A new report revealed that the popularity of building information modeling (BIM), used to reduce the cost of building design and construction, is increasing in the U.S. and around the world.

While building owners may not always directly use building information modeling, they are increasingly recognizing its value on their projects. McGraw Hill Construction recently released its new SmartMarket Report, The Business Value of BIM for Owners, which found that 40 percent of U.S. owners expect that more than 75 percent of their projects will involve BIM in just two years.

The report also points out that the influence of a national BIM mandate in the U.K. is driving a much higher general level of involvement with BIM by owners than in the U.S. The study suggests the impact of the mandate in several
key areas.

Mike Putnam, President and CEO of Skanska UK, notes, "The government's mandate is helping to drive change across the U.K. construction industry. Its 2016 deadline is accelerating the adoption of new tools and processes, which will ultimately deliver the collaboration and data needed to help achieve the industry's long term objectives."

Because the findings demonstrate the powerful influence that governments can have on the implementation of BIM, the report also contains research on BIM policies in over 20 major construction markets globally.

According to the report, one aspect of having a central government mandate is the demands it places on all players on the project team to be working with BIM. The use of BIM by the full core project team rather than by select players can have a significantly positive impact on BIM's influence on project outcomes.

The findings also reveal that U.K. owners are using BIM for facility management, capitalizing on the benefits of BIM not just to reduce the cost of building design and construction but also throughout the building lifecycle.

"For as long as BIM has been used, practitioners have foreseen the potential value to owners of bringing the data-rich models developed by design and construction teams into owners' facility management and operations environments," says Steve Jones, Senior Director of McGraw Hill Construction and principal author of this report. "Recent advances in standards and technology are now putting this within reach of owners everywhere. We are at the beginning of an exciting new era for BIM."

Despite the vigorous involvement with BIM by owners in the U.S., the study also reveals that they would expand their engagement with BIM if there were more industry professionals with BIM skills at design and construction firms, if their operations and maintenance staff had a better ability to utilize the model and if there were standards of model development and exchange to better enable use of the model across the entire project team.

The Business Value of BIM for Owners SmartMarket Report was produced by McGraw Hill Construction in partnership with Autodesk and Skanska. Contributing partners who made this report possible were Balfour Beatty Construction and Mortenson Construction. Additional support was provided by the American Institute of Steel Construction, the buildingSMART alliance and Hensel Phelps.