Digital Built Consultants celebrated a year in business in March 2019. Managing Director Emma Hayes tells Irish building it has been a year of new opportunities and business partnerships and describes the changes she is witnessing in the industry.
Emma Hayes says that over the past 12 months Digital Built Consultants (DBC) have worked on diverse projects with several clients from the design consultancy side, as well as contractors, and worked in the pharma, mission critical, residential, commercial, hospitality, and retail sectors. “These clients have either started their BIM journey but need our advice to get to the next level of BIM adoption and project efficiency or are at the early stages and need guidance, advice and support to start their digital transition. We have developed long-term relationships with our clients and continue to provide advice and support on an ongoing basis.” Other highlights over the past year have been acting as the client representative for building owner/developer clients where DBC give independent advice to clients on BIM processes and what they can achieve with the adoption of BIM on projects. Emma was an Irish Construction Excellence Awards Judge again this year and delivered a keynote speech titled ‘A Changing Industry’ at the Gala.
Services
DBC bring a structured and plain language approach to BIM implementation and Digital Information Management for clients, project managers, contractors, designers and product manufacturers. Services include strategy; change management; training; project execution and management. These services provide clients with BIM workflows, standardised template documentation and upskilled teams to deliver projects more efficiently which results in time and cost savings, improved quality and most importantly better safety.
Emma says clients want honest, practical and fit for purpose advice and guidance for developing or adopting BIM in their organisations and on their projects. “Our goal is to provide unbiased advice and support to clients and building owner/operators helping them to maximise their return from implementing/using the BIM process. For project managers, designers and contractors, we work with their in-house teams to develop a clear strategy to strengthen their BIM and Digital Information Management processes.”
DBC is made up of a team of motivated individuals with both academic and industry experience in design, construction and BIM processes. Over the past year, the team have worked with building owners/developers, design consultancies and construction organisations to achieve their digital transition goals. “We understand the challenges that can be experienced by clients with this transition such as mind-sets and reluctance to adopt change. We help our clients overcome these barriers through change management processes and provide them with an adoption strategy with clear goals for implementation aligned to their business needs.” Through engaging with clients and responding to their needs DBC have added client specific training in BIM processes/standards and specific software that best fits their organisations’ workflows.
Change
Over the last 12 months Emma has seen a noticeable change in the industry which she believes is in part due to the Office of Government Procurement’s mandate to adopt BIM processes on major (Band 5) public projects by Q2 2019 followed by other projects (up to Band 3) by Q2 2020. Emma says there is a renewed appetite for implementing BIM processes and meeting Level 2 requirements. “The publication of the international BIM standards, ISO 19650 Part 1 and 2, has given our clients an opportunity to adopt international best practice standards that can be rolled out on projects at home in Ireland and abroad. We have incorporated these standards into our own BIM processes and our clients. We have been closely monitoring the National Standards Authority of Ireland BIM Certification process and will work with our clients to achieve this as soon as it is available.”
Digital Information Management is becoming more data centric and building owners and developers are starting to realise the value of data which is developed during the design and construction stages which can be used for asset and facility management. “Building owners can now access this information from a ‘Digital Twin’ of their building. This data is being generated and stored in cloud databases which give us, the project stakeholders, access to a vast amount of information about our projects such as cost, schedule and constructability.” In the future, this data will be mined and analysed by artificial intelligence to allow the industry to make informed decisions about future projects.
DBC are continuously researching future trends for the industry and training with the latest technology. “As a part-time lecturer on BIM Management Masters courses in TU Dublin, IT Carlow and Middlesex University in London it is essential that I stay at the cutting edge of BIM and Digital Construction.” This is a company bringing together academic research and industry experience.
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