In the first article in our BIM series, we looked at the history of BIM - both its philosophical underpinnings and the technological advancements that have made it an increasingly central part of the construction process. Much of that article focused on the ways in which BIM empowers collaboration across departments, from estimation and bidding through construction and all the way to maintenance and operations. In this article, we’ll dive deeper into that notion of collaboration as we examine the ways it’s essential to widespread BIM adoption - from competitors working as collaborators to the embrace of new data standards.
Industry demand leads to competitor collaboration
The call for increased adoption of BIM technologies and philosophies have led to strange bedfellows in the construction industry. In the past, companies may have pursued some loose form of vertical integration, where a hardware provider may develop their own software rather than working with a software developer to unite the best of their solutions. Typically, that means companies that specialize in hardware don’t always specialize in software and vice versa. In instances where the software built exclusively to work with a rover, drone, etc. is excellent, it’s can run into the challenge of a lack of OpenAPI to easily integrate with other systems. And if the data can’t be easily transferred to other systems and departments, there’s not a lot of value in having it in a digital format in the first place.
Now, companies often see the value of integrating their products and specializing in the areas for which they are known. For example, Esri, a leader in GIS intelligence, has an entire page dedicated to their partnership with Trimble, another leader in global positioning technology. You’ll find the same concerning Esri on Trimble’s website. Their partnership is not merely philosophical, but practical. At the end of the day, there are teams using Trimble hardware and Esri software, and it's far simpler and more beneficial to the end user to integrate those platforms than it is for Esri to say, acquire a rover company, or Trimble invest in developing an ArcGIS-esque software.
That’s just one example, but one backed up by numbers, per BIM Object;
- 73% of AEC organizations say having a highly collaborative relationship is extremely or very important to the success of their projects
- 48% of AEC firms won’t even work with other organizations or aren’t BIM proficient
As BIM Object notes, “BIM is not lone-wolf software. It’s a collaborative process.”
Organizations of all sizes can collaborate on BIM usage
If you’re reading this and thinking “okay, that’s great for companies like Trimble, Esri, Bentley, Autodesk, HDR, WSP, etc., but I’m a midsize design or tech firm, or a small local agency, so what about me?,”don’t worry - there are a number of opportunities for organizations large and small to get involved with BIM. First off, don’t sell yourself short. You may not have the revenue or project numbers of an industry leader, but there’s one thing you do have that’s valuable to the entire industry: your data. We are a ~300-person construction technology company that may be dwarfed by some of our competitors, but understanding the importance of making the data in our systems accessible has led to partnerships with organizations like Trimble, HDR, Esri, and Bentley. If you bring a collaborative mindset and construction project data, these organizations will want to work with you.
Even if you’re not in the partnership stage of your BIM journey just yet, there are organizations you can join to support the pursuit of open data standards like IFC and other technologies or processes that support BIM:
