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You can improve efficiencies, cut running costs, enhance collaboration between project members and so on in a number of ways. CONJECT believes that improved information management is the key, with their conjectPC application providing a method of instituting a total document and information control system for any number of projects. This keeps all project members within the loop at all times. If you know what is going on soon enough, you can make informed decisions and keep projects on track.

Sitedesk introduces a more specific application which encourages the creation of Operation and Management data whilst the design and build process is underway. They argue that owner/operators need to be involved within the project from a very early stage, so that they can inform architects of exactly what needs to be delivered for them to be able to manage the building after handover.

Besides encouraging both sides to talk to each other - and after the first halting steps that will presumably become progressively easier - it ensures consistency of data throughout the project lifecycle, and removes any chance of misunderstanding through the disconnect of information and process history between design and build and facilities Management,

Bentley divides working processes using Advanced Work Packaging within ConstructSim, breaking and automating complex construction tasks into individual tasks for dedicated groups. Advanced Work Packaging facilitates best practice deployment across the project lifecycle, facilitating the exchange of information between engineering, construction, commissioning and handover, with the work packages serving as the unit of that information exchange.

We also look at Vectorworks, who have been bringing their users up to scratch and capable of delivering BIM Level 2 whilst adhering to accepted standards and protocols with a series of presentations that focus on the processes surrounding site development, and the achievement of Levels of Development 100, 200 and 300.

And then we have an article on Autodesk which focuses on collaboration between Revit users in the Cloud. All part and parcel of the need to improve working practices, seek out efficiencies and deliver projects on time and within tighter budgets.

Two of these articles raise alternative solutions to the handover of building information to the client and building 'operators'. Whilst Vectorworks provides an impeccable example of how and when project data should be delivered to the client using COBie data drops at different levels of development, Sitedesk accumulates Operations and Management information throughout the life of the project, putting together exactly the same digital information to support maintenance of the building that one would hope to extract from the links within a COBie document (Sitedesk also offers full COBie output, if required).

Both methods of data handover are equally valid for facilities maintenance, although the Government supported route is, perhaps, 'bullet proof', with the need to conform to standards and protocols. I just remain slightly bemused at the need to insert a tabular document with quite a degree of complexity into a strictly digital and visual environment. To explain further, you could, conceivably, produce something like a COBie file to describe my car, but I wouldn't want the car mechanic to use it to fix the engine. I await your passionate defence of either process with eager anticipation!

by David Chadwick