AESG, a specialist consultancy, engineering, and advisory firm, strengthened its position as a leading provider of consultancy services for the built environment through the acquisition of Springboard Middle East. In addition to gaining ownership of Springboard Middle East’s regional contracts, staff, IP, and assets, the deal has enabled AESG to launch its new digital commissioning, handover and asset management platform, Data+.

As highlighted in the seminal ‘Building a Safer Future – Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety’ report[1], insufficient or inaccurate data can significantly impact the performance, efficiency, and safety of buildings. While over the last decade, the building industry has gradually moved away from traditional paper-based documentation to digital alternatives, issues around the accuracy, accessibility, and updatability of building data continue to linger due to the static nature of the pdfs, spreadsheets, and documents typically used in the process.

By offering one of the first comprehensive digital handover solutions in the Middle East, AESG hopes to introduce new practices for the industry, while strengthening the value proposition of its existing services. “Our acquisition of Springboard Middle East perfectly aligns with our strategy of pioneering new and more effective means of service delivery. Their revolutionary platform perfectly rounds out the digitalisation of our offerings and enhances both the immediate and long-term value of the projects we deliver. By adopting an integrated, digital approach across commissioning, handover and asset management, AESG is committed to leading the data revolution in the built environment,” said Saeed Al Abbar, CEO at AESG.

As a value add to its clients, the company will now offer full digital handovers on all commissioning and handover management projects, along with the option of hosting project data on Data+, its cloud-based platform – making it accessible from anywhere, easily searchable, and instantly updatable. When utilized as a subscription-based service, Data+ serves as a secure, collaborative environment that stands as a ‘single, central source of truth’ for all stakeholders and project teams.

Because Data+ has been built on industry standards and follows a COBie and BIM Level 2 compliant framework, it can be integrated with most Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM) solutions. This allows for accurate and validated asset data to be seamlessly exported to these platforms, greatly enhancing building owners modelling, performance optimisation, and maintenance capabilities. The platform also features integration with IOT and AI systems to provide digital twins of assets that enables the use of advanced analytics to optimize the performance of systems during the operational phase of a building’s lifecycle.