INTRODUCTION TO ACONEX

Doc No: NEIS01-RP-HSE-PM-00001_Introduction to Acoenx Date: 14.03.2022

Purpose Code: P01 Acceptance Code: A Revision: 1
Revision Detail: Document Number added
Document Verification and Approval
Name Role Signature Date
Drafted By: Michael Martin NEIS Product Owner 27.09.2021
Reviewed By: Imp Grp Leads 14.10.2021
Approved By: HSE C&E SMT Senior Management
Team
 Introduction to Aconex

Background
HSE Capital and Estates have 10 Offices around the Country and deliver an annual Capital Programme of
circa €1bn per annum. A need has been identified to integrate the information across all offices and to
provide a common standardised approach to delivery of Capital Projects. Implementation of a National
Estates Information System (NEIS) has commenced in 2021 and is programmed to run over a 2 year period.
As part of this Implementation the HSE has procured and Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS)
consisting of two integrated Platforms. These are TRIRIGA® from IBM which will be used to manage the
Capital Programme and deliver solutions for property, portfolio, maintenance and operation management,
environmental and sustainability and medical equipment management. Oracle Aconex is the platform
solution to deliver an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS), Common Data Environment (CDE)
and provides a platform for all Contract Communication. This short paper sets out the high level principles
of the use of Oracle Aconex.

What is Aconex?
Aconex is a construction management software that is part of Oracle’s Construction and Engineering Cloud
Platform. It is used to connect teams on Construction Projects and is used by some of the world’s largest
construction and engineering companies. The solution helps organisations manage their information and
processes across projects. It has tools and features that enable clients, designers, contractors to collaborate
in projects, manage data, documents and processed with complete visibility across all stages of the project
lifecycle.

System Neutrality
At its core, system neutrality is about equality, security and trust on a project, the Aconex platform does not
favour any organisation (even the HSE), All organisations have the same data access rights within the project.

Before we all moved online, project files were in a hard copy format, locked up and secure in your own office
or site shed. Aconex, have digitized that concept – each organisation has their own secure digital ‘office’.
Keeping it simple with five rules:

1. You have your own private and secure workspace for your organisation
Keep all your project files and communications organised and accessible within Aconex – everything
is tracked and recorded, making for easy admin and collaboration.
2. You control who sees your information
Your files and assets are only visible to your organisation, and visibility can be further restricted
with user permissions. Aconex makes it easy to share and collaborate on a project, but it’s always
on your terms - other organisations can only see what you choose to share.
3. No organization can delete or alter records
Data and records within Aconex can’t be deleted. They also can’t be altered, outside of the inbuilt
versioning function. Everything is recorded which encourages transparency and accountability for
every organisation and user.

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 4. No organisation has rights to your data
There’s no super user in Aconex. The project owner can’t see your data unless you choose to share
it with them. So no one, including the project owner, controls your data, except for you.

5. Your data is yours

Your data will always be yours – you can’t suddenly be cut off or denied access without notice. At
any time during the project (or at the project’s end), you can request an archive of your data

Figure 1: Aconex System Architecture - Principle of Neutrality

Each organisation has its own space which is not visible to any other organisation on the project.

Figure 2:

Each organisation can decide who to

share information with and this can be
done on a singular basis or shared with
multiple organisations at one time

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System Configuration
HSE Capital & Estates have configured the platform to align with the Public Works Contracts and
have a series of workflows available to all participating organisations to assist with understanding the
configuration. The common data environment for uploading of documents, drawings models etc is
configured in accordance with ISO 19650-2:2021 National Annex and a Document Naming Convention is
also available.

System Access
For any organisation to access Aconex and be invited on to a project the organisation must firstly register
themselves on the Aconex platform. This can be done by following the link below (ideally in Chrome)
https://help.aconex.com/
Once on this page please click the green “Register” button

Figure 3: Aconex Support Central

This will bring up the registration page – follow the ‘Register your organization with Aconex and in the
dropdown select the Europe (EU1) instance and select “Go”

Figure 4: Aconex Registration

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Once your organisation is registered please provide the details of registration (organisation details) to the
HSE Project Manager on your project who will then arrange to forward these to the HSE System
Administrator who will activate your organisation on the relevant HSE Project.

Training
The HSE Capital & Estates NEIS Team will organise training for all organisations on the configuration of the
platform which is specific to HSE projects, however, in advance of this training all organisations and users
are advised to avail of the fundamentals training provided on the Oracle website:
Fundamentals Training:
https://help.aconex.com/online-training/getting-started
Additional Webinars:
https://help.aconex.com/online-training/webinars
https://help.aconex.com/DisplayContent/create-mail
https://help.aconex.com/DisplayContent/aconex-documents-essentials
https://help.aconex.com/DisplayContent/creating-one-or-more-packages

Modules
Aconex is based and functions around a number of different modules, all of which appear as tabs across
the top of the browser page when you log in, below is a screenshot of these modules. The Document Tab is
used to manage all the documents on your project whereas the Mail Tab is used for all communication on
the Project

Figure 5: Aconex Modules

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There are numerous other tabs and functions including a mobile App for work on site, these will be
described in more detail on the training session facilitated by the HSE.

Figure 6: Aconex platform with tabs for each module

Contracts
It is intended as described above that ALL contract communication will be carried out on the Aconex
Platform and all participants will be discouraged from conducting contract communications by any other
means (traditional e-mail, etc.).

Aconex will be used ONLY as a tool to aid document control and communication. In no circumstances will
the use of Aconex relieve any party to a Contract of their obligations to comply with the provisions of the
Contract. HSE Estates & Capital NEIS Team have endeavoured to configure the system to align with the
relevant Contracts, however, any discrepancies in the set up or use of the Aconex platform MUST be
brought to the attention of the System Administrator with immediate effect. The Form of Contract,
Conditions of Contract and Contract Documents take precedence in all instances.

If you have any queries on any aspect of the HSE NEIS System, please contact [email protected]

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