AECOM TRANSFORMS PROGRAM MANAGEMENT WITH INEIGHT
Centralized Solution Drives Timely Decisions
AECOM (NYSE: ACM) is the world's trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering onal services throughout the project lifecycle – from advisory, planning, design, and engineering to program and construction management. On projects spanning transportation, buildings, water, new energy, and the environment, our public-xq and private-sector clients trust us to solve their most complex challenges. Our teams are driven by a common purpose to deliver a better world throughxq our unrivaled technical and digital expertise, a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and a commitment to environmental, social, and governance priorities. AECOM is a Fortune 500 firm and its professional services busines had revenue of $14.4 billion in fiscal year 2023.
AECOM AT A GLANCE
LOCATION:
North America: Dallas, Texas
REVENUE
$14.4 billion
INEIGHT PRODUCTS
InEight Change
InEight Compliance
InEight Completions
InEight Contract
InEight Control
InEight Document
InEight Estimate
InEight Schedule
SOLUTION BENEFITS:
VERTICALLY INTEGRATED VIEW
Providing a vertically integrated view of programs and their constituent projects
ENHANCED DECISION-MAKING
Delivering accurate and dynamic reporting in support of better decision making.
EFFICIENCY GAINS
Synchronizing activities around shared real-time data
UNITING STRATEGY WITH EXECUTION
Drawing on its work across hundreds of major construction programs, AECOM knows that successful construction programs depend on a framework of talent, process, and procedures, supported by a strong foundation of governance. To ensure transparency, visibility, goal alignment, supply chain integration, and robust risk management, the company wanted to build an integrated program controls system that would support intelligence-driven decision making capabilities reaching beyond cost and schedule to provide actionable, holistic program insights. Aidhean Camson, Vice President, Global Program Controls within the Global Program Management business line at AECOM, comments: “Most large change initiatives lack alignment between top-down strategy and bottom-up execution. We wanted an approach that enabled stakeholders throughout the program to make informed, timely decisions on all projects—not just the sequence, but the funding, procurement, risk profile, outcomes, and so on.”
“The Program Controls Engine leverages InEight Project Controls to deliver a single source of truth that optimizes monitoring and performance evaluation.”
- Aidhean Camson, VP, Global Program Controls AECOM
AECOM FAST FACTS:
AECOM professional services business had revenue of $14.4 billion in fiscal year 2023
AECOM ranked #1 in water, transportation, general building, and international markets by Engineering News-Record in 2024
Listed at #310 on the Fortune 500 as one of America’s largest companies
SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH FOR PROGRAMS
Essentially, the challenge was to extract, collate, and analyze existing data from multiple sub-systems managing individual projects, and generate actionable program results. To provide this new service, AECOM collaborated with InEight to co-create the Program Controls Engine, a comprehensive, centralized program management and controls solution, built on InEight software. “The Program Controls Engine leverages InEight’s off-the-shelf project controls software and extends it to provide program level capabilities,” says Camson, “providing a single source of truth that optimizes monitoring and performance evaluation for each project as well as the overall program.” The Program Controls Engine integrates data vertically, linking contracts to projects to programs to strategies. It also provides horizontal integration, spanning each project from initiation to design to procurement to field execution and turnover.
KEEPING EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE
With project and program managers working on consistent data within the same tool, AECOM can enhance delivery, improve quality, cut timelines, and reduce risk. Integrating source data for cost schedule, risk management, contract procurement, data analytics, and change management empowers stakeholders like estimators and schedulers to work in perfect synchronization and create risk-adjusted budgets and schedules. “The increased sharing of information helps us work more dynamically and efficiently,” says Camson. “My inspector can work from a tablet to verify the quantities claimed by the contractor, verify the percentage completion, and share that information against the schedule of values and activities. When we consolidate that information at the end of the month, there’s no debate and the contractor can submit payment forms in the same tool.” Program Controls Engine also enables a better understanding of the risk profile associated with projects and programs. The vertical alignment enables program managers to drill down to the project level to diagnose and address the root causes.
“The increased sharing of information helps us work dynamically and efficiently, so when it comes time for payment there’s no debate.”
- Aidhean Camson, VP, Global Program Controls AECOM
DRIVING BEST PRACTICES
To support the Program Controls Engine framework, AECOM created a 350-page Program Controls Playbook that documents best practices and standardizes program controls delivery. A significant portion of the playbook is system-agnostic to ensure adaptability, while maintaining structured processes across programs. Together, AECOM is setting the new standard by providing a unified, scalable, ready-to-deploy program controls solution that recognizes the unique nature of programs, while embedding controls best practices.
CONTROLS SUCCESS IN ACTION: THE MTA
The Program Controls Engine has proved its value in a five-year program to improve subway performance in New York City, where AECOM is providing project and construction management services. They joined the project three months in alongside three existing contractors, which presented some challenges. “We needed to provide actionable insights, ensure goal alignment and integration, maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of the work, and promote visibility to drive transparency—but first we had to get up-to-speed on the project itself,” says Camson. “We needed the right tools in place if we wanted to deliver the targeted benefits of the program.”
“We joined the project three months in and needed to get up-to-speed fast. InEight put the right tools in place to help us deliver the targeted benefits of the program.”
- Aidhean Camson, VP, Global Program Controls AECOM
Following a discovery phase, AECOM built a roadmap for the solution elements it would deploy and determined how the Program Controls Engine would fit architecturally with the existing systems. The InEight team was there to help, but it can be difficult to wean people off spreadsheets. “We held a lot of stakeholder meetings to get their alignment and demonstrate the power of an integrated solution,” says Camson. “Budgets, schedules, contracts, and risk were the priority-one elements at the heart of our Programs Control Engine deployment.” “When you’re aligning cost and schedule at the contract level, you need a huge amount of detail,” says Camson. “But when you move to the project and program levels, you have to convey the top-level message without the unnecessary information.”
INEIGHT SCHEDULE
AECOM improved efficiency with InEight Schedule
LINE ITEMS
The program team built an integrated schedule with nearly 3,000 line items
SCHEDULING ACTIVITIES
Three contractors had over 30,000 activities in combined contract schedules
FINDING THE RIGHT LEVEL OF DETAIL
“On the schedule side of things, we had three contractors with over 30,000 activities in the combined contract schedules,” says Camson. “The program team built an integrated schedule with nearly 3,000 line items that was detailed enough to show the interdependencies between partners, critical paths, and necessary handoffs.” Based on the integrated schedule, AECOM ran Monte Carlo analyses to help identify the most significant risks, their potential impacts on the schedule, and possible mitigations. “When you’re aligning cost and schedule at the contract level, you need a huge amount of detail,” says Camson. “But when you move to the project and program levels, you have to convey the top-level message without unnecessary information.”
GRANULAR, REAL-TIME VIEWS OF PERFORMANCE
AECOM built multiple dashboards across functions to show the appropriate levels of detail at the project, program, and executive levels. This part of the solution, based on Microsoft Power BI, provides dynamic views of performance. “While most clients are accustomed to static monthly reports, people rapidly buy into the ability to drill down and explore active data. Right now, we’re refining the dashboards to really create actionable KPIs,” says Camson. “Our clients want to know: ‘Am I behind schedule?’, ‘How’s my budget or risk or contingency plan?’ This dashboard provides those insights and enables timely, informed decisions. With the Programs Control Engine built on InEight, AECOM can give stakeholders in large, complex organizations the accurate information they need to make the right decisions at the right time.”
“With the Program Controls Engine built on InEight, AECOM can give stakeholders in large, complex organizations the accurate information they need to make the right decisions at the right time.”
- Aidhean Camson, VP, Global Program Controls AECOM
FASTER PROGRAM BASELINES:
2x FASTER
2x FASTER BASELINES
Teams can now establish program baselines in half the time
10 vs 50 PEOPLE
10 PEOPLE REQUIRED VS. 50
By increasing efficiency, 60-75% smaller teams can now set up baselines
ABOUT INEIGHT
InEight is a leader in construction project controls software, empowering over 850 companies taking on challenging projects in industries including construction and engineering; transportation infrastructure; mining; water; power and renewables; and oil, gas and chemical. Uniquely suited to capital construction and other complex work, our integrated, modular software manages projects worth over $1 trillion globally, taking control of project information management, costs, schedules, contracts, and construction operations, and delivering insights with advanced analytics and AI. InEight's solutions adapt and scale to meet the dynamic needs of modern construction, driving operational excellence and successful project outcomes. For more information, follow InEight on LinkedIn or visit InEight.com. © 2026 InEight, Inc. All Rights Reserved