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What does your BIM content say about you?

Not so quick note from Jared: Luke sent me this post back on July 30th, 2014. I am now just getting around to sharing it. I know, I know. Just remember I posted more in October 2014 than I did cumulatively from June 2014 through Septmeber 2014. And Luke’s is not the only guest post I still need to share. If you are super savvy, you might have noticed this post has been on Britex’s blog since that same day in July. Well it’s a crazy good post and even though I’m months late, I still wanted to share it. Of course three months can sometimes be an eternity and in that time Luke has since left Britex after eight years to start his own BIM-focused endeavors. You can check out his new company here. I’m excited to see what he does there and hopefully I’ll get some more guest posts from him. He’s got such a different view of the world of BIM than the average blogger.

What does your BIM content say about you?

Manufacturers around the world are making BIM content available for their products to meet increasing demand from their AEC clients. But do manufacturers really know what impact their BIM content is having on their brand and reputation?

All BIM content is NOT created equal

At present, most manufacturers investing in BIM content are outsourcing creation to specialist content creators. Few manufacturers possess the skills and understanding to generate quality content themselves. Some of this outsourced content is great and some of it is, well, not so great. Absolutely useless might be another way of putting it.

You are what you BIM

By making their content available to their clients in various ways, including hosting it on their own websites, manufacturers are taking ownership of their content. And rightly so. But like anything that bears your company’s name, it’s a representation of your brand and a direct reflection of your company’s commitment to quality.

If your clients look at your BIM content and see major flaws in the way the content is created, this does not reflect well on your ability to meet your client’s needs. Perhaps more importantly, it doesn’t portray the commitment to quality you want associated with the products you are ultimately trying to sell.

BIM content is a product. Quality matters.

It’s a harsh association perhaps, but when I see BIM content with glaring issues, my opinion of the manufacturer certainly doesn’t improve. If I was a specifier comparing two manufacturers and one had major flaws in their content, how would that affect my perception of those two companies and their approach to holistic quality? Consciously or subconsciously, how would this then translate to my specification decisions?

Ignorance may be bliss…. but only temporarily

When I speak with other manufacturers, those who have BIM content tend to say so with a great sense of pride. Yet, somewhat frighteningly, some can’t even tell me what formats they have available. Even fewer are able to make any quantifiable statements about the quality of their content. Furthermore, short of seeing a few ‘pictures’ of their content, hardly any have actually test driven their content, or seen someone else do it for them. For me, these are major oversights.

I ask manufacturers this question. Would you be happy for a website designer to create a website for your company and make it live without you having reviewed it? Of course they wouldn’t. It would be madness not to review a website, catalogue, press release or even a new product design first before showing it to your clients. What if it’s terrible? What if it’s not right? So why don’t so many manufacturers have at least a basic understanding of their BIM content if they’re using this as a primary part of their sales and marketing efforts? You are putting an enormous amount of faith in your content creator to properly understand your product and produce a quality BIM solution.

BIM ConversationWhy is proofing BIM content any different?

The obvious difference is that most manufacturers can’t really evaluate their own BIM content. They lack the tools and the skills to review their content and will generally only judge the outcome on how the models look from an aesthetic point of view, which is often the first mistake in itself (as I explained HERE). Understanding BIM content is currently perceived as a bridge too far by a lot of manufacturers.

What’s the solution?

I believe the solution is for manufacturers to start learning about BIM and more specifically, learning as much as they can about how their products can and should represent in a BIM format. Mitigate your risks and maximise your potential gains by knowing what a quality outcome should be. At the very least you will be able to understand the feedback you are getting from third parties (i.e. your clients) if you ask for it. And you should. You are also more capable of contributing valuable insights during the creation process.

Understanding BIM is an AEC marketing must

Let me put it like this. Twenty years ago, sales and marketing people knew nothing about websites. But over time we have learnt about ‘foreign’ subjects like SEO, metadata and web design principles. We are now able to critique a website with greater technical ability. An even better illustration of this point is that most of us knew nothing about the products we now promote (I know I knew nothing about stainless steel plumbing fixtures before working at Britex) but we learnt enough to create technical marketing materials. This is what we do. We learn about associated subjects that make us better at our job. We don’t need to be industry experts in all of these areas, but we learn enough to make better, more informed decisions. BIM should be no different. Understanding at least basic BIM principles and BIM content fundamentals will make you better at your job.

Is it worth it? Is it really necessary?

Manufacturers who are truly investing in BIM are already seeing great return on investment in areas like specification frequency, reputation, goodwill and improved processes relating to procurement. There are some fabulous examples of manufacturers who have used their BIM investment to reposition and elevate themselves above their competitors. These manufacturers are not just having content created for them, but working cohesively with their creators and in some cases, creating it themselves. They are learning about BIM processes, articulating the facets of their content with their clients in ‘BIM speak’, attending BIM events and adopting industry standards where applicable. In this sense, BIM shouldn’t be something that is ‘tacked on’. BIM should be integrated.

I believe the day is nigh that any manufacturer seeking excellence in servicing the AEC sector will employ their own quasi ‘BIM Manager’. This person won’t just create BIM content but contribute in various ways to the sales, marketing and operational requirements of the business. A number of manufacturers have already done this.

Understanding the basics of BIM content is not a bridge too far for manufacturers. It’s just another bridge. In fact, it’s right in front of you. Stop looking at it and start the journey of walking across it.

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Author Profile:

Luke Johnston was the Marketing and Development Manager for The Britex Group (Australia). A self-confessed ‘BIM Addict’, Luke commenced working with Britex in 2006 and has extensive experience working with a vast range of key stakeholders within the AEC supply chain, predominantly Architects, Interior Designers, Hydraulic Engineers and Building Contractors. In recent years, Luke has coordinated the creation of the Britex BIM library and is a regular contributor to BIM community groups and online BIM discussions. Luke has a particular interest in BIM content generation (Revit + ArchiCAD predominantly) and the key role that manufacturers play in advancing collaborative BIM processes.

Comments

  • November 4, 2014
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    Not exactly BIM related, but I’ve often thought about how I end up spec’ing Bobrick for my toilet accessories mainly due to the fact that they have a good clean website with easy access to their spec sheets.

      • November 5, 2014
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        No kidding! And to continue the tangent, one of my biggest pet peeves as an architect surfing for product info and details are sites that make you sign up to get info…or even worse, some of them don’t even have the info on the other side of the sign in, they say a “customer service rep” will get back to you with the requested details. MCBI is one such example, I’m looking for typical metal paneling details and I’m having to jump through hoops to understand how to properly detail their product.

        I’m certain that the manufacturers must have some reason for keeping stuff walled off, but its really, really annoying. In a different era I guess waiting for someone to call me back was understandable, but if its just a CAD file on a database, let me at it!

    • November 5, 2014
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      I’ve always been a big believer that the most important consideration as a product supplier is decreasing the time it takes for a designer to specify your product. Time is money and the longer it takes for someone to specify your product, the more it ‘costs’ them. This absolutely includes the time it takes for them to browse your products online in order to find the one that best suits their needs. Making products easily visible (thumbnails etc), classifiable (e.g. sorting by type and/or application) and making additional product data (data sheets etc) easy to access, all directly relate to this, as you suggest. The next step is ‘time to document’ which is where making quality CAD/BIM data available is the obvious necessity, but without having a clear, easy to use selection process (as per above) the CAD/BIM content may never even be seen. There are a lot of boxes that need to be ticked by manufacturers to make their products attractive to specifiers (not the least making good products!) but the rewards are there for the ones that take the time to understand their clients’ needs and plan accordingly.

    • November 5, 2014
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      Just reading your comment re: requesting login details for CAD data. This is a real double-edged sword. Some people may think that this is an effort to either a) protect IP or b) to collect data for a marketing CRM. Indeed for some companies, this may be the case. However, when I was in charge of the marketing and BIM development at Britex, I requested login details be submitted before web users could access CAD and BIM data. Why? Simple. If users download our data and use it in their project and we have no record of them ever accessing out data, there is now way to notify them if we majorly altered the product design or deleted it entirely from the range. In a BIM workflow especially, product data is being relied upon more heavily than ever for things like clash detection and sequencing. If product data is incorrect (i.e. MEP services requirements have moved/changed, overall size changes etc) it can have a detrimental flow-on impact. Essentially, we considered doing this an act of providing better service, not the contrary. I’d rather deal with clients being annoyed at having to login to access our CAD/BIM content than deal with clients who are extremely frustrated about ‘not being told’ the product they spec’d was no longer available or had changed from when they spec’d it and hearing about the costs and delays this had caused in their project. Funnily enough, it’s probably the same person that would complain about having to login as the one who complains about not being advised of changes. The login process was immediate (no validation required by Britex, only via email confirmation/validation), it was absolutely free and receiving email updates in the future (i.e. product changes) was ‘opt-in’ only, not ‘opted in’ by default. Ergo, if you wanted never to be contacted or were paranoid about exposing your details, there were ways to avoid this but still access the CAD/BIM data. There are issues on both sides of the fence here, but I personally believe this is the best way to offer service as a manufacturer.

      • November 5, 2014
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        A simple login, especially in this light makes a lot of sense!

        My issue has been that a lot of these login situation ended up with me having to wait for approval or as noted before an actual person had to go look up the detail and email it to me. And of course odds are it might not be exactly what I’m looking for so then I’m having to do the process all over again. As you noted earlier, time is of the essence. And I’m willing to trade my corporate contact info for information, but its frustrating when standard details get buried behind multiple layers of bureaucracy.

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