NEXTDC, Australia’s most reliable data centre provider, houses Australia’s largest and most comprehensive ecosystem of clouds, networks, and specialist IT services providers.

Project brief

NEXTDC needed to migrate all their project data from Aconex to Procore, in order to have all data consolidated in one system, allowing teams to collaborate quickly and efficiently. Manually migrating all this data would have been unfeasible, as it would have been hugely labour intensive and there would have been a loss of data, contacts, records of mail, and different versions of documents. A manual transfer of this data was simply not an option for NEXTDC.

The challenge

Before commencing the migration of their data from Aconex to Procore, NEXTDC had to consider a number of challenges:

Live Project Data: NEXTDC had 5 years worth of project data across 15 projects in Aconex that needed to be migrated to Procore. Eight of these projects were completed, and six of the projects were still live, with daily activity and new data being created in each of these live projects. NEXTDC also required one of their projects in Aconex to be migrated to several different projects in Procore.
Tight Timelines: NEXTDC needed all projects to be migrated to Procore before their Aconex licence expired. They also had to consider their supply chain, taking into account that their contractors and suppliers also needed to be switched from Aconex to Procore.
Platform Differences: Without a software migration tool, it would have been challenging for NEXTDC to overcome some of the differences between the Aconex and Procore systems. This could have resulted in many of NEXTDC's documents not migrating to the optimal tool in Procore, which would negatively impact the overall user experience.
Change Management: NEXTDC were changing their project management platform across all project teams and they needed to ensure this was completed as efficiently as possible. It was critical to coordinate their supply chain off Aconex and onto the Procore platform and also to establish a positive user experience for the NEXTDC team in Procore.

The solution

BIMLauncher’s automated migration tools and managed services allowed NEXTDC to carry out the enormous task while giving the team peace of mind in knowing the project data was going to be migrated safely and securely and reducing both the time and cost of the project.

The steps involved in completing this type of data migration would have been extremely challenging without the use of a software migration technology and there would be a risk that not all of the necessary data would be migrated from Aconex to Procore. NEXTDC identified early that success would come from partnering with BIMLauncher.

The migration process

As a strategic and long-time development partner of Procore, BIMLauncher has mapped the differences of Aconex data to provide an optimised user experience as soon as it is transferred to Procore.

For instance, BIMLauncher creates Procore Correspondence based on the Mail Thread in Aconex to provide the most optimised user experience. The most feasible manual alternative is to establish a storage structure for the mail in the Procore Documents tool and individually create a PDF for each mail thread and carefully copy the attachments. This is a time consuming and error prone process ultimately affecting the ability to find and access this information in the future.

By using BIMLauncher and having the mail uploaded in Procore’s Correspondence tool, it is quick and easy to locate Aconex mail, while also having the confidence that the data is complete.

The importance of metadata

Metadata is integral to ensuring the optimal performance of Procore features, including privacy and confidentiality of files, as well as unlocking advanced features for quickly locating, and reporting on, files. Metadata also provides a deeper understanding of the files, including important events of what happened during its lifecycle. BIMLauncher captures all of the metadata for each file in Aconex, and migrates it to Procore.

Responding to changing requirements

After the project began, NEXTDC encountered changes that they wanted to implement. Due to the in-depth understanding of Procore, BIMLauncher’s Implementation Team could respond to this request mid-way through the migration, presenting the reconfiguration options that were best suited, which ultimately led to the optimal configuration of Procore for NEXTDC. Without BIMLauncher’s knowledge and expertise, NEXTDC would have been restricted in terms of how they could have optimised their data in Procore specific to their needs.

Migrating the data

There are several reasons why a manual migration would not be the most reliable option, some of which NEXTDC had not even considered before commencing the project. Outlined below are some of the key advantages of using BIMLauncher:

Documents are sorted into directories based on the originating organisation name, which would have been extremely time-intensive to sort manually.
Version history of each document is maintained; had the data been manually uploaded, only the latest version of the document would have been transferred.
Metadata is automatically assigned to each document, otherwise, it would require a manual entry between Aconex and Procore, which would have been practically impossible to complete.
Ability to perform catch up migrations provided a safety net for project data that was added to Aconex live projects after the migration commencement date.

Results

For Project Manager Mishelle Yam and her team, BIMLauncher proved to be a ‘no brainer’ when it came to this migration project. Speaking on the success of the project Yam said:

“Without BIMLauncher’s software and expertise, we would not have achieved the optimal configuration of Procore for our needs. BIMLauncher’s software and its Implementation Team were integral to the success of this project. By using BIMLauncher, the time spent on this project was cut in half and the cost savings were phenomenal. Without a doubt, we would not have been able to complete the project to the level of success we have, without BIMLauncher”

Key benefits / ROI

Human Resources & Time Savings

Manually migrating all project data from one system to another would have been extremely impractical, as it would require an extortionate amount of man-hours and resources, and would ultimately have led to mistakes and inaccuracies due to human error. By using BIMLauncher, the time needed to complete the project was only a fraction of what it would have been had NEXTDC tried to complete the migration manually.

Data Integrity

The cost of poor data in Procore cannot be overstated. Incorrectly structured data as a result of manual transfer would create challenges for reporting and also for users to locate data if needed to be referenced at a future date, or if needed in a case of litigation or an audit. NEXTDC now has peace of mind knowing that the integrity of their data has been 100% maintained.

Maximising NEXTDC’s Investment in Procore

The strong client relationship between NEXTDC and BIMLauncher allowed for any queries that arose throughout the process to be quickly and easily dealt with. It also meant that BIMLauncher’s team could advise of any potential issues before they occurred; some of which NEXTDC had not considered or had foreseen before the project began, ensuring that NEXTDC got the full benefit of their investment in Procore.

Not only impressed by the software NEXTDC also found BIMLauncher’s Implementation Team’s guidance invaluable, Yam continued:

“BIMLauncher were proactive in foreseeing any potential issues that could have arisen and they were always quick to provide alternative solutions. The level of responsiveness from the Implementation Team went above and beyond our expectations, which was very reassuring for us as we were working within a tight deadline.”

Project conclusion

Highlights

15 Aconex projects were migrated through 82 workflows to 22 Procore projects.
Migration of 6 live Aconex projects with teams.
Extraordinary Aconex project split into 8 Procore projects.
More than 10 Terabytes of documents migrated including 135,000 unique versions with metadata.
More than 8 Terabytes of Aconex Mail converted to Procore Correspondence, including 100,000 Mail Items, attachments and metadata.

Overall, BIMLauncher’s software massively reduced costs and man-hours on the transfer of all NEXTDC’s project data from Aconex to Procore, while maintaining the integrity of their data. Upon completion of the project, NEXTDC concluded that it would have been unfeasible for them to carry out this project without using BIMLauncher and this was the fastest, most reliable, and most cost effective option for NEXTDC.

Transferring project data from one system to another can be an overwhelming and daunting task but with the implementation of BIMLauncher, NEXTDC had the reassurance that their data was safely and securely migrated, in a cost-effective way, with minimum disruption to their team.

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NEXTDC’s Migration from Aconex to Procore with BIMLauncher