Many of us in the construction industry have been involved with implementing BIM for a lot longer than a decade now. I know from talking with many of you over the years that my personal BIM journey is very similar to many of yours.

I started writing and implementing CAD standards and when BIM became a ‘thing’ I was given the task of understand the opportunity. It was a ‘hobby’ task, additional to my day job on projects with no time or budget allocated to it. I think it is reasonable to say that most AEC organisations have a BIM strategy and are actively engaging with BIM on projects to a greater or lesser extent.

However, we now need to take the next steps…

Global megatrends

Our world is facing enormous change and numerous challenges. Examples of these ‘megatrends’ include population growth, climate change, biodiversity loss/ecosystem decline, urbanisation, material resource scarcity, use of energy and fuel, food security, water scarcity, and deforestation.

Industry macrotrends

These global megatrends translate to directly impact our industry in the following ways: persistent scarcity of skilled labour and changing logistics equations, sustainability, industrialisation, new materials, digitalisation of products and processes, safety, and standardisation of building codes.

Digital transformation

More and more early adopter organisations are referring to digital transformation rather than BIM. Digital transformation is defined as "the process of adoption and implementation of digital technology by an organisation to create new or modify existing products, services, and operations. The goal for its implementation is to increase value through innovation, invention, customer experience or efficiency. Digital transformation is not about technology, it is about strategy and a new mindset. It is about what a business needs to change to remain viable".

What is a digital strategy?

A digital strategy sets out how an organisation is going to react to, adopt and benefit from new technologies and processes. This is facilitated through a systematic process of analysis, business process review and risk evaluation to ensure the appropriate implementation of these. This strategy will look very different from organisation to organisation, but there will also be common themes, particularly in within sectors such as ours.

Connecting it all

As important as all this is, what does it have to do with BIM? Given the demands on our organisations, while trying to maintain our profitability, the importance of ensure we don’t waste, or replicate effort is more important than ever.

Aligning the overall business strategy, digital/BIM strategy and ESG strategy is essential for ensuring efficiency within the organisation. BIM can help drive profitability and support sustainability targets. Sustainability can help grow the bottom line of a business by cutting waste and energy consumption.

By not aligning all these strategies and initiatives, your organisation will be competing internally for time and resources and working against other initiatives.

Summary

There are many issues facing us all, and the world is changing quickly. We need to take new actions and think in different ways to remain viable. Aligning all our strategies means every decision we make from purchasing software to recruitment is adding value to our organisation and contributing to success.

To discuss this further please contact me at rlakey@diatec.ie