Here at Constructech, we have been talking about BIM (building information modeling) for roughly two decades. The reality is at the heart of BIM is collaboration—and collaboration is what is so desperately needed to improve productivity, safety, and quality on today’s complex construction projects.
If you have been following here for a while then you know BIM isn’t necessarily a piece of technology, but rather a collaborative process enabled by technology to connect time (4D), cost (5D), sustainability (6D), and facilities management (7D).
What’s Driving BIM
As we know, one of the biggest drivers of BIM is the project owner—and one of the best examples of this is the federal government. We have seen the rise of government initiatives that drive adoption of BIM. Another driver is the need to build more sustainability. Many companies are finding BIM can help reduce waste and optimize resource use from design through operations.
According to an Autodesk report, nearly all companies (97%) have taken some actions to improve their sustainability. Additionally, 87% believe improving sustainability is good for long-term business decisions and 69% say sustainability is good for short-term business success.
Further, even though BIM has been around for decades, we are still seeing growth happening. MarketsandMarkets says the market was valued at $7.9 billion in 2023 and it is projected to reach $15 billion by 2028. This is an expected growth rate of 13.7% during the forecast period. During the forecast period, software will witness the highest growth. As is typical, out of all the stages of a project, construction will see the highest growth, due to the need to build complex designs efficiently. More specifically, the civil infrastructure segment is expected to grow at the highest rate.
All that Consolidation
I would be remiss if I didn’t share perhaps one of the biggest trends to watch with BIM: M&A (merger and acquisition) activity. This certainly isn’t a new trend. Every couple of years there is a big burst of M&A activity among the construction providers. Providers like Autodesk, Trimble, the Nemetschek Group, Hexagon, and Bentley Systems are often making big moves in this world.
Autodesk has PlanGrid, BuildingConnected, and ProEst, just to name a few, while Trimble has Tekla, Vico, and Gehry Technologies. Nemetschek has Bluebeam, Graphisoft Vectorworks, and Solibri. Bentley Systems is also no stranger to the M&A world, having acquired ADINA R&D, EasyPower, sensemetrics, Vista Data Vision, and Power Line Systems. Hexagon has acquired iConstruct, Smart Digital Reality, Multivista, and AVVIR.
And here is the really wild part. These are just a few of the big BIM acquisitions. It seems M&As—particularly in the BIM world—are quickly becoming a more everyday occurrence.
Just last month, we saw Hexagon acquire Voyansi, which provides services to digitize all asset types including data centers, hospitals, industrial facilities, and shopping centers across all lifecycles. Here we see it complements Hexagon’s reality capture by adding BIM support, with the objective to further enhance sustainability, efficiency, and collaboration.
We also saw Nemetschek announce the acquisition of GoCanvas, which is a provider of SaaS (software-as-a-service) solutions for reporting and integration of field data in construction. The company says it will combine Bluebeam office and GoCanvas field worker community.
Why all these acquisitions? Certainly, for the acquiring companies, bottomline will always be a factor, but another is creating a more seamless, collaborative environment for construction teams. It is aiming to reach that elusive “one version of the truth” that is so desperately needed across all lifecycles of a construction project.
All that Collaboration
While most of the big companies are acquiring, some are also turning to standards and partnerships to enable greater collaboration across the ecosystem. For instance, in April, Autodesk and Nemetschek announced an interoperability agreement to improve open collaboration and efficiencies for the AECO (architecture, engineering, construction, and operations) and media and entertainment industries. The aim is to improve the exchange of information across solutions.
Additionally, open standards have become a big objective for many. One example is the buildingSMART alliance, which launched openBIM several years ago. openBIM facilitates interoperability to benefit projects and assets throughout their lifecycle. It aims to ensure interoperability, open and neutral standards, reliable data exchanges, collaboration workflows, flexibility of choice, and more.
While some are creating greater interoperability through partnerships, others are doing it through M&As. But the bottomline is the construction industry needs data that is easily shared and accessible across the entire project—especially as projects are becoming bigger and more complex.
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