Poor quality BIM models mean that manufacturers regularly miss out on project opportunities …
Every day engineers actively look for BIM files to include in their projects while determining which construction products meet their design and performance needs. These engineers rely on complete and accurate BIM models to develop systems that can be validated and tested within their virtual building model.
Adding your BIM files to one of these virtual models can make the difference between being on the schedule or losing it. Therefore, it is important that your BIM files not only be dimensionally accurate, but also have the connections and properties to ensure that the specifications are correct. If your BIM models don’t contain the data they need to help engineers with their validations, they can quickly become a burden and you can lose your specifications from important construction projects.
Incomplete BIM models frustrate your design and construction clients …
Many marketing, sales, and engineering professionals believe that a BIM model library is only good enough, but the truth is, every BIM model must deliver a digital customer experience that makes the engineer’s job easier.
BIM files almost always contain exact dimensions, but many lack the connections to integrate the product into a working system, albeit a virtual model. These models lack the required performance data, including flows, loads, and connection points, that engineers must incorporate into models to be useful. If your files lack this performance specification metadata, your product may be included in the design but not on the schedule – you were specified but you missed the bid.
If a BIM object is not behaving correctly in the BIM project model or is missing key performance characteristics, engineers are quick to find working models and will likely start exploring your competitors’ websites and BIM libraries …
We have had BIM models in the past that, in our opinion, did not meet the requirements of our customers. We have found that while accurate dimensions are critical, the behavior of the model within the design software and the inclusion of full metadata are important to our customers in order to design a system that meets their specifications and is accurate.
-BIM and Digital Solutions Professional, construction product manufacturer
This is how you build a successful BIM strategy that supports and enables planners
It is critical to give your customers a better digital experience in order to get and stay specified. It’s important to double-check your models now to make sure they have the correct metadata – SKUs, descriptions, order codes, etc – to get it on the building schedule or bill of materials, and you need a strategy to effectively bring this data to the fore of your prospects.
Offering a full BIM library creates an immediate competitive advantage. By giving designers access to your BIM-enabled product data in the format of their choice, you increase the likelihood that they will select, download, and deploy your products for their construction project. Below is an example of how a PVF vendor’s monthly downloads increased as they completed their 600 product lines over a three-year period to build their CAD and BIM model library.
The steadily increasing availability of high quality BIM content attracted engineers and contractors to the reassurance of getting models that worked in their designs and were always up to date. The ROI for the PVF provider was straightforward: more downloads, more actionable leads on active projects, higher specifications, it all resulted in more profits. This is just one example of how manufacturers can leverage their rich product content to get better and earlier visibility of construction projects, create a better digital customer experience, and get meaningful ROI from their investment in great product data. Ultimately, their customers kept coming back, confident that they would find the right product data for their needs every time.
These downloads allow the brand to involve potential specifiers earlier in their project to ensure their designs are correct, offer complementary products, and ensure that the specification they just won is maintained throughout the bidding process in order to ultimately win.
Sales, marketing, and tech executives should take the opportunity to leverage quality product data to strengthen their brand and increase their chances of winning project specifications. Competitive companies don’t bury their BIM content in a file library, instead they focus on making it easy for engineers and contractors to discover, configure, and deliver their products to digital projects.
Your step-by-step BIM playbook …
- Commit to creating an effective digital customer experience
- Identify target accounts and users, compile a list of product data points that are critical for that target audience, and determine the required file formats. You should have your entire relevant product catalog available as a BIM download.
- Use BIM to generate leads and collect project data
- BIM files should be made available for download and advertised on your website based on where your target accounts and users are looking. Contacts who download these files should be sent to your sales team for follow-up and sales advice.
- Create a cadence to review and update your BIM model library
- Plan an ongoing data maintenance plan with your team to ensure that information about your products is complete and up-to-date. Request a free BIM model check from Thomas today.
- Extend your market reach with digital marketing measures
- Use BIM to streamline your product search across multiple channels and drive traffic back to your website or apps to increase downloads and specs.
Free BIM model check
To ensure you don’t miss any opportunities due to incomplete or missing BIM models, sign up today for a free BIM model check so our team of experts will review your files and identify issues with your product data.
With an effective BIM model strategy, you can integrate your products into key projects earlier and increase your spec-to-win rate across the board. To learn more about how Thomas can help your business build effective BIM models and a strong digital customer experience, contact us today.
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