BIM, supposedly, sits  at the center of  managing a building from design to demolition.  The longest part of that arc, facility management, seems to get the least amount of press and attention. Interestingly enough, Autodesk purchased FM Systems in in 2006 and discontinued its product FM Desktop by 2009.  This seems to leave a gaping whole in their portfolio but perhaps they just wanted to build something from the ground up integrated with Revit, maybe its in the pipeline somewhere. In between, there is an excellent article on AECBytes, BIM for Facilities Management, that breaks down the current BIM FM Marketplace.

Current Players:

FM Systems

ArchiFM now VintoCon

Benteley Facilites

Onuma System

Working on the live integration between BIM and BAS (Building Automation Systems)

EcoDomus

What I don’t completely understand is the step child status of FM applications.  Autodesk shed FM.  ArchiCAD seems to be distancing itself from FM with the introduction/spinoff of Vintocon, maybe it just takes too much work and integration, however, according to NIBS, Whole Building Design Group, that over a 30 year life of a building, operating it costs 3x more than building it.  One would think programming/implementing software to manage this process would be worth the effort, then again that’s 3x over 30 years.  My feeling the more it is integrated with BAS (Building Automation Systems) which then links directly to energy usage, the more popular it will become.