Building Owners Are a Driving Force of BIM Adoption

According to its latest SmartMarket Report, “The Business Value of BIM in North America: Multi-Year Trend Analysis and User Ratings (2007–2012),” produced by McGraw-Hill Construction, BIM adoption expanded from 17 percent in 2007 to 71 percent in 2012, demonstrating impressive growth despite the recent economic pressures.

“Though it may seem counter-intuitive to increase spending during a recession, the research indicates that the industry is continuing to invest in a more efficient and productive future by embracing technologies and processes of BIM,” says Stephen Jones, senior director at McGraw-Hill Construction and research director of the report.

“The results of the survey validate many key trends we are seeing in North America—notably, the strong growth of BIM in construction and adoption amongst owners, architects and engineers,” says Phil Bernstein, vice president, strategic industry relations at Autodesk. “The results also point to the increased business benefits that all users derived from using BIM, such as better profits, more accurate documentation, less rework, reduced project duration, fewer claims and the ability to offer new services.”

The report states that owners are becoming an important driving force to this increased adoption. Patrick MacLeamy, CEO of HOK and chairman of buildingSMART International, predicted, “Over the next 10 years, building owners will demand ever-increasing usage of BIM as a precondition, ushering in a new era of accuracy, quality and sophistication for the building industry.”

As a way to quantify users’ level of commitment to BIM, McGraw-Hill Construction developed a BIM Engagement Index, calculated from each BIM user’s skill level, years of BIM experience and percentage their projects that use BIM. McGraw-Hill Construction found the following:

• 13 percent of BIM users demonstrate a very high BIM engagement level (e-level), requiring expert skill level, five or more years of experience, and implementation of BIM on more than 60 percent of their projects.
• 67 percent of the very high e-level users report a very positive ROI on BIM (25 percent or higher) versus only 20 percent of low e-level BIM users, two-thirds of whom are at negative of break-even ROI.
• 52 percent of very high e-level users experience increased profits from their use of BIM compared to the 36 percent average for all users.

BIM, an innovative approach to design and construction for pioneering early adopters just a few years ago, is now taking its place firmly in the mainstream of the North American construction industry.

“McGraw-Hill’s SmartMarket Report series on the Business Value of BIM has provided the industry with relevant research and metrics on BIM adoption and return on investment,” says Mike Ozatalar, vice president and manager of Engineering, Parsons. “Parsons is proud to be a sponsor of this report and continues to provide contributions in the engineering and construction industry in BIM and integrated design and delivery solutions.”