Unlocking the Power in Your BIM Data

Design, build, and operate better with a common data environment

If you think of BIM only as a means of creating 3D models for building design, you’re just scratching the surface of what it can do for your processes and your bottom line. With this limited approach—what author Finith Jernigan terms Little BIM—data is created according to varying standards, stored locally, and updated inconsistently. As a result, it can be challenging for stakeholders to find the right data when needed and difficult to reuse that data on other projects. Big BIM, on the other hand, refers to the management of all data associated with a building throughout its lifecycle. With Big BIM, structured, approved data is stored in a cloud-based common data environment (CDE), providing a single source of truth for all stakeholders. Virginia Senf of UNIFI Labs shares her perspective on Big BIM and its potential for bottom-line benefits. And she describes how multi-unit retail chains such as Walgreens can use their BIM data to improve everything from quantification and procurement to construction and facilities management across multiple properties.

About the speaker

Virginia Senf is COO and president at UNIFI Labs, a provider of cloud-based data management services and solutions for the AEC industry. She has previously worked in business development at Gigaom and Gartner. She holds a degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

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