The convergence of global economic and environmental change with collaborative disruptive technologies is altering the very foundation of the Facility Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and  Operations sector.  Transformational change is upon all stakeholders; Owners, Contractors, Facility Users, Oversight Groups, Architects, Engineers, Building Product Manufactures…

Transparency, common lexicon, and the sharing and adoption of “best practices” with a focus upon PROCESS, embedded within and supported by technology is the clear direction.   Those unwilling to “share” and/or collaborate will face severe limitations as “Facebook” cloud-centric technology and associated collaborative processes for the built environment pound against the silo walls of monolithic dated software and isolated, unsubstantiated ad-hoc business methods.

BIM, building information modeling, will quickly evolve in everyone’s mind from 3D visualization to facility life-cycle management.  Tools such as Revit and Archicad will become the components of total BIM solution that they are vs. “BIM solutions”.  Cloud technology will integrated the previously separate domains of design, capital planning, project delivery, repair and maintenance, building automation systems, geographic information systems,  life/safety, security, operations, etc.

Furthermore, the fact that the sum of valued components can exceed the value of whole will become abundantly clear.  Best-in-class solutions from each of these knowledge domains will evolve and readily talk to each other… in an “apples to apples” manner, and “single point” systems such as IWMS, etc. will go by the way side.

BIM and the Cloud – 2012 – Article

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