As reported on the CIMCIG (Certified Institute of Marketing – Construction Industry Group) blog, yes I’ve been to the site. The Government Chief Construction Advisor Paul Morrell described BIM adoption as “unstoppable” . This took place at the Chartered Institute of Marketing Construction Industry Group Chairman’s debate. No one at the meeting disagreed with him but rather focused on the practicalities of its implementation.
The choice of software system is one risk. Mike Sheehan of WSP pointed out that there is still much work to be done developing BIM compliant software that is genuinely fit for purpose and no-one wants to be the organisation supporting the Betamax of the BIM world.
Interesting point there when couched in that language, which technologies will be the VCR and which ones will be the Betamax? Remember the old saying “you never get fired for choosing IBM” This is part of the FUD (Fear Uncertainity and Doubt) Marketing principle which might prevent the buyer from considering anything else than the market leader. So makes it very important to be the market leader, but I’m getting off point. Point being that the BIM tide is rolling.
Ultimately, the decision to embrace BIM will be leap of faith for each organisation. In answer to a question about proving the business case for implementation, Paul Morrell reflected: “Can I be bothered to do the business case? I remember when we voted on whether we wanted to move to email. The investment required to so at the time was about £4m and the immediate cost saving was to our post bill – about £100k. But we knew it was the future: unstoppable.”
I think most people understand that we have just scratched the surface with BIM but it is becoming to compelling to ignore or to argue for doing things the same way anymore.
