Many people, blogs and articles talk about the benefits that work on our emotions – it will be faster, it will be better, it will be more efficient and it will be more profitable. But how can we be so sure? Well, we can’t. But it is for situations like this that tools have been developed that will give us a hard look at whether the implementation we are running is working or not.
I would like to present 2 indicators that will allow you to catch the effects of the project. The factors focus on the purely analytical aspects of the project and leave out the subjective feelings of the project participants. The first of these is the KPI.
What is a KPI?
KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators. They allow us to monitor whether our objectives are being achieved. We can also assess how our approach to a project affects the results, relative to… Exactly what?
We can adopt the most universally used KPIs that take into account aspects such as cost forecasting, deadline forecasting, number of defects, construction time and cost, as well as more business aspects such as productivity and company profitability.
By adopting generic KPIs, we can draw conclusions in comparison to other similar projects around the world known as Benchmarking. We can also assess from the experience of other teams what results can be obtained on similar projects by opting for the BIM methodology.
We can also define our indicators in our own way – specifically tailored to our organisation. We will then be able to assess how our people’s competences are developing, how much faster we are able to work, how many projects we can run at the same time, which translates directly into company income.
Let us be aware that better performance is closely linked to a wise investment of resources. After all, we need to purchase the right hardware and software, as well as incur staff training costs. Let’s not forget that training staff also results in a decrease in income (during training, employees do not generate income!).
How do we know that we are profiting from it after all? This is where another indicator comes in – the ROI.
What is ROI?
ROI, or Return On Investment, is not a new indicator closely related to BIM methodology. ROI is also measured in other implementations or investment capex.
But is an ROI study for BIM easy? It depends on the approach and the strategy planned. The study is carried out by comparing the costs incurred to implement and operate the methodology.
Collecting costs are nothing more than hardware, software, staff training and also maintenance costs. This can also include outsourcing costs. When it comes to collecting profits, this is nothing more than examining KPIs in relation to the costs of individual components.
EXAMPLE:
We are testing the number of RFIs (Request For Information) and their time to resolve them. In our project, we implement tools in the BIM methodology to improve communication and its configuration. We check the average quantity and time for RFIs in similar projects (from the benchmark or our previous realisations), without the corresponding platform. At this point we are able to capture the difference between projects. If we multiply the difference by the value of a single day’s delay in resolving RFIs we have the real cost we incur by not using the right tools.
At CONSBIM, we always examine the effectiveness of our work, as well as our client’s return on investment. We care very much about the satisfaction of the people we work with and the feeling of having made a good investment. The data obtained and the conclusions reached from implementation allow us to further improve our service so that we can deliver increasing value to our client.
If you need assistance with the implementation of BIM, or would like support with your projects please contact us!