ROI at BIMForum Dallas

The BIMForum's most recent meeting was a few weeks ago in Dallas and focused on the value of BIM from 30 day to 30 years. Needless to say, there was quite a bit of talk of ROI (including a panel I moderated on Friday), but the presentation that is getting the most buzz is John Moebes' presentation on ROI from an Owner's perspective. He titled his presentation: "ROI for BIM: What One Cranky Owner Would Like to See".

A quick summary: he doesn't want to hear marketing or talk of "BIM use" unless it is having a dramatically profound influence on fees, schedule or construction costs. He doesn't want firms to proudly submit savings from clashes found. He doesn't think that less bad is good enough. (Which is true; although, less bad is better than worse...) As he said: "Owners don't pay for clashes, they pay for a properly coordinated model." (I take some exception here; owners don't pay for a properly coordinate model; they pay for a properly coordinated end product.)

He has provoked a lot of discussion (for instance here and here) - both negative and positive reactions abound (although the BD+C article seems to be drawing more of the negative). Initially, I found his presentation difficult to listen to (after all - Tocci is building a Crate and Q5 is consulting on several others!), but upon reflection I completely agree with what he is saying. Our industry needs to stop congratulating ourself for "doing BIM" (why do people even say that?) and start actually utilizing Virtual Design & Construction to improve projects.

I commend John for saying what need to be said, even though it may be hard to hear.

Q5

I have been somewhat absent for the past month because I've been pre-occupied with an exciting project: launching Q5, an affiliate of Tocci. Q5 provides VDC Services and IPD Facilitation.

Q5 has (and will) given me an opportunity to work on projects from a different standpoint and do different work for some of our same clients:

- Develop RFPs for owners, designers and contractors and assist with BIM-enabled selection
- Set up corporate-wide VDC standards and processes for national developers and owners
- Facilitate "social BIM" between architect and many design consultants during design
- Review quality models for designers and owners - to make sure that they're getting what they were promised...

Since the same team will be working for Q5 and Tocci's VDC department, we will be switching back and forth between projects, which I was concerned about at first (from a workload standpoint) but now I'm really excited. By working on Tocci projects, we will apply a sense of accountability for actual exectution to Q5 projects (something we think is lacking in the generic VDC consulting world). And by working on Q5 projects, we will be exposed to the other perspectives in the industry in an IPD-like fashion; applying that new knowledge to Tocci projects wouldn't be a bad thing!