Gulf Holding Company has selected Aconex to provide its online information management solution to the $650 million Villamar at the Harbour development at Bahrain Financial Harbour.

Aconex provides a web-based platform for managing project information such as drawings, documents and correspondence.

Through using the system, Gulf Holdings and its project partners will be able to view, track and share their data in real-time using a secure, central platform.

This reduces the time and cost associated with using paper documents and streamlines communication between organisations.

Villamar at the Harbour is being built on an island in the heart of the business district of Manama.

The development will be located on a prime 32,000 sq/m waterfront site and will comprise apartments, exclusive villas and penthouses.

The development also includes health club and spa, swimming pools and a boardwalk which will host cafes, restaurants and other leisure facilities. The project is scheduled for completion in 2010.

'Aconex is ideal for the collaborative environment of the construction industry,' said Gulf Holding company senior project manager Steve Flanagan.

'We have consultants in the UK and Dubai so using Aconex will improve communication between parties.

'We handle a huge amount of documentation and the system will allow us to store all our data in one place where it is easily accessible - whenever anyone asks for drawings we will be able to issue them straight away.'

'The system will keep an accurate record of documentation throughout the project which will be highly beneficial in the long run,' he added.

'Villamar is one of Bahrain's landmark developments,' said Aconex chief executive Leigh Jasper.

'Over its lifecycle, we expect that hundreds of thousands of drawings and documents will be created, that will need to be shared between the numerous parties involved in the project.

'Being able to effectively control this flow of information throughout the project will reduce exposure to risks such as delays, disputes and reworks.

'Gulf Holding's projects such as Villamar and Downtown Al Areen are world-class developments that are helping to position Bahrain as one of the most attractive real estate markets in the Middle East.'

Aconex is the world's largest provider of online collaboration to the construction and engineering industries and the market leader in the Middle East.

The company services $210 billion worth of projects across 65 countries and has offices in the Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

It is also providing its service to the $40 billion Yas Island development in Abu Dhabi, Dubai Metro and Reef Island Bahrain.-TradeArabia News Service