It's easier when you stop saying BIM

At last we can see it starting to happen, the hype and spin is beginning to subside and people are focusing on real value. In a recent meeting we were asked “how’s your BIM journey going, we are struggling to see the value”, we replied “it’s easier when you stop calling it BIM”.

What do we mean by that? Well in the past, even recent past, people have been swept up in the BIM tsunami and forgotten why we are engaged. We are here to make money by satisfying clients in the realisation of their assets, we must do this with the minimum associated cost and time taken, whilst managing their risk.

Demand drives the information, not the other way around

We are able to achieve the above through authoring and creating information and then analysing and appraising this, as well as legacy information, to develop and communicate a need. Operationally we achieve this by structuring, coordinating and managing our activities, bringing us greater economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of value to our clients. In managing information in this way WSP find that we have expended eighty per cent of the effort required to change the way we can do business with our clients and customers. We focus on what delivers value at any particular stage, this becomes our purpose. Demand drives the information, not the other way around.

Through changing our operations we can change how we do business and through changing how we do business we can strive to change an industry. Now if you want to call that BIM please do, we think it’s just what we do.

Frank McLeod is UK head of project technology for WSP