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Innovating Cost Management in Construction: How Gamuda Redefined Project Delivery with Autodesk

By:
- Kyle Ewe, Digital Lead – Digital Engineering - Contract and Commercials (C&C), Gamuda Berhad.

- Tushar Nath, Senior Customer Success Manager, Autodesk Inc.

Figure 1. GAIN - Modern workspace at Gamuda Innovation Hub, designed to foster collaboration and innovation among project teams.

Gamuda Berhad stands as a premier engineering and infrastructure group in Asia, recognized for its delivery of transformative projects spanning Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. The company’s rapidly expanding digital presence is evident in its engagement of over 5,700 monthly active users (MAUs) on Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC). This high level of user adoption highlights Gamuda’s commitment to connected, data-driven construction workflows. This extensive engagement serves as a testament to Gamuda’s capability to manage and execute complex, multi-regional projects. By leveraging an integrated digital ecosystem, they have improved collaboration, strengthened accountability, and driven operational efficiency across their diverse project portfolio.

The Challenge

Managing contract and commercial (C&C) processes for such a vast, multi-region project portfolio presented Gamuda with a unique set of challenges:

  • Fragmented, manual workflows led to data inconsistencies, bottlenecks, and a high risk of human error.
  • Integration gaps between core business systems, SAP S4HANA for finance, Primavera P6 for scheduling, and various document management tools made it difficult to automate processes or achieve a single source of truth.
  • Regional complexity required solutions that could flexibly adapt to local contract formats, regulatory requirements, working cultures, and the varied processes and procedures of different regions, alongside managing multi-currency operations.
  • Limited real-time visibility into budgets, claims, and payments hindered proactive, data-driven decision-making.
  • Innovation pressure was not merely a trend but a strategic necessity, as digitalization, AI, and automation became essential for sustaining competitiveness and achieving industry leadership.

Gamuda recognized that incremental improvements would not suffice. What was needed was a fundamental reimagining of how cost, contracts, and commercial operations were managed across the enterprise.

The Foundation: GDOS Framework for Simplification & Standardization

At the heart of the company’s transformation is the Gamuda Digital Operating System (GDOS), a robust framework designed for simplification and standardization across all business functions. The GDOS Framework connects every key stakeholder, from planners, contract and commercial, design and technical, quality, safety, and project managers to on-site teams and finance, through a unified digital backbone. This framework eliminates the need for complex infrastructure setup, allowing the group to rapidly extend licenses and cloud environments for immediate user access. 

Figure 2, Representation of the Gamuda Digital Operating System (GDOS) framework, showing integration with core systems like Primavera P6, Autodesk Construction Cloud, SAP S4HANA, and the Gamuda App Store for data analytics and project management.

This framework is crucial for ensuring a scalable, secure, and future-ready system that supports both operational excellence and rapid innovation.

The Solution: A Four-Pillar Digital Transformation

1. Digital transformation in cost management: Gamuda centralized and standardized all post-contract processes – budgets, contracts, variations, and payments – by adopting ACC Cost Management enterprise-wide. The platform replaced fragmented spreadsheets with unified, cloud-based data models for budgets, contracts, schedules of values, and payment certificates, ensuring full traceability and control across projects. Built to ISO 19650 and integrated with GDOS, it streamlines document control, version management, and approvals, connecting all project teams in one synchronized platform.

2. Accelerating project delivery through integrated system architecture: To boost digital efficiency, Gamuda integrated ACC with SAP S4HANA, Primavera P6, and other systems to streamline cost management. This setup automated purchase orders, synced payment certificates (IPC) and variation orders (VO) for processing and converted complex Bill of Quantities (BQ). Workflow notifications were triggered through the Autodesk Platform Services API. The integration also covered scheduling, analytics, and reporting, consolidating data in Google BigQuery for visualization in Power BI. Using 5D BIM (Autodesk Assemble), 3D models were linked to cost and schedule data, enabling interactive and accurate progress tracking.

3. Regional enablement, cost awareness, and project control: Operating across multiple regions, Gamuda needed flexibility to adapt to diverse contract structures, local regulatory requirements, and varying project execution cultures. Gamuda’s success extended beyond system deployment, it came from building awareness and ownership among users. Continuous training, onboarding, and hands-on support empowered teams and subcontractors to adopt digital cost management practices confidently.

This awareness directly translates into better cost control: during construction, issues are identified and resolved earlier through integrated digital workflows, minimizing rework and downstream cost impact. Every digital process, whether document management, claim processing, or cost verification, feeds into real-time visibility of actual spending, enabling Gamuda to manage budgets proactively and ensure every dollar spent is traceable and optimized.

4. Driving innovation with AI and automation: Gamuda’s ambition extended beyond digitization and integration, it embraced intelligent automation. Through AI Automation, they deployed AI agents capable of handling contract and budget queries via platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp. Document processing, claim verification, and approval routing were also automated, while a knowledge library and model context protocol (MCP) provided instant access to relevant project data.

Machine learning models were used to forecast project costs, identify process bottlenecks, and detect anomalies in documentation. These innovations reinforce Gamuda’s culture of continuous improvement, ensuring the organization remains future-ready and an industry leader in data-driven cost and commercial management.
 


Figure 3. Interactive dashboard displaying 5D BIM progress claims, cost breakdowns, and real-time analytics for project management and financial tracking.

Advanced Digitalization – Integrations and AI Automation

A defining feature of Gamuda’s digital transformation is its commitment to advanced, data-driven project management, most notably through the integration of 5D BIM, GDOS+ Dockets & Upstream/Downstream, and AI automation, leveraging on ACC’s open API.

BIMCOST - 5D BIM Main Progress Claims

Gamuda’s adoption of 5D BIM has elevated project controls and commercial management to a new level.
 

Figure 4. Detailed interface for tracking project progress using BIMCOST, linking quantities and costs to 3D models for accurate and interactive project monitoring.


Figure 5. Example of ACC Cost Management’s payment certificate module, showing claimed work completed and work percentages for contract management.

GXA (Gamuda Xtended API)

To bridge between ACC and Gamuda’s internal enterprise systems, GXA-the Gamuda Xtended API-was developed as a custom automation layer for integrated progress claim and approval management.

  • Automated approval and payment certification: GXA captures approval data directly from ACC, generates unique approval codes for audit traceability, and automatically issues email notifications and stamped payment certificates (IPC Gen).
  • Customizable templates: Both upstream and downstream payment workflows leverage configurable templates for payment summaries, schedules, and approvals.
  • Seamless SAP synchronization: GXA acts as the middleware that ensures all approved payment schedules, variations, and retention values are synchronized with SAP S4HANA in real time.
  • Efficiency impact: The combined use of ACC and GXA reduced the average payment certificate preparation time from 2 to 5 hours to just 5 minutes, while cutting approval turnaround from 7 days to 2 to 3 days.

This intelligent automation not only standardized payment processes across Gamuda’s regional operations but also ensured compliance with internal Delegation of Authority (DOA) limits and improved financial accuracy across more than RM 5 billion in processed payments.

PAYCONNECT (ACC ↔ SAP S4HANA Integration)

Complementing GXA, PAYCONNECT facilitates secure, bi-directional data exchange between ACC and SAP S4HANA, forming the backbone of Gamuda’s digital cost management ecosystem. PAYCONNECT enables:

  • Automated data transfer: Enables direct posting of payment schedules (PS), interim payment certificates (IPCs), and variation orders (VOs) from ACC into SAP for financial processing, eliminating manual data entry.
  • Comprehensive support: Handles complex financial scenarios including advance payments, credit/debit notes, dayworks, retention, recoupments, and schedule of rates, ensuring complete financial accuracy.
  • Real-time budget synchronization: Links Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and cost codes between ACC and SAP, ensuring consistency of budgetary data and enabling visibility of indirect and direct costs at project and portfolio levels.
  • Audit and compliance: Each transaction through PAYCONNECT is logged with unique reference identifiers, providing audit-ready documentation aligned with both corporate and statutory requirements.

GDOS+ Dockets

As part of Gamuda’s commitment to digitalizing site operations, the GDOS+ Dockets module plays a pivotal role in connecting field activities with ACC cost management. By digitizing resource tracking and integrating seamlessly with core systems, it ensures that every aspect of on-site resource management is transparent, efficient, and auditable.

  • Mobile and web integration: The Dockets module enables mobile photo capture, digital registration of both contract and non-contract items, and maintains a comprehensive resource and rates library. It supports delivery orders, materials, labor/timesheets, and plant/machinery tracking, ensuring complete traceability of on-site resources.
  • Workflow automation and accruals management: Subcontractor submissions and approval routing for engineers are fully digital, with claims flowing seamlessly from Docket Registration into ACC Cost Management. The system automatically records accruals, capturing the value of work completed but not yet claimed or certified, ensuring that all committed costs are reflected in real time. This enables project teams and finance controllers to maintain an accurate view of project liabilities, align cost reporting with actual progress, and prevent budget overruns. The result is a tightly integrated workflow that reduces manual intervention, accelerates approvals, and enhances financial transparency and control.

GDOS+ Upstream/Downstream

Gamuda’s GDOS+ platform extends digitalization to both upstream (client) and downstream (subcontractor) commercial processes.

  • AI automation: Gamuda’s digital ecosystem is further enhanced by AI-driven automation. AI agents streamline contract and budget queries, automate document processing and claim verification, and support rapid information retrieval through a knowledge library and context protocol. These capabilities not only boost efficiency but also provide predictive insights for better decision-making.

By integrating 5D BIM, GDOS+ Dockets & Upstream/Downstream, and AI automation, Gamuda has created a truly end-to-end digital environment. This approach ensures that every commercial process, from initial design and scheduling to claims, payments, and subcontractor management, is transparent, auditable, and optimized for speed and accuracy. The result is a level of operational control and project insight that sets a new benchmark for the construction industry.

Measuring the Impact 

Gamuda’s transformation is not just strategic, it’s measurable. 

"The digital journey with Autodesk Cost Management and GDOS has fundamentally transformed how we manage contracts, costs, and collaboration across the enterprise. It’s not just a one-time transformation, it’s a continuous journey of learning, adapting, and improving. From where we started to where we are today, the change has been transformative. The way we work, make decisions, and engage our teams has evolved into a new standard, an internal Gamuda benchmark that continues to inspire progress across every project." 
- Kyle Ewe, Digital Lead-C&C, Gamuda Engineering

 

Gamuda’s digital journey stands as a benchmark for how technology, process innovation, and continuous improvement can reshape the construction industry. Through a structured and phased transformation, the company has progressively digitalized its post-contract processes, standardizing budgets, cost codes, contract management, claims, variations, and approval workflows, while embedding real-time dashboards and analytics to enhance transparency and control.

Building on this foundation, Gamuda has extended its digital ecosystem to encompass pre-contract activities, knowledge management, and advanced reporting, enabling seamless data flow across the entire project lifecycle. This evolution has driven measurable efficiencies, empowered teams to make faster and better-informed decisions, and fostered a culture of accountability and digital excellence that spans across regions and disciplines.

Gamuda’s transformation demonstrates that true digital success comes not from technology alone, but from harmonizing systems, people, and processes into a unified architecture that enables operational agility and sustained performance improvement.

Future Outlook

Looking forward, Gamuda aims to strengthen its position as a digital leader by advancing the integration of AI, machine learning, and data analytics into everyday operations. The next phase of its journey focuses on developing agentic AI capabilities, predictive cost and performance models, and end-to-end digital connectivity across design, construction, and operations.

With the continued evolution of 5D BIM and intelligent automation, Gamuda seeks to further optimize cost control, enhance sustainability outcomes, and enable proactive, data-driven decision-making. By continuously iterating and innovating on its digital foundation, Gamuda is setting the stage for a future where construction projects are not just efficiently delivered, but intelligently managed, insight-driven, and environmentally responsible.