Who will make the most money from BIM?

We can ask a very similar question about when the industry moved from drawing boards and typewriters to the first CAD and word processing systems in the 1980s. The answer is everyone made money because the work processes became more efficient and accurate. If you made a mistake you could undo it. If you had to draw the same window 100 times, each copy was exactly the same as the first. If you wanted to find a particular word or phrase within a 100 page document, you could search for it in seconds.

Now it is time for the industry to move to the next stage of technology and structured data.

The designer will no longer spend time retyping the data from a 2D CAD model into Microsoft Excel to produce a 200 instance door schedule, and they will not spend time going through a 150 page specification looking for each place they have requested the contractor to submit proposals or samples. The contractor will no longer be informed about clashes in the design by the structural and M&E engineers on site during construction, and they will be able to more efficiently price projects by getting more competitive prices when purchasing in bulk, with less waste. And finally, the building owner will be able to manage and alter their facility using an accurate digital model of the physical building.