Survey reveals Irish BIM confidence rising

The second national survey to gauge the level of Building Information Modelling (BIM) adoption in Ireland has shown an increase in the number of respondents who had confidence in their company’s BIM skills and knowledge.

The questionnaire was based on 2015’s Digital Transition Survey with additional questions included to understand if the Level 2 UK mandate was having an influence on their business.

76% of respondents possessed confidence in their organisation’s BIM skills and knowledge – a 9% rise on 2015’s figures.

The results of the survey are extremely encouraging for the Irish construction industry as the BIM process continues to grow in popularity.

The survey also showed a rise in the demand for BIM in Ireland, with 79% of respondents noting an increase.

The report was prepared by Dr Alan Hore, Co-founder of CitA, Dr Barry McAuley, BIM Innovation Capability Programme (BICP) Postdoctoral Researcher and John Hunt, Senior Market Advisor for the Construction Sector at Enterprise Ireland.

The survey was representative of industry leaders in Ireland with 90% of respondents listing their roles as Director, Principal, or Associate level within their business.

Following this year’s UK’s BIM Level 2 mandate only 47% of respondents have stated that it has had an influence on their business.

Those who said that the mandate had influenced their company were asked to expand on their answers. These ranged from ‘The majority of our business is in the UK so we have had to adopt BIM since last year to get ready for 2016’ to ‘It has provided a realisation that this is happening and in time Ireland will follow suit, as is gradually beginning to happen’.

The survey also asked what the Irish government could do to encourage and support the transformational change to BIM for public sector projects.

The most popular answer to this was ‘Funding from the Irish Government to implement the road map and ensure a sustainable approach is achieved’.

Asked whether Ireland should follow the UK’s lead and introduce its own BIM mandate, 66% of those surveyed said yes, a 16% increase on last year’s numbers.

74% thought that any prospective National BIM Programme should be a joint government and industry initiative.

Looking ahead to the future, one of the survey authors, Dr Alan Hore, commented: “I believe the BIM capability initiatives introduced by Enterprise Ireland i.e. BIM Enable, BIM Implementation, BIM Innovation Capability Programme, coupled with the roll out of the National BIM Council Implementation Programme will all signal an important and decisive move by Ireland to occupy the digital construction agenda making our industry a smarter and more innovative sector in which to work in.”

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