While 90% of North America’s construction projects in absolute numbers are not yet utilizing BIM, in construction volume (CV), the 10% that do, account for over 30% of CV in North America. More often, owners with strict budgets or time-to-market timelines constraints ask for more transparency for their projects. 

The only realistic way to provide this transparency beyond the excel WIP schedule is to utilize 5D or 6D BIM. All ENR TOP 400 contactors are expected today to have this capability at some level of maturity. Leading Desing-Build contractors drive the adoption of 6D BIM and stack their backlog with BIM-required projects.

Here are five concrete steps to review how your enterprise can compete in the age of BIM.

1. Start with understanding the playing field. Look at your growth drivers for the next 3-5 years. Think BIG. The only way to uncover this is to ask your team: “How can we double our business in the next three years?” 

Start thinking about where you are now. What are the jobs that contribute the most profit? Are they going to be there in 3-5 years? Will you keep on winning the bids with “business as usual?” What is the probability of the project owners asking for transparency and BIM?

Think about new verticals and markets. How can these project types contribute the most profit? How do you stack up against the current market players? What are your pillars of differentiation?

2. Look at your potential customers. What is your value proposition? How are you leveraging your capabilities to address their pains? Use Value Proposition (VP) Canvas tool to formulate your VP today. 

3. Design your future VP. Start thinking about how you can address the pains of your customer that you currently don’t. Better yet, find Pains that no one on the market addresses presently.

4. Identify your Construction Technology Technology Stack (ConTech Stack). As an industry, we made advances in model authoring, coordination of projects, pre-construction, and some BIM-to-Field communication. It is also typical to see 100+ different solutions used by any large subcontractor. Leading contractors are consolidating and reassembling a tighter, more effective ConTech Stack with fewer dependencies on closed data formats. 

5. Design your data symmetry flow. Map out your current data flow. Identify all means and formats of communicating essential data, documents, and tasks for projects’ completion on time and on schedule. Once you have it, re-design a new, more effective way for all the project stakeholders to access your information.