Dubai Parks and Resorts: Greenfield Project with a Stringent Timeline
Dubai Parks and Resorts, an AED 8 billion green-field project delivered on desert land within budget and time. The PMIS team developed a comprehensive solution to meet such a large-scale project’s stringent demands and tight timelines, significantly enhancing cost management and process automation.
Key Metrics: Implemented a robust digital platform, automated cost reporting, and dashboards, coordinated 250 PMC staff, and delivered the project on time and within budget.
Introduction
Dubai Parks and Resorts embarked on a new greenfield program development for a project worth AED 8 billion. The program involved engineering, procurement and construction of 3 theme parks, 1 water park, 1 resort hotel, sitewide infrastructure works, and a retail & entertainment development. This large-scale endeavour required a sophisticated digital PMIS solution to streamline and automate various project management processes. The project management team for this program required an atypical team with both creative and engineering backgrounds and was required to integrate construction project management consultants and theme park development consultants with the Client’s development team. The team managed the successful delivery of 300+ contracts within a 4-year timeline and on budget. The main objective was to ensure seamless transfer of information between various functions, automate delivery processes, enhance cost management, real-time reporting, and enable efficient coordination among 250+ PMC staff and multiple design consultants and contractors.
The Challenge
Problem Statement: Managing a multi-project program of this scale presented numerous challenges, including tight timelines and the risk of cost overruns. There were numerous interfaces between each project in the program and common stakeholders across the projects. Effective cost management and real-time progress tracking were critical, alongside the need for seamless coordination among a large team.
Impact: Without a robust PMIS solution, the project faced risks of delays, budget overruns, and inefficiencies in managing the vast amount of data and processes involved.
The Solution
Strategy: The PMIS team designed and implemented a customized PMIS solution tailored to the needs of the program. The strategy included automating critical project management processes and creating dynamic reporting tools.
Implementation: The solution featured: –
- Automated cost management, including real-time tracking of estimates and change management.
- Dynamic cost reports and dashboards for quick decision-making.
- Automated processes that reduced the need for extensive manual oversight.
- Seamless transfer of data from function to function reducing data entry and errors.
- Effective Change Management process for obtaining approvals and confirming cost of change.
- Efficient progress tracking and reporting from site to management.
- Risk Management and Issues escalation protocol for early resolution
Team Involvement: The PMIS team worked closely with the client’s team to ensure the developed solution was integrated seamlessly. The processes were aligned with the system’s capabilities to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.
The Results
Outcomes: The digital platform automated most processes, resulting in dynamic and automated cost reports and progress dashboards. This enabled the management team to make quick and meaningful decisions, helping deliver the project on time and within budget.
Metrics:
- Enhanced cost management and real-time tracking.
- Efficient coordination among 250 PMC staff.
- Reduced resource requirements for cost management.
Conclusion
Summary: The successful implementation of the digital PMIS at Dubai Parks and Resorts significantly improved project management efficiency, cost control, and decision-making processes. The solution’s automation capabilities streamlined operations and reduced resource requirements.
Future Plans: Dubai Parks and Resorts inherited the PMIS solution while developing Phase II projects with their own development team. It aims to further leverage digital technologies to enhance future project management practices and explore additional automation opportunities.
