Information Management
Delivering information management consultancy for the digital built environment
Our Information Management experts bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to support a broad range of organisations, businesses and multi-stakeholder projects as a trusted collaborator in the safe, secure and efficient management, curation and interrogation of their data.
There is an element of data management in every project we work on, the quantum of which varies across projects, clients and sectors. From BIM (building information modelling) to city-scale digital twinning, we utilise a range of digital technologies to manage all the data and information from our multidisciplinary projects around the globe (see our BIM page and Asset Consulting). We are also able to bring our information management consulting experience to help improve clients’ operations, projects and schemes to increase their efficiencies, reduce risk, improve quality and support collaboration.
We will work with you each step of the way as a trusted advisor to build knowledge of your company and projects, as well as understand the challenges you face and how data specification and management can provide the right solutions for your organisation.
Standardisation of process, policy, templates, content libraries, skills and tools is key to building incremental gains via these digital technologies. Our informational management consultants can help you to rationalise all of these elements, to ensure the data being collected is the right data for your requirements. We will then work with you to interrogate the multitude of data streams, using visualisation technologies to help bring clear insight and deliver impactful returns on investment through a well-managed data strategy.
A true data guardian
Buro Happold’s information management team brings a great breadth of expertise in BIM and digital information management strategy, driving compliance, quality management, asset classification and data uniformity, as well as offering guidance and validation, and acting as a key data guardian.
We are able to develop a sophisticated bespoke digital asset and project management system that fits your organisation’s needs, incorporating a range of inter-connecting software feeds, such as Microsoft SharePoint, Revit DB and Power BI, and cloud-based systems such as BIM 360.
Our teams can also create bespoke digital dashboards, powered by the data within many different sources including a working BIM project, which can act as an important visualisation tool both in terms of showcasing benefits and interventions and highlighting operational concerns.
Delivering real benefits beyond BIM
Our approach to creating a variety of design options encourages better workflow and design outcomes. As our models are digital simulations of real life performance, we can use BIM and other data-driven technologies for forecasting everything from energy consumption to people flow.
If data models are considered at the beginning of a project and then prepared during the delivery stages, and linked to the Facilities Management BIM (FM BIM), they become an important operational tool for the building, with property owners and asset managers using them to manage resources, maintenance and cleaning processes.
Our information management consulting services include:
- Development of a multi platform Common Data Environment (CDE)
- Deployment and management of CDEs
- Building Information Modelling
- BIM execution plan support and strategic advice
- Development/management of employers’ information requirements
- BIM leadership, execution planning and management
- Phase planning/ early engagement with contractors, operators and occupiers
- Design review/clash checking/model auditing and data management
- Simulation and performance analysis/energy modelling
- Visualisation, animation and virtual reality
- Logistics planning and cost estimation
- Health & Safety/CDM Assessment
- Risk & Resilience Assessment
- Data security strategy
- Government soft landings
- Expert witness services
expertise At every stage
Planning
As a ‘Client Guardian’ we offer support in developing impactful information strategies. Our information management consultants help to look after the needs of the client at the organisational level – developing their brief and creating a chain of value around the insight their data can deliver.
At this stage we would look at information requirements, interview the full panoply of stakeholders, and build a deep understanding of the data assets needed to provide the most valuable insights.
Implementation and delivery
We conduct process and systems mapping exercises and develop the Common Data Environment (CDE) – the central repository where project data is housed.
As ‘Delivery Guardian’ we are focused on safeguarding clients’ needs during delivery, ensuring digital services are effective and the outcomes are verifiable and meet expectations and needs. We author governance standards, execution protocols and communications protocols. Our team also works through the necessary data validation processes at each stage.
Operation
The holistic approach of the planning and implementation stages allows our team to deliver great efficiencies during the operational phase, given the comprehensive understanding of the project’s data ecosystem and the client’s goals, defined earlier in the process.
Our third stage is to act as a ‘Digital Enhancer’ – working with the client to enable the better management of their estate/asset through digital information management.
Evaluate and review
As trusted collaborators, we get to know and understand your organisation and are able to work alongside you with ongoing evaluation and review.
By working in this way opportunities to build and develop plans as technology evolves come to light, often providing additional benefits in years to come.
Project highlights
Keflavik Airport
Iceland
Keflavik Airport – Iceland’s international airport – has developed a long-term expansion masterplan, which will transform the airport’s capabilities over the next two decades.
Buro Happold is bringing its digital expertise as a BIM lead to the digital coordination of this complex multi-stakeholder project, which will see the expansion of the Leif Erikson Air Terminal. We have developed a sophisticated digital asset and project management system, incorporating a range of inter-connecting software feeds, principally from BIM360, Microsoft SharePoint, dRofus, Revit DB and Power BI.
Our digital consultants worked with the client to develop an ambitious unified system of references and activity codes, which is used by all stakeholders working on the project. As well as developing a range of new templates for data gathering, activity directories and data clash report systems.
We built a digital dashboard to offer manageable data insights on the project as it evolves, which the client will ultimately expand into a Project Control Centre and facilities management toolkit for the wider airport.
MiSK Heritage Institute
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
A multidisciplinary team of experts from across Buro Happold is working on the design and construction of the MiSK Heritage Institute in Diriyah Gate.
The MiSK Heritage Institute will be the Kingdom’s premier incubator for developing contemporary skills in the arts, heritage and cultural fields. It will feature a museum, educational institute and visitor destination.
As part of the project, our team is delivering and managing all the BIM models and datasets relating to the scheme acting as the lead with the Lead Consultant team. We coordinated the creation of all the object libraries and the CDE, set up a system of quality control and checking for the BIM data, and we are managing the integration of BIM and information management throughout the project.
Construction Innovation Hub
United Kingdom
The UK government-backed Construction Innovation Hub is working to create a more sustainable and productive built environment with better whole life performance. It seeks to exploit emerging and developing digital and manufacturing technologies to help achieve this.
Buro Happold is working on the Hub’s Platform Design Programme, which is helping to create new platform solutions that can be deployed across multiple projects and sectors. We are working with a range of industry collaborators through this programme to identify, refine and develop solutions that can be deployed at scale. We are also engaging with government departments to understand their requirements for new buildings such as schools, hospitals and social housing.
Our information management consultants are playing a critical role in auditing current standards around data management in the built environment and developing an holistic information management implementation strategy. This includes defining the functional needs of the Common Data Environment (CDE) on the project and assisting in the development and procurement of CDE platforms and technologies. Image: The MTC
