The latest version of the BIM control survey is now available — we’ve taken the opportunity to look back at how far we’ve come in the eight years this survey has been conducted. The shifts we’ve seen from 2014 to 2021 include:

• Going from BIM use on just 34% of projects rising to 70% for the industry group
• Huge uplift in use of BIM for design review and design authoring, with 92% of the industry control group using BIM at the design phase of a project (up from 67% in 2014)

In this year's survey, we added a series of questions to understand the impact that BIM has had on the control groups. It is clear that BIM use has contributed positively in terms of profits, quality of outputs, and improved efficiency — for both the industry group and subcontractors.

However, even after eight years of measurement there is still work to be done to improve how we use BIM across the industry, most notably on how we align the parties who need to work together with BIM. From an industry group perspective there are comments that clients lack preparedness, alignment, and knowledge around BIM. Subcontractors agree on that lack of alignment, which for them means both poor models from consultants (not designed for subcontractor use) and other sub trades not following the model. And for clients, that lack of alignment arises with a mismatch in internal and external capacity and preparedness for BIM, as well as the difficulty in selling in the benefits of BIM to the wider organisation and decision makers.

Click here to view the full 2021 BIM Benchmark Report