- Watch out
- What it costs
- Experienced readers
- Remember
- In BIMpedia
A BIM rollout costs money before it saves any: software, hardware, training, and first projects that take longer while people learn. Directors fund it when they can see what it will fix and how they'll know. The strongest business case is built on the firm's own problems and numbers, not on industry averages.
A business case sets out the problem (what it costs today), the proposal, the costs (one-off and running), the benefits expected and when, and how they'll be measured. It ends with a decision the directors can make.
The BIM manager presents slides of industry surveys ("up to 20% savings"), a list of new software features and a fly-through. The directors ask what it means for this firm. Nobody knows. The budget is cut to a few licences and no training.
The BIM manager prices last year's rework on two projects: a riser redesign and a ceiling void that had to be dropped, about the cost of the first year's rollout. She proposes three measures (site RFIs per project, rework cost, hours per drawing sheet), takes a baseline from five recent projects and promises a quarterly report.
Measures that work
| Measure | Why directors care | Baseline from |
|---|---|---|
| Site RFIs per project | Each costs time and often money | Recent projects' RFI logs |
| Rework cost | Direct cost, easy to understand | Change and variation records |
| Hours per drawing sheet | Productivity | Timesheets |
| Bid success on BIM-required work | Revenue | Bid register |
Pick the measures you'd put in a business case for the directors.
Which measures?
For each one, decide: is it a good measure of benefit for the directors?
- Site RFIs per project
- Rework cost per project
- Hours per drawing sheet
- Clashes found per project
- Training hours given
- Software licences bought
Key takeaways
- Start from the firm's own costly problems (rework, late information, lost bids), not from BIM's general benefits.
- Choose two or three measures before you start, and record a baseline.
- Count costs honestly: software, hardware, training, and the slower first projects.
- Report the same measures every quarter, good or bad.