2010 BIM Support Survey Results

BIM SUPPORT SURVEY METHODOLOGY

I conducted the 2010 BIM Support Survey to assess how companies
Building Information
support the BIM transition and use within their office as well as the
Modeling (BIM)
perception of whether the support is adequate. It is difficult in these
is the process of generating
economic times to justify additional BIM support even though many and managing building
firms are implementing to increase efficiencies. However, I believe data during its life cycle.
that you will not see the benefit of BIM until you develop experts and Typically it uses three-
you cannot build up experts unless you have adequate support. There dimensional, real-time,
have been many discussions that I have been involved in about what dynamic building modeling
the correct BIM support is for an office. Additionally, how does software to increase
training, company implementation percentage and other issues affect productivity in building
or influence a company. The goal of this survey was to answer these design and construction.
questions as well as make additional observations based on the The process produces the
Building Information
responses.
Model , which
encompasses building
geometry, spatial
RESPONSES relationships, geographic
There were a total of 135 responses to the survey. After reviewing the information, and quantities
responses, it was determined that there were eleven duplicates from and properties of building
the same company and the information was compared for components.
consistency. There were also four responses removed since their type
of company would not fit well within the analysis. Of these four - Wikipedia
removed: two were resellers, one was a specialist support firm and
one was a University. Therefore, the total number of responses used
in this survey was 120.

WHO IS JASON GRANT?

Jason is the BIM Specialist at Payette in Boston, MA. His experience
includes over 14 years in the architecture field, 5 years of Revit use on
62 projects at Colin Smith Architecture and 2 years managing Revit
implementation, training, standards, API and content development at
Payette. With his Revit experience including Healthcare, Labs,
Commercial, Mixed-Use and Residential, he understands the
challenges that both small and large projects face while utilizing and
implementing Revit. Jason is also Co-Founder and Advisor to the
Boston Revit Users Group with 200+ members, Co-Founder and Co-
Leader of the BLUR Group (BIM Leaders Utilizing Revit), author for "I want to thank all of the
AUGI AEC EDGE and an avid blogger on BIM and Architecture at professionals who filled out
http://jasongrant.squarespace.com. the survey and contributed
their valuable time and
knowledge. It is because of
Do you have a question or comment? you that I was able to
Email me at: ContactJasonGrant@Gmail.com assemble this report."

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results -2-

TYPE OF COMPANY KEY FINDINGS
Regarding the question of what is the type of company, there was a
lot of variety even though the Architecture discipline has the → Firms that have some form
majority. This is not surprising since Revit and other BIM of Architecture in their
applications have had an Architecture focus for many years. Only in practice account for 77%
the last few years has the software been in a position to include of the responses.
Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire Protection and Structural → Firms that have MEP in
disciplines. The chart below shows the number of responders per their practice account for
discipline category. 28% of the responses.
→ Firms that have Structural
80 in their practice account for
Number of Firms Responding per Discipline

4% of the responses.
70
→ The Contractor and
60 Construction Management
companies account for 6%
50 of the responses.

40
74
30
OBSERVATIONS
20
 As adoption of BIM
10 software grows, we will
12 9 most likely see the numbers
5 5 8
4 3
0 balance more between
OTHER
ARCHITECTURE

STRUCTURAL
ARCHITECTURE / MEP / STRUCTURAL

Architecture and the other

MEP / FP

ARCHITECTURE / MEP

CONTRACTOR or ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN-

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

disciplines.
 The BIM process works best
when you have as many
disciplines as possible
BUILD

included on the data input

into BIM. Otherwise, unless
you are inputting all the
trade information, you are
just drafting in 3D.
 As we all grow in our use of
The ”Other” category includes Electrical, Electrical/Fire Protection, Fire Protection,
Interiors, Low Voltage and Communications, and Structural/MEP/FP.
BIM we can continue to
capitalize more with the
technology and see the
promises of BIM come to
fruition.

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results -3-

TOTAL EMPLOYEES KEY FINDINGS
This category had a great variety that helped to diversify the
→ The average "Total
comparisons. In the chart below, I have compared different
Employees" based on all
groupings of company size and have shown the total responses
responses was 110
based on the size.
employees.
35
→ The results were evenly split
Number of Responses

30 between x-small, small,

25 medium and large firms.
→ The largest firm responding
20 reported 5000 employees
15 with the next largest at
2000 employees.
10
→ To contrast the large firms,
5 there were seven responses
where the firm was a sole-
0
practitioner with no other

500+
1 to 10

11 to 40

41 to 100

201 to 500
101 to 200

employees.
→ The total employees from all
of the reporting responses is
Company Size - Number of Employees approximately 20,000 and
of these approximately
8,200 are BIM users.
The chart below shows the total employees of all the firms
reporting their total employees in a specific size category.
10000 OBSTACLES
Total Employees from All Companies

9000
 Having worked in a small firm
8000 and now supporting a large
firm, I found that both
7000
situations are equally difficult
6000 to implement BIM even
though there are unique
5000
intricacies in each case.
4000  Buy-In
3000 No matter the size of your
company, there needs to be
2000 buy-in from both the
1000 leadership and junior staff.
Although, the middle
0
management may receive
500+
1 to 10

11 to 40

41 to 100

101 to 200

201 to 500

the least focus in

implementation buy-in and
can sometimes cause the
Company Size - Number of Employees greatest difficulties.

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results -4-

PERCENTAGE OF COMPANY USING BIM
The graph below shows the number of responses from the survey KEY FINDINGS
regarding the question on percentage of the company use of BIM.
→ Companies that have 75%
% of Firm using BIM

to 100% of their firm

utilizing BIM account for
34% of the responses.
→ Companies that have 0% to
25% of their firm utilizing
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40
NUMBER OF RESPONSES BIM account for 28% of
0% to 25% 25% to 50% 50% to 75% 75% to 100% the responses.
→ 68% of 1 to 10 employee
This graph below breaks down the percentage of company using BIM companies have 75% to
by the company size and lists the number of responses. 100% BIM implementation.
PERCENTAGE OF FIRM UTILIZING BIM BROKEN DOWN BY COMPANY SIZE

OBSERVATIONS
0% to 25%
 It would be assumed that,
like CAD, as a company that
has implemented the use of
BIM fully in their firm
should then need less
support and could be
25% to 50%
reduced. BIM is different
than CAD as it is more than
one piece of software. BIM
is a process that utilizes
software whereas CAD is
only a piece of software
50% to 75% that replaced hand drawing.
As a firm grows closer to
100% use of BIM then they
can start utilizing the
efficiencies and other
software to provide a full
virtual building solution.
75% to 100% Therefore, it is my
understanding that as a firm
becomes more comfortable
utilizing BIM then there are
more demands being placed
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 on the users to utilize more
NUMBER OF FIRMS PER SIZE BY PERCENT UTILIZING BIM functions. These need to be
supported to genuinely
1 to 10 Employees 11 to 40 41 to 100 provide a true BIM solution.
101 to 200 201 to 500 500+ Employees

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results -5-

JOB TITLES FOR BIM SUPPORT + MANAGEMENT
65 KEY FINDINGS

60 BIM Director /
62 Director of Digital Design
Of the 13 companies that have this type
55
of position, there is a range of how
NUMBER OF FIRMS EMPLOYING AN INDIVIDUAL(S) WITH TITLE

many other BIM support individuals

50 they manage. The top of this list was
14 other full-time BIM support
45 individuals with an average
management of 1 to 5 other
40 42 individuals. There were also 5
companies that had someone with this
title where that individual was the only
35
full-time support of BIM in their office.

30 BIM Manager
Of the results where this was the senior
25 title, this was the leading title for the
25 sole BIM support for an office with 29
responses. In addition to that, 8
20
20 responses had the BIM Manager
19 leading 1 other full-time member of
15 BIM Support and there was one
response that had this person leading 4
13
10 full-time individuals.

5 BIM Specialist /
5 5 Application Specialist
2 Out of the 25 responses in this
0
category, 15 were the senior title for
Programmer for API Development
BIM Director / Director of Digital Design (FT)

BIM Trainer (FT)

BIM Manager (FT)

BIM Content Creators (FT)

BIM Leader(s) on Project(s)

BIM Specialist / Application Specialist (FT)

BIM Content Creators (PT)

BIM Specialist / Application Specialist (PT)

BIM Support. The sole BIM support for

the office was this title for 11 of the
responses. The other 4 responses
managed 1 or 2 other full-time BIM
support individuals.

BIM Content Creators and

Programmer for API Development
For these full-time categories, they
were mostly for 100+ employee
companies with only one exception
each.

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results -6-

WHERE IS YOUR TRAINING HELD?
The two graphs below show the results of where training is held KEY FINDINGS
and who administers the training. It is the assumption that the
→ In-House training accounts
BIM Support administered the In-House training unless a BIM
for 71% of the responses.
trainer was specified in the job titles section.
→ In-House training by an
85 Outside Consultant
80 accounts for 22% of the
75 responses.
70 → Very large 500+ firms prefer
65 In-House training by an
NUMBER OF RESPONSES

60
outside consultant 3 to 1
55
over In-House training.
50
45
→ All firms less than 500
40 employees appear to prefer
35 In-House training.
30
25 EMPLOYEES
20 1 to 10
11 to 40
15 41 to 100
10 101 to 200
5 201 to 500
500 + OBSERVATIONS
0
In-House In-House by Out-of-House  With a strong majority that
Outside
utilizes In-House training
Consultant
and only 2 firms reporting
that they had a full-time
24
trainer on staff, it is
22
presumed that this is being
20
NUMBER OF RESPONSES

done by one of the senior

18
members of the BIM
16
support. Although, with
14
smaller firms it is most likely
12
being done by the most
10
experienced user in the
8
office.
6
 There were a small number
4
of responses that indicated
2
that they were self-taught
0
and their firm had no
In-House In-House by Outside Out-of-House
formal training. These were
Consultant
typically 5 or less employee
EMPLOYEES
1 to 10 11 to 40 41 to 100 101 to 200 201 to 500 500 + firms.

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results -7-

TYPE OF TRAINING
KEY FINDINGS
The graph below depicts the results of the responses for different
type of training and length of training. → Firms tend to lean toward
35
some length of General
N u mb er of Resp on se s

30
Overview training with a
25
total of 56% of the
20
responses.
15
→ Project Specific training is
10
used by 28% of the
5
responders.
0
→ 88% of Project Specific

No Response *
General Overview (1 or 2 Days)

General Overview (3 or 4 Days)

Intensive (1 Week)

Intensive (2 Week)

Project Specific (Single Days

Project Specific (Multi-Day)
training is used by firms

spread over Weeks)

that have training In-House
and do not employ an
outside consultant.
→ General Overview training is
utilized almost equally
among the three locations
of training: Out-of-House,
* See Observations in the bar for an explanation of No Responses. In-House by Outside
Consultant and In-House.

WHERE IS THE TRAINING + TYPE OF TRAINING

The chart below compares the results of where the training is held
against the type of training that the firm employs.
24
22
20
18
Number of Responses

16 OBSERVATIONS
14
12  The no response category
10 was typically from a firms
8 that had 0% to 25%
6
implementation (most
4
2
implied that they have not
0 had formal training yet) or
Out-of-House In-House by Outside In-House small firms that provided a
Consultant note that they are self-
General Overview (1 or 2 Days) taught. The self-taught made
General Overview (3 or 4 Days) notes about using AU
Intensive (1 Week) (Autodesk University), online
Intensive (2 Week) resources, books and other
Project Specific (Multi-Day) means to learn the program.
Project Specific (Single Days spread over Weeks)

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results -8-

ONGOING TRAINING
Below is a list of some interesting comments entered on the open
response regarding how individuals are handling ongoing training:

• Webinars and a company policy mandating a minimum

number of annual education credits.
• We have training approximately 1 to 2 days a month.
• Annual mandatory training.
• Training sessions twice a month during lunch and video tips
on network.
• Lunch and Learns were reported by about ¼ of the
responders.
• Ongoing Revit sessions by our users for our users on
intermediate topics. These are registered for AIA credit and
class handouts are posted on our Revit Sharepoint site. We
offer approximately 2 per week, loosely based on AU.
• Autodesk University (AU) was listed by many responders
for continuing education.
• 1 on 1 Mentoring sessions once a month.
• Miscellaneous online support including training videos,
forums and Blogs. (Multiple mentions)
• Company Intranet Sites seem to be widely used to share
information.
• Yearly updates for new releases & Monthly Tips & Tricks.
• Staff must attend specific training classes on BIM
procedures and processes during the year. Must attend a
specific number in order to supplement their year-end
bonus.

One for entertainment…

• Keep harassing friends who know more than me...

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results -9-

PROGRAMS USED
The graph below shows the number of responses for each software
that was reported as being supported by the respective firms. KEY FINDINGS

100 → 65% of Firms using Revit

101
90 still state that AutoCAD is
Number of Responses

managed by the BIM Staff

80
and probably used by the
70 general design staff.
68
60 → Responses that included
50 Microstation also included
49 Revit for 95% of the cases.
40
41 41 → Responses that included
30
ArchiCAD only also included
20 Revit for ONE firm.
19 17 19
10
9 13
7
0 OBSERVATIONS

 Revit
Out of the 101 responses
for Revit use, 12 were for
companies 10 or less
employees, 50 were for
companies up to 100
Other software listed that had three or less responses include in no
employees, 32 were for
particular order: Rhino, Maxwell Render, Photoshop, Kerkythea, Podium,
companies up to 500
Map 3D, LandCAD, COBIE, Vela Systems, Bentley, Autodesk Building
employees and 7 were for
Systems, Newforma, Truss and Wall Design, EcoDesigner, MEP Modeler,
companies larger than 500
Autosketch, QTO, Synchro, Artlantis, Solibri, Cinema 4D, PowerCADD, Vico employees. The largest
Suite/Office, Synchro, Civil 3D, CADD Duct, CADD Pipe, Equest, Trace, company reporting was
PDMS, Tekla and Allplan. 5000 employees with 0% to
25% implementation and
the 2nd largest reporting
AVERAGE COMPANY SIZE COMPARED company was 2000
TO REVIT AND ARCHICAD employees with 75% to
The graph below depicts the average number of employees based 100% of the company using
Revit.
on the responses for each of the two respective programs.
 ArchiCAD
Revit Out of the 19 responses for
ArchiCAD use, 13 were
companies of 5 or less
ArchiCAD employees and 6
companies had between 40
0 50 100 150 200 and 280 employees.
Average Employees

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results - 10 -

ADEQUATE SUPPORT - INVESTIGATION
When asked “do you believe your support is adequate for the firm
size?”,the answers were split between the four possible responses. KEY FINDINGS
40
Number of Responses

35 → 63% of the responders

30 believe their BIM Support is
25
20
adequate (in a yes category)
15 while 37% of the
10 responders think they are
5
not adequately supported
0
(in a no category).
YES (31%) YES, Until there NO, Support is NO, Absolutely
are more users spread thin not enough
(32%) (25%) support (12%)
OBSERVATIONS

SUPPORT RESPONSE COMPARED TO FIRM SIZE This was a difficult category to

The graph below shows the number of responses based on their support determine the results. Why did one
effectiveness response compared to their firm size. person believe that they had
16 adequate BIM support and another
14
Number of Responses

individual believe that they were

12
short staffed? I examined the
10
8 results in many ways including using
6 the variables below with each
4 analysis proving to not be effective.
2
0
 Total Firm Size
YES YES - Until NO - Support NO - Absolutely
More Users Thin not  Percentage of
Employees
Implementation
1 to 10 11 to 40 41 to 100 101 to 200 201 to 500 500+
 Number of Full-Time and
Part-Time Support
SUPPORT RESPONSE COMPARED TO IMPLEMENTATION  Type of Training
The graph below shows the number of responses based on their support  Type of Company
effectiveness response compared to their percentage of BIM.  Number of Offices
22  Type of BIM Support
20
Number of Responses

18
16 While none of these by themselves
14 contributed to a clear
12
10 understanding of the results a
8
6 combination of Total Firm Size,
4
2 Percentage of Implementation and
0 figuring the percentage of BIM
YES YES - Until NO - Support NO - Absolutely
More Users Thin not
Support to size provided the results
Percentage of BIM Use on the next page.
0% to 25% 25% to 50% 50% to 75% 75% to 100%

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results - 11 -

 EXAMPLE 1
50 Employee Firm
ADEQUATE SUPPORT - RESULTS
25% to 50% of Firm using BIM
The final determination that demonstrated an accurate comparison
was utilizing the “Total Firm Size”, “Percentage of Company Using With this example, the reviewer would
BIM”, and the “Number of BIM Support”. compare the total number of
employees against the 2.4% and 1.8%
The graph below is the result of the analysis on adequate BIM support. results. This would be done with the
The resulting numbers is the percentage of the staff that provides BIM following calculation:
support based on different axis variables. 50 x 2.4% = 1.2 and 50 x 1.8% = 0.9
This would mean you need
approximately 1 full time BIM support.

YES, Until there

NO, Absolutely
are more users

NO, Support is

not enough
a little thin
% of

support
I would not stop there in determining
YES

Company
BIM support. If you have 15 users,
Using BIM
then you can do additional
comparisons against 6.8% and 4.9%.
Percentage 0% to 25% 1.1% 0.7% 0.3% 0.1% This would be done with the following
of Full-Time 25% to 50% 2.4% 1.0% 0.7% 0.5% calculation:
Support to 50% to 75% 2.3% 1.0% 0.6% 0.3% 15 x 6.8% = 1.0 and 15 x 4.9% = 0.7
Total 75% to 100% 1.5% 1.4% 0.9% Again, this implies that you should
Employees AVERAGE 1.8% 1.0% 0.6% 0.4% have about 1 full-time BIM support.
Average ratio of BIM support 1 full-time BIM 1 full-time BIM
for Yes and No categories to support per support per Since there is not a need to go above 1
number of Employees 72 Employees 200 Employees BIM support individual, then you
Percentage 0% to 25% 7.3% 3.0% 1.8% 0.3% probably do not need to compare
of Full-Time 25% to 50% 6.8% 2.9% 2.0% 1.5% against the final category.
Support to 50% to 75% 3.9% 1.6% 1.0% 0.5%
Approximate* 75% to 100% 1.8% 1.6% 1.0%
BIM Users AVERAGE 4.9% 2.3% 1.4% 0.6% EXAMPLE 2
Average ratio of BIM support 1 full-time BIM 1 full-time BIM
175 Employee Firm
for Yes and No categories to support per support per
number of BIM Users 28 BIM Users 100 BIM Users 50% to 75% of Firm using BIM
Percentage 0% to 25% 2.9% 1.9% 1.1% 0.3% The following would be the
of All 25% to 50% 7.1% 2.8% 4.4% 3.2% calculations for this scenario:
Support** to 50% to 75% 8.3% 2.6% 1.8% 0.9% 175 x 2.3% = 4.0 and 175 x 1.8% = 3.1
Total 75% to 100% 4.9% 3.7% 1.8% 3.1%
Result is 3 to 4 Full Time BIM support
Employees AVERAGE 5.8% 2.8% 2.3% 1.9%
* Approximate users is calculated by utilizing the selected field of “% of Company
If the number of users was 90, then:
Using BIM” against the number of “Total Employees” that was entered by each 90 x 3.9% = 3.5 and 90 x 4.9% = 4.4
responder. Result is 3 to 4 full-time BIM support
**All Support includes Full-Time BIM Support and ½ of all Part-Time BIM Support
to get full-time equivalent. In general, it is assumed that most part-time BIM
support is comprised of BIM Leaders on projects. The results of the last category would
be up to interpretation.
While this will not be the case for every company and is not an exact
175 x 8.3% = 14.5 and 175 x 5.8% = 10
science, I believe it is an accurate benchmark based on the number of
responses collected with this survey. While the examples on the side In this category, you could say that if
bar show the ideal "YES" response percentages, I believe every firm you did have 3 Full Time BIM support
should at least strive for the "YES, Until there are more users" individuals, then you should also have
percentages. I believe if your users have more support then they will 14 to 22 BIM leaders on projects or
in return be more productive. some part-time staff supporting the
day to day assistance.

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results - 12 -

ADEQUATE SUPPORT - RESULTS CONTINUED

The data on the previous page is aggregated into a graph to provide a visual
understanding of the number of BIM support staff per the total employees. GRAPH EXPLANATION
16 For the purpose of visually displaying
15 the information on the previous page,
Number of full-time BIM support

14 YES - 0% to 50% these graphs show the number of BIM

13 YES - 50% to 100% support on the vertical axis and the
12 NO - 0% to 50% number of "Total Employees" or
11 "Number of BIM Users" on the
NO - 50% to 100%
10 horizontal axis. The numbers are from
9 the aggregated resulting percentages
8 on the previous page. To reduce
7 confusion, these results were also
6
grouped by yes or no on the
"Adequate Support" responses and by
5
the percentage of the company
4
utilizing BIM.
3
2
The first graph shows for instance, that
1
if one has 200 employees and 60% of
0
the firm uses BIM then the average
5

10

20

40

50

75

100

150

200

300

400

500

1000
number of full-time BIM support for
Number of total employees in company firms that believe they had adequate
support was 3 BIM support
The data on the previous page is aggregated into a graph to provide a visual individuals. Likewise, the average
understanding of the number of BIM support staff per the BIM users. number of full-time BIM support for
22 responders that did not believe they
21 had adequate support was 1 BIM
Number of full-time BIM support

20 YES - 0% to 50% support individual.

19
YES - 50% to 100%
18 The second graph shows for instance,
17 NO - 0% to 50% that if one has 100 BIM users and 60%
16
NO - 50% to 100% of the firm uses BIM then the average
15
14
number of full-time BIM support for
13 firms that believe they had adequate
12 support was 2 BIM support
11 individuals. Likewise, the average
10 number of full-time BIM support for
9 responders that did not believe they
8
had adequate support was 1 BIM
7
6
support individual.
5
4
3
2
1
0
5

10

20

40

50

75

100

150

200

300

400

500

1000

Number of BIM users in company

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results - 13 -

CONCLUSION
No matter how you feel about the results of this survey. Each
company needs to decide how dedicated they are to genuinely
creating projects utilizing BIM and what the motivation is for
implementing or expanding their use of BIM. Many individuals
believe that simply using a BIM software will make you more
efficient, have perfectly coordinated buildings and be able to do
more with less. These BIM promises can be achieved, but
without proper support, one will most likely be replacing a
company's CAD solution with a BIM solution which the company
is attempting to use similarly to CAD. As a result, one will most
likely not see any of the major benefits marketed with BIM.
Processes change, training is needed, coordination changes,
collaboration needs are heightened and there are numerous
programs that if interfaced correctly with your BIM software
would open up enormous possibilities for improving how you
work, design and visualize. With a difficult economy, it is
extremely challenging to justify or even broach the subject of
additional "overhead" BIM support staff. Unfortunately, this
survey did not cover the return on investment aspect of BIM.
However, it has been shown with other surveys that as
experience levels grow with BIM utilization, so does the return
on investment. An indispensable BIM support individual or
team, would empower your employees to do what they do best
- design and document buildings. Do not leave your users to
fend for themselves... support them so that they can grown in
their experience level.

"Part of the passion is having the persistence and resilience to

change both your art and the way you deliver it."
Linchpin by Seth Godin

http://jasongrant.squarespace.com BIM Support Survey Results - 14 -