Darren Lester, founder of SpecifiedBy.com, looks at some of the benefits of a digital construction industry beyond what is considered to be BIM
SpecifiedBy recently won ‘Best SME Innovation’ at the inaugural RICS BIM4SME awards. We were of course delighted to win, but also very pleasantly surprised – SpecifiedBy is not a ‘BIM company’. We don’t create BIM objects. We’re not practising BIM on live construction projects.
We’re not selling BIM consultancy services. We’re not even a BIM library. So why did we win?
At SpecifiedBy, we’re interested in the following question:
“If the construction industry becomes digitised, and we are able to create all of these valuable structured datasets, what else can we do with that, beyond importing and exporting it out of models?”
In particular, we’re interested in the datasets created for building products and materials, and how this new level of information can be used to improve the product search, research and specification processes. And the award we won suggests we’re not the only people in the industry who think this is interesting and worth exploring.
The growing adoption of BIM means more and more manufacturers are creating 3D models of their products, or at least, and perhaps more sensibly as a first step, creating the required datasets. This means more and more of this structured data will be readily available.
To dig a little deeper into our way of thinking, we believe that the construction industry should have access to the same sort of tools and functionality that we all take for granted every single day as consumers.
Two areas struck us and possible quick wins, in terms of making use of this data in a way which could apply to many functions broadly across the industry, right here and now – Search and Comparison.
To illustrate my point, consider the process of buying a new laptop from an online retailers, such as Currys. Firstly, we go to a site like Currys because we know they will have details of products from a range of manufacturers, which provides us with choice without having to visit lots of different websites.
But more than this, whether you consciously acknowledge it or not, Currys has lots of standardised, structured data about these items, which is going to save you a lot of time when it comes to finding the product(s) that match your requirements.
So let’s say you select the ‘Laptop’ category and are faced with a choice of 184 possible laptops. That’s a little overwhelming, but you have certain criteria, or specifications, in mind already, so you can quickly start filtering out products that don’t meet your needs based on your minimum criteria.
There are 19 specification options (not including price, brand and user rating) by which to filter your laptop choice on Currys. Screen size, Processor Type, Memory, Weight, Battery Life, Colour etc.
All of the laptops available on Currys have datasets with values for most, if not all of these properties completed. So by checking a few boxes and setting a few ranges, you can soon get from 184 down to 2 or 3 products that fit your needs.
Armed with products matching your minimum criteria, you can move onto the next stage of the research process – comparison. By simply checking a box on the 2 or 3 products you wish to compare, you can quickly carry out a side-by-side, direct comparison of the specifications for these laptops and determine which one edges the final decision.
This may be based on criteria you had not previously considered, or it may be that one product simply really outperforms the others against one of your minimum criteria. Regardless, the whole process has been drastically shortened by being able to define that minimum criterion as a starting point and not having to consider every single product available in the category.
This is powerful stuff. But it is also pretty simple and common place within ecommerce and other industries – so much so that we, as consumers, don’t even give it a second thought. We expect it.
It’s silly really that this didn’t already exist in the construction industry, where the range and choice of products and materials is huge – both in terms of quantity and complexity.
So this is what we do at SpecifiedBy
Yes, we are a building product library. We do host BIM objects (biggest collection in the UK by the way!), CAD files, datasheets, brochures, case studies, O&M manuals, sample specifications, images etc. all in one place.
But more importantly, we go a step further in working with manufacturers to create rich datasets for their products.
And we’ve built the digital tools necessary for end users (Architects, ATs, specifiers, surveyors, contractors, FM’s etc.) to quickly and easily search and filter and compare these products within our database – just like on Currys. Is it “BIM”? Maybe not. Is it digital? Yes. Is it making construction processes simpler? We certainly believe so.
And surely that’s the most important thing we can all be doing for the industry? SpecifiedBy has a database of over 10,000 building products and materials, with structured data making them easily searchable and comparable.
Specifiers can sign up for free by visiting: www.specifiedby.com.
Manufacturers, find out more about getting set up with a free trial by visiting: https://www.specifiedby.com/constructionmarketing.
Darren Lester
CEO & Founder
SpecifiedBy
Twitter: @SpecifiedBy
Twitter: @Daz_Lester
Please note: this is a commercial profile.
