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You might not have everything you need to win over new clients interested in building.

But who ever heard of adding building information modeling (BIM) to the mix?

Thanks to advances in BIM technology, the revolu-tionary tool that has increased accuracy and saved time and money in the A/E/C industry can improve marketing efforts, too.

BIM can produce data-rich, parametric 3D digital images with initial material and process determinations, and with extensive costing and clash detection capa-bilities across disciplines. It has had wide acceptance among architects, engineers, and contractors, despite the fact that no “killer app” has driven integration of the variety of BIM software available.

Considering that BIM produces a micro, or detailed, description of building projects, the marketing services professional might not know that there’s a macro capa-bility, too. And that it has unique marketing potential. And that it can also integrate down the line with the more comprehensive work by other practitioners using micro BIM products by Autodesk, Bentley, and others.

MACRO INTROThis preliminary way of conceptualizing and estimating buildings got its start when practitioners with techno-logical skill realized the owner and those who bid for their business also need exact information. Projects actually start in the pre-design phase with the owner, even though BIM typically doesn’t appear until the “official” start of the approved project, the conceptual-ization phase. Why shouldn’t BIM appear earlier?

BY STEWART CARROLL

Best Practices: BIM’s Marketing Edge, 3D Presentation in 48 Hours

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With macro BIM technology, it can. Macro BIM relies on industry-leading materials use, configuration, and cost estimations, thanks to links with RSMeans, Sage Timberline, and other storehouses of data. RSMeans, for instance, offers 18,000 assemblies and some 180,000 line items. Others give “green” building options like products from FutureStone.

With some basic training, anyone familiar with the working knowledge of building trades, design, construction, and estimating can create the models for clients. Some training also compliments a busy professional schedule by providing two days of design and cost estimating classes first, followed by three weeks of independent learning using the software to work take-home exercises at an individual’s own pace.

As for building a 3D model, the process starts with Google Earth for geographic conditions and, through the use of the zip code of the preferred location, links with costs, product options, building codes, and weather conditions for that location.

The software options often feature several hundred building templates that also can be customized. This starting point is ideal for prospective clients who just want to provide some basic information and yet want to “see” the possibilities.

Is the client or owner’s representative asking for an office building, a warehouse, a hotel, an educational facility, or a parking garage? Does the client want a colonial look or a contemporary style?

“Given only hand sketches and a rough description of project intent, in three days a firm using macro BIM delivered a 3D costing model that generated project quantities and cost estimates for a proposed project.”

How many levels are preferred? What materials and what colors are desired for the exterior? What green aspects does the client want? Macro BIM helps answer these client questions to lead to a new contract for services.

Other features that benefit the user in producing quick and accurate models are the ability to upload and scale images like 2D sketches in JPEG and PDF formats and the ability to produce a mirrored copy of the half of one symmetrical building to create the second half. Plus the user can select a component of the “virtual building,” set costs for that single component, and match that cost with any number of other similar items in the model.

During meetings with the client, BIM can provide screen views of the 3D mock-up that can be visually manipulated for different perspectives. Plus, the model can offer a look at the estimate view or line-item view of materials for efficient cost comparisons.

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“Thanks to BIM, the A/E/C industry can improve marketing efforts.”

Macro BIM can meet and exceed the needs to win a project award or even help the owner in that “go/no-go” decision-making process. That’s because BIM incorporated in the preliminary stage is fast and extremely accurate, according to various side-by-side compari-sons with more conventional methods of project calculations and drawings and pro forma output. Some studies suggest that macro BIM can render 92% of non-billed time unnecessary. Also total cost variations stay within one percentage point typically.

VIRTUAL BUILDING—REAL POSSIBILITIESUsing macro BIM will add a sophisticated edge to work with a prospective client. In 8 to 48 hours, a BIM operator can take that metaphorical cocktail napkin or more formal details and create a 3D model with all the basics already determined.

This changes the waiting game—the client waiting for you and you waiting for the client. Decisions that used to take several weeks or more can be reduced to hours, barring unforeseen circumstances like finance reluctance or slow board approval.

In formal presentation back to the client, you can display the virtual building and make certain manipulations that are bound to arise from the discussion. Maybe the client wants the entrance on another street or the cladding reminds him or her of a lemon of a car once owned. Or maybe the estimate exceeds expectations and almost kills the deal.

What if you were able to turn the building slightly and save 2% on energy costs every year for 20 years?

With macro BIM, many alternatives such as these can be consid-ered on the fly, just like a sophisticated “virtual world” interactive computer game. The orientation of the building can be changed. The structure can become more vertical. The materials can be switched to something more appealing. The number of windows can be decreased. The lobby of Italian granite can get changed to save money.

BIM has added value, too. In the future, owners—your clients—will occupy a more important place in the full process of building from start to finish—the occupation and lifecycle operations and maintenance of the structure. Long-term building management with BIM has not arrived yet, but BIM experts claim that day is coming. The prospect of using BIM for the life of the building is another benefit worth mentioning to your client, too.

Macro BIM poses big advantages in a poor economy, too. Neither a client nor the practitioner wants to spend dollars or time in a risky financial environment. BIM not only shortens initial planning before billable hours can be charged but also gives a solid estimate for financial planning by the owner.

SEE WHERE IT GOESMeeting with that prospective client again, with macro BIM it’s easy to show cost relationships between different materials, levels of quality, structural systems, or even different energy-related items. This aids follow-up presentations with owners, investors, and even public bodies or community groups, if necessary. With these participants in the room, the modeler can do takeoffs or pursue “what-if” scenarios, complete with new cost estimates.

The use of BIM in the marketing phase of landing clients has proven very beneficial. Various examples follow.

A BIM model for a 275,000-square-foot complex proposed for Tampa, FL, featured a hotel, offices, and a parking garage and was estimated at $50 million. The model was used by a potential client needing to attract high-dollar tenants first. The owner praises the firm’s ability to produce two different high-quality building and site layout options and related conceptual cost estimates—at low cost to the firm.

Given only hand sketches and a rough description of project intent, in three days a firm using macro BIM delivered a 3D costing model that generated project quantities and cost estimates for a project proposed for Frisco, TX.

Plans were to build a 55,000-square-foot fieldhouse at a private grade school in Tampa, FL. Several days before the scheduled presentation with a prospective client, one firm discovered that the competition was composing schematic construction estimates to incorporate into their presentations. The first firm

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turned to macro BIM in order to build a conceptual estimate for the presentation that, in the end, resulted in winning the project. In addition to the estimate, the firm presented the energy model, the pro forma, the design narrative, and a Google Earth image of the building in its surroundings.

WHAT COMES AfTER 48 HOURS?Once built in BIM, the macro model is like the outline of a book. There is plenty more detail to be worked out—like a project’s scope, the hard costs, and the overall projected costs, including financing with a pro forma. But the macro model allows the project parameters to be established with very little effort, enabling multiple concepts to be evaluated, drawing as little detail as pos-sible to get as much data as possible associated with the project.

Why is this important? Because, in fact, more information is needed earlier for a client to step past other qualified firms and award your firm the project.

Leon LaJeunesse of Custom Contracting, Lake Zurich, IL, and an officer of Chicagoland Builders Association found macro BIM to be an important marketing tool for that reason.

“We were looking for tools to deliver more information early on in the design process with information that was auditable, not just [providing] cost per square foot,” he said. “The problem with the traditional way is when you come up with quantity and pricing, and then you have to redesign the project. It takes a lot of time you probably don’t have. You can miss the market, because you didn’t know the budget. This gives me a lot of flexibility since I can model it in 3D.”

Experiences like his and others show that BIM makes good marketing sense—even before the architect and contractor get involved.

About the Author

Stewart Carroll is chief operating officer of Beck Technology (www.beck-technology.com), devel-opers of DProfiler BIM software, based in Dallas. He has been a lead A/E/C technologist for over a decade and continually speaks on the integration of cost and scoping technologies to owners and developers. He can be reached at 214.303.6200 or stewartcarroll@beckgroup.com. This is his first contribution to Marketer.

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