to ensure users only see the information they are permitted to see. Access is controlled on three levels: by organization, by project, and by user.
In Field Services
This category relates to applications developed in order to aid and facilitate organisations requiring mobility whilst out of the office.
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