Acwa + Thinkproject: Powering Global Growth Through Digital Transformation

About Acwa

 

Acwa is a global leader in renewable energy and water desalination, with a rapidly expanding portfolio of large-scale infrastructure projects across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

The company is currently delivering some of the world’s largest renewable energy developments, with approximately 20 gigawatts of renewable energy projects under construction. It is also recognised as the world’s largest water development company, desalinating more than 5 million cubic metres of water per day in Saudi Arabia alone.

Operating across Saudi Arabia, China, the UAE, Morocco, South Africa, Uzbekistan, Turkey and the wider GCC region, Acwa continues to export its expertise and scale globally.

At this scale, managing projects requires a shift from project-based delivery to connected, lifecycle-wide asset management.

The challenge: Managing complexity at global scale

As Acwa scaled its operations, it faced increasing complexity across its project portfolio:

  • Delivering large, technically complex renewable energy and water projects
  • Operating across multiple countries with differing regulatory and compliance requirements
  • Keeping pace between rapid business growth and digital transformation
  • Managing data, documentation and processes across the full project lifecycle

At the same time, the organisation was undergoing a fundamental shift, by moving from a project execution mindset to a long-term asset lifecycle approach. This involved connecting all project phases (from award and construction through to operations), as well as ensuring full visibility and traceability of asset data across geographies.

The solution: Building a digital foundation with Thinkproject

To support its transformation, Acwa partnered with Thinkproject as a strategic digital platform provider.

This partnership supported the creation of a strong digital foundation, providing a single platform to standardise, connect and scale project delivery across the portfolio:

  • Developing a standardised asset data structure and coding system
  • Structuring documentation consistently across all project phases
  • Connecting the full lifecycle: from award to construction, commissioning and handover
  • Enabling all stakeholders to operate using a common data language

To achieve this level of control at scale, Acwa needed real-time, portfolio-wide visibility.

Acwa implemented portfolio-level oversight through a Project Heatmap, enabling real-time visibility into project health, monitoring of quality inspections, proactive risk identification and mitigation, capture and reuse of lessons learned across projects.

Thanks to the Thinkproject Platform, the organisation was able to achieve:

  • Compliance with diverse country-specific requirements
  • Centralised document and data management
  • Real-time access to critical project information
  • Faster, more informed decision-making

Benefits: From fragmented projects to integrated portfolio intelligence

By implementing a standardised digital foundation with Thinkproject, Acwa has transformed project delivery into a connected, data-driven operation, enabling greater visibility, control and scalability across its global portfolio. The implementation has led to:

Enhanced portfolio visibility: Acwa now has real-time visibility across all projects, enabling leadership to monitor performance, quality and schedule reliability in a single, consistent view and make faster, better-informed decisions.

Proactive risk management: With portfolio-wide insights and tools like the Project Heatmap, teams can identify risks early, anticipate issues and apply lessons learned across projects, shifting from reactive to proactive risk management.

Standardisation and control: A unified data structure and consistent processes ensure alignment across regions and teams, improving compliance, reducing variability and strengthening control over project execution.

Always-available, trusted data: All project data and documentation are centralised, structured and accessible at any time, enabling teams to work with accurate, up-to-date information wherever they are.

More efficient project delivery: Digitised workflows have streamlined processes, reduced administrative effort and improved coordination, resulting in smoother and more organised project execution.

Foundation for Asset Lifecycle Management: By capturing structured data across all phases, Acwa now has a complete asset history, supporting long-term optimisation and enabling its shift from project execution to asset management.

Digital transformation as a strategic enabler: Digital transformation is now embedded as a core business capability, supporting Acwa’s global growth and its ambition to lead in the energy and water sectors.

Conclusion

For Acwa, digital transformation is not optional. It is a core business requirement. By adopting Thinkproject, Acwa successfully transitioned to an asset-centric model, enabling better decision-making, improved operational control and long-term digital growth aligned with its global ambitions.

This positions Acwa not only to manage projects at scale, but to continuously optimise performance across the full asset lifecycle.

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