Repeated issues coming out of the survey, which had over 1,000 responses, were government failing to enforce the mandate and a lack of education for clients – 72% of clients don’t understand the benefits of BIM.
“The introduction of the BIM mandate has broadly been a success – BIM adoption in the UK is growing in both extent (more people are using BIM) and in depth (people are moving up the BIM levels). However, there are areas in need of attention,” said NBS Chief Executive Richard Waterhouse.
“In the short term there needs to be greater education for clients and clearer enforcement of the mandate across the board, including clients commissioning smaller work as well as government departments too. Longer term, there is a need for BIM to fully move out of the design stages and into the maintenance of buildings.”
Some responding to the survey believe that central government is helping by outlining the cost savings BIM has brought, but more efficiencies need to become more apparent and need to be demonstrated to a wider range of clients to improve this issue.
In the short term there needs to be greater education for clients and clearer enforcement of the mandate across the board
Richard Waterhouse,
Chief Executive, NBSThere is increased confidence amongst the design community; 55% are confident in BIM compared to 35% in 2012. Collaboration between colleagues and other organisations like NBS, BSI, RIBA and the BIM Task Group are cited as important factors in maintaining these confidence levels.
Awareness of BIM continues to increase to near universal levels (97%) and 62% of practices are now using BIM on their projects, up from 54 percent last year.
For the first time, the survey asked those who have adopted BIM what percentage of projects they’d used it on in the last 12 months. Encouragingly, one in five uses BIM on every project and 29% use it on more than 75%, telling us that once BIM is adopted, it is most often the design practice of choice.
Adopting BIM is not easy. Over 90% of BIM users agree that it has required changes in their workflow, practices and procedures. Yet only 4% wished that they hadn’t adopted BIM (compared to a quarter of non-users who would ‘rather not’).
“We can understand why so few regret adopting BIM when the majority can see that BIM brings cost efficiencies, and that clients and contractors will increasingly insist on it,” commented Adrian Malleson, Head of Research, Analysis and Forecasting at NBS.
“Lower costs, higher profitability and the ability to take on larger projects are just some of the benefits that UK companies of all scales are experiencing.”
The survey also asked people to think about the future of the construction industry, in relation to other new technologies and their perceived significance.
“We know BIM is only the start of this digital revolution,” commented Richard.
“Future cities, big data and the cloud – it’s likely that future technologies like these will work together in ways we don’t foresee yet, but it’s a safe bet that information rich companies will flourish best.”
To read the full report visit www.thenbs.com/bimreport2017
For more information, please contact NBS PR Executive Jennifer Scullion on 0191 244 5523 or email Jennifer.Scullion@theNBS.com.
About NBS
NBS, specialist provider of technical information for construction industry professionals, offers essential, innovative products and services, highly valued by those working in architecture, construction, design and engineering.
The premier source of construction-related information, NBS has produced the recognised national standard specification system for the UK for more than 40 years. It provides solutions for a broad range of new build, refurbishment, retrofit, landscaping and domestic projects for construction professionals. Delivered within a powerful software package, NBS’s specification products continue to develop, leading an evolution of the specification and procurement process for buildings in the UK and overseas. NBS also provides solutions for contract administration and project information management.
NBS Create is a ground-breaking new specification tool that ensures all documentation works together intelligently throughout the entire project timeline, from concept stage to completion and beyond, to save time and money. More than 5,000 offices across the UK subscribe to NBS products, including 96 of the top 100 AJ practices.
The award winning NBS National BIM Library is also the primary source of free-to-use Building Information Modelling (BIM) content in the UK. It contains thousands of generic and proprietary BIM objects authored to the trusted NBS standard, all of which are data rich and are integrated with the world leading NBS specification software.
NBS is part of RIBA Enterprises Ltd, the knowledge management company of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). RIBA Enterprises employs 250 staff and has offices in London, Newcastle upon Tyne and Newark.
RIBA Insight offers a unique range of services with multiple routes to product specification which no other organisation can match. It helps deliver the right level of information in the right place, to the right people, at the right time and in the right format.
RIBA Insight is part of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
