Week 1: Day 4

Erga Progress Office Visit

Instead of heading to the office this morning, we went to visit the Dubai office of Erga Progress Engineering Consultancy. Erga and DCC have a strong relationship that goes back to the opening of the Dubai office which was established, in part, at the behest of Mr. Abdallah Yabroudi because he enjoyed working with Mr. Joeseph Sawaya. Mr. Sawaya is an architect who helped establish and is the director of the Dubai branch of Erga Progress.

We began our visit with a lecture from Mr. Elio Gebrayel on procurement strategy and contract selection. The lecture covered the key aspects of procurement and the various strategies that are used for procurement of projects based on the needs of the client. We also learned about the process of contract selection, specifically focusing on the FIDIC standard form contracts which are most commonly used in Dubai.

After Mr. Gebrayel's lecture, Mr. Sawaya showed us photos and renderings of numerous projects that Erga Progress has procured in Dubai including many projects designed for DCC. Around 90% of the projects that Erga Progress takes on are in partnership with DCC and the two companies have worked closely in Dubai for the last 8 years.

IT Infrastructure and Rolex Tower Visit

We returned to the DCC offices for lunch and were given a lecture by Mr. Amir Kolahzadeh on IT infrastructure. Mr. Kolahzadeh is part of IT Works, an IT infrastructure subcontractor that works with DCC on many of their projects, including the Rolex Tower in Dubai. The lecture was about how IT services are now the 4th utility and an essential part of any modern civil or residential design.

Following the lecture, we were lucky enough to have Mr. Kolahzadeh escort us around the Rolex Tower and show us the inner workings of the buildings exceptionally advanced IT services. The Rolex Tower, aside from being a luxurious and beautiful residential and commercial building, is a truly unique example of IT infrastructure. Rental spaces in the Rolex Tower come equipped with ready-to-use Internet and television services, state of the art energy saving interior designs, and wireless connectivity for WiFi and cellular services throughout the building at no additional cost to tenants.