Does Your Small Company Need Help With BIM?
The world of construction is very focused on Building Information Modelling (BIM) at the moment due to the UK Governments backing of it, but is it right for everyone? Construction companies who have a focus on smaller projects can be a little wary of BIM as it can cost them a lot training their staff on it, and this training will not necessarily have a positive impact on their profits.
Despite the recent focus on BIM, the simple truth is that it isn’t suitable for every company and every project. It should not be disregarded altogether, though, as the high upfront costs can prevent people from making use of a tool that could actually increase their profitability in the long run.
One way of discovering whether BIM is right for your business is to take a look at the actual costs involved in implementing BIM.
Firstly, we can look at the upfront costs of BIM. The main investment is going to be in software. Autodesk, which is the current industry leader in BIM software, is not cheap. Its two most popular products, AutoCAD Civil 3D and Revit come in at £1960 and £1865 a year consecutively. AutoCAD has tried to tackle the high-cost element of their software recently, by introducing the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Collection which features the two products mentioned above, plus a few more, and this comes in at £2,505 a year (for single user access).
These aren’t the only software options available of course, there are many others to choose from including democratic and free options – although the quality of such software has always been a little questionable.
Then we need to look at the cost of training as this can sometimes be just as expensive as the cost of the software itself. For example, formal training ranges from £495 to £1500 for a two-month programme. There are, of course, more advanced courses that can cost anything from £3,500 upwards.
But is there a return on investment? As you can see, in the short run investing in BIM can be a costly undertaking. That said, this investment has the potential to turn into millions of pounds return over time. BIM can help you streamline your projects by containing information about estimating, safety planning and implementation all in one place. After all, BIM is designed to locate design issues and resolve them before they happen, which really helps to eliminate most common sources of waste.
BIM is also important for companies who wish to pursue government contracts, in fact, many government projects now demand that BIM is used for implementation. BIM can also give your firm an edge over competitors, as using it will allow you to show clients a 3D model of what the proposed building will look like with exacted costs, as opposed to a rough estimate. Clients are then more easily able to see exactly what they are buying into.
So, BIM can really be seen as a software solution that is needed in order for your business to grow. But if you really don’t have the cashflow to justify the initial outlay costs, then this is where BIM Companies come in. We already have the software installed, and our team attend many training courses a year to ensure they are at the top of their game. You can partner with us on any of your projects that you want to, and we will bring our expertise and technology to work for you.
For more information on our BIM services and how they could benefit your construction business, please call us on 0161 427 0348 or send us an email to office@thecadroom.com